In an exclusive interview with Entrevue, the great Algerian writer Boualem Sansal opens the doors to his intellectual universe, oscillating between Algeria and France. Known for his best-selling works such as "2084", he unveils his latest novel, "Vivre, le compte à rebours", published by Gallimard, he invites us to a bold exploration of humanity and its infinite horizons. While evoking the dangers of wokism and political struggles in Algeria, Boualem Sansal expresses his hope in the transformative power of younger generations.
Interview: The story of Live, the countdown Is it more inspired by your life in Algeria or your analyses of French society?
Boualem Sansal: We dream of accessing the universal but in reality we are limited by our immediate environment and mine is somewhere between Algeria and France. Sometimes it is enough for me to live but on the big philosophical questions, it is a bit narrow, you have to go beyond your little world.
Is writing a novel in which part of humanity is saved by aliens a loss of faith in humanity?
On the contrary, it is giving it an infinite dimension, humanity is part of life and life is not limited to the Earth. As men on earth once gathered to form nations and humanity by hybridization, one day we will meet other lives outside the earth and we will form communities with them on the scale of galaxies. It is just that we must find ways to travel far and fast. It is a technical problem. We had found the horse to travel fast and far, then the stagecoach, then the train, the automobile, the plane, the rocket and tomorrow the spaceship which will go from one planet to another, even outside our Galaxy.
Will artificial intelligence replace humans?
Man has always been afraid of new technologies. When the train was invented, panicked people refused it, it went too fast for them, 30 kilometers per hour. They promulgated a law limiting its speed to that of a trotting horse. We were afraid of the car, electricity, the telephone, television, the smartphone, etc. It's stupid, man has a formidable capacity to evolve and hybridize. We will soon implant intelligent chips in our brains that will help us do everything faster, stronger. AI is an extraordinary opportunity to move on to the next stage of the human saga, the conquest of unlimited intelligence and infinite space. The earth and its little problems are soon over. In a century it will have disappeared or been abandoned, we will have set off to conquer the universe.
For you, is man on the verge of going beyond his earthly condition to become simply an extra-terrestrial?
He has never stopped surpassing it, in small steps, at a slow pace, according to scientific and especially technological progress. At first, it surprises him, he balks, then he adapts and starts trying to surpass himself again.
Is this a science fiction or anticipation novel?
It is a roman à clef. You can read it however you want, science fiction, adventure novel, philosophical tale. You can also read it as a story. "Vivre" tells a true story, the appearance of a mysterious object in our solar system that we called "Omuamua" and that sent us a signal that we have not yet managed to translate. All the astronomical observatories today are focused on it and are tracking it. It is funny that the press has not been interested in this affair, yet it is colossal.
You don't like ready-made ideas; is that why you are an atheist?
Atheism is not an absolute. It is a waiting position. When current beliefs fail to convince people of their truths, we wait for revelation. In the meantime, I believe in science, in chance, in miracles if they are not religious.
You have written a lot in the past about Islamism, today you refer to the woke, but wokeism and Islamism are almost antonyms. How do you explain this strange alliance between Islamists and woke in France?
People live on narratives that have organized them into nations with their coherences, their values. If one day we come to tell them that their narrative, their religion and their history are false, we plunge them into disarray and disorder. The Wokists are thus, very Manichean, they say they hold the truth and tell you that yours is false. What they do is very dangerous. They are like the Islamists who come to tell everyone, including Muslims, that they are unbelievers and propose to correct them and convert them to their truths.
You are a kind of Algerian Houellebecq; you write a lot to anticipate and denounce. You are a great Francophile, but you still live in Algeria. Have you ever considered settling in France?
We live very badly in Algeria, that's for sure. Nobody likes dictatorship, poverty, bureaucracy. I always thought that we could overcome it, Algeria has extraordinary resources, natural and human. On at least two occasions in 1988 and in 2019, the Algerians revolted and almost succeeded in overthrowing the dictatorship. The backlash and the repression were terrible. The third revolt will perhaps be the right one. We hope so. That said, I waited too long for the miracle, I am tired, I feel that I will soon be leaving.
Kamel Daoud, Yasmina Khadra, you Boualem Sansal…: Algeria has so many great French-speaking authors. Don’t you think that you are aliens in this country that saw so many intellectuals disappear during the black decade?
Intellectuals do not weigh much in dictatorships. They only have words to criticize dictatorships and no strength to fight them. What matters is the people, it is the young people, they can change everything. They have the desire, they still have to learn how to move from revolt to revolution, from the ephemeral to the lasting. The Hirak of 2019-2020 was a great success, it lasted two years and was defeated only by Covid which came to break its momentum.
How do you hope readers will respond to “Living” and what message would you like them to take away?
Once published, the novel makes its own way. Some go far and others fizzle out quickly. My two novels "Le Village de l'Allemand" and "2084" have already come a long way and produced their effect. Others are quickly over. Current events determine to a large extent the career of a novel, they can carry it or throw it into the trash...
Comments collected by Radouan Kourak
