|
He is the
author of
two novels
published at
Pocket youth
in the
series "Saga
de Darren
Shan":
The Parade
of the
monsters
and the
Assistant of
the vampire
.
L
'
history:
Darren
Shan is a
happy boy
with his
parents and
his small
Annie
sister,
"rather
cool". He
has good
buddies, of
which Steve,
the most
turbulent
boy of the
school; he
likes to
play
football and
is
fascinated
by the
spiders. One
day, he
attends with
his friend
Steve a
representation
of the
Circus of
the Horrors,
of passage
in its city.
That changes
his life
forever. It
seems to him
to recognize
a vampire
among the
monsters
which ravel.
After the
spectacle,
Steve begs
Mr Krapula
to take him
as an
assistant.
But this
last refuses
by saying to
him that he
has the
instinct of
a killer and
that his
blood has
the taste of
the evil.
Days later,
Darren goes
to the
circus one
morning
early,
steals the
erudite
spider of Mr
Krapula and
learns how
to control
it. When
Steve comes
visits him,
the spider
pricks the
boy which
falls into
the coma and
is
hospitalized.
To save his
friend,
Darren
agrees to
become the
assistant of
the vampire
if this one
cures Steve.
Lastly,
Darren Shan
and Mr
Krapula
simulate the
death of
Darren so
that he can
leave his
family.
Steve, who
included/understood
the setting
in scene,
and feeling
betrayed,
promises to
be
avenged...
L
E
beginning:
The first
volume,
the Parade
of the
monsters
, starts as
follows: "a
last detail:
I am not
called
really
Darren Shan.
All is
authentic in
this book,
except the
names. I had
to change
them,
because...
oh, while
arriving at
the end, you
will
understand.
I did not
use one true
name;
neither
mine,
neither that
of my
sister, nor
those of my
friends or
my
professors.
Nobody. I do
not even
reveal you
the name of
my city. I
do not dare.
"
L
'
interview:
One morning
of November
2001, I
moved
towards one
of the
"cultural
agitators!
"well-known
on the place
of Paris,
where I had
appointment
with certain
Darren Shan,
Irish
writer, now
very
appreciated
French
readers for
his two
novels
already
published in
France.
Although it
was about
midday, the
sky was low
and dark.
This has its
importance
and
reinforced
the feeling
of concern
which lived
me bus -- it
is written
in its
books,
therefore
that must be
true! --
Darren Shan
is a
half-vampire!
I had
carried with
me, in
addition to
the pen for
the
interview, a
flask of
holy water,
the crucifix
of my
grandmother,
the chain of
cloves of
garlic of my
great-uncle,
a pile out
of wooden
cut at a
peak... in
short, the
complete
implements
to defeat
vampires
organized
and careful!
While
arriving on
the stand, I
found in
fact, in the
medium of a
pile of
books and
impressive
spiders (but
out of
plastic with
looking at
well there!)
bright young
man of
twenty-nine
years, with
the fresh
dye, the
engaging
smile, of a
shirt with
squares
worthy of a
solid
Canadian
logger.
Reassured, I
tightened to
him a firm
hand, "I am
very happy
to meet you
today!" But
practising a
little old
English, I
from of
given all
the same to
the good
care of the
interpreter.
- CG:
You
say,
Darren,
on page
9 of the
first
novel,
that all
that you
will
tell is
true. Is
this to
reinforce
the
black
side of
the
history
or
because
you are
really a
vampire?
-
Darren
Shan:
(outlining
a half
smile):
There
are two
answers
to that.
The
first,
obvious,
is that
of
course,
I am
neither
a
vampire
nor a
half-vampire.
I do not
expect
that the
readers
believe
that I
survived
all the
torments
that
Darren
of my
books
had to
endure,
or that
the
Circus
of the
Horrors
is real,
or
finally
that the
vampires
exist.
My books
are of
course
fiction,
and the
use of
the
first
nobody
in the
account
is a
choice
reflected
to
reinforce
the
strong
and
dramatic
side of
the
history
and the
implication
of the
reader.
However,
there is
an
internal
logic in
the
books
which
will
become
obvious
at the
oddment.
Patience...
But if
you can
put side
your
rationality
and
accept
in the
vampires
and the
monsters
of the
circus,
then
yes,
this
history
could be
true.
You will
include/understand
better
what I
want to
say at
the end
of the
last
whole
delivers.
- CG:
Precisely,
how much
did you
envisage
books on
the
whole?
- DS:
When I
began
the
writing
of the
first
novel, I
did not
know it
exactly.
I think
today
that
there
will be
a score
on the
whole of
it. I
already
wrote
ten of
them.
Five are
already
appeared
in
England
and the
sixth
has just
left
this
month.
In
France,
only the
two
first
are
available
and the
third
, the
Sewers
of the
devil
,
must
leave
next
March.
- CG:
You
know
already
the end
of the
twentieth
volume?
- DS:
Yes, of
course.
But I
will not
révèlerai
it to
you!
- CG:
How
did the
idea
come to
you from
this
series?
- DS:
I was
always
impassioned
by the
fantastic
literature
and, in
particular,
by the
vampires.
But I
did not
want to
write a
traditional
history
of
vampires
as one
sees
such an
amount
of of
it. In
my
books,
the
vampires
are like
the
warriors
of
antan,
the
knights
or the
samouraïs,
they
answer a
code of
very
strict
honor
and are
not
dedicated
to the
evil.
They
drink
human
blood,
not by
pleasure,
sadism
or
cruelty.
They do
it only
by need.
It is
for them
a
question
of life
or
death.
- CG:
In
this
respect,
the
scene
during
which
Steve
requires
of Mr
Krapula
to
accept
it as
assistant
is
significant.
This
last
refuses
because
Steve,
the
human
one, is
bad:
"Because
the
vampires
are not
assassins.
We
respect
the
life. We
require
that our
preys
are
alive to
suck
their
blood.
You, you
have the
instinct
of a
killer.
We are
not
killers.
"(p. 101
of
the
Parade
of the
Monsters
)
- DS:
Exactly.
What
interests
me, be
to
question
on the
monstrosity.
Who is
most
monstrous,
between
the
vampire
and the
human
one? In
addition,
I always
adored
the film
Freaks
1
and
it is
that
which
gave me
the idea
to
locate
the
first
two
episodes
in a
Circus
of the
Horrors.
But,
later,
we will
be
interested
much
more in
the
world of
the
vampires.
It will
be
necessary
to await
the
publication
of
volumes
4, 5 and
6 to
know
some
more
about
this
universe,
its
rules
and the
beings
which
make it
up.
- CG:
In
the
thanks
expressed
at the
beginning
of the
first
volume,
you
evoke
the
pupils
of
Askeaton
Primary
School
who
helped
you to
make the
book as
black
and
worrying
as
possible.
Can you
explain
that?
- DS:
When I
wrote
the
first
book, I
was
unaware
of which
would be
the
reactions
of the
readers.
My
mother
teaches
in this
school.
I thus
made
some
copies
of the
manuscript
and
entrusted
to him
so that
it gives
them to
its
pupils.
Their
reactions
were
very
good as
a whole,
but I
took
account
of their
remarks
to
improve
the
unit.
- CG:
To
which
public
do
intend
you
"Saga de
Darren
Shan"?
- DS:
At the
beginning,
I
imagined
some 11
year old
children
approximately.
But I
realize
that the
audience
is
larger
than
that.
The
ideas
that I
express
on the
monsters
and the
vampires
also
interest
of the
older
readers.
The
writing
accessible
from the
books
allows
the
reading
for
younger
children
of it
too. For
me, a
good
book is
a book
which
expresses
complex
ideas
but
written
in a
very
accessible
language.
- CG:
Did
you read
also
fantastic
books
when you
were
child or
adolescent?
- DS:
Yes, I
adored
the
horror
and the
fantastic
one. But
I liked
and I
always
like
other
books,
like the
secret
Garden,
of F.H.
Burnett,
or all
the
books of
Roald
Dahl or
the Club
of the
Five, of
Enid
Blyton.
At
present,
I
continue
to read
literature
of
horror
or
fantasy,
but I
appreciate
also the
American
great
writers
like
Hemingway,
James
Elroy or
Steinbeck.
- CG:
Do
you
write
also
books
for
adults?
- DS:
Yes, I
wrote in
all
seventeen
books
for
adults
of which
some
were
never
published.
Two are
appeared
under my
true
name,
Darren
0'
Shaughnessy:
Ayuamarca
and
Hell'
Horizon
.
They are
very
black
stories,
with a
mixture
of
kinds,
which
were not
translated
abroad.
But true
success
came
with
Darren
Shan,
which is
my first
experiment
of books
intended
to
children
and for
teenagers.
This
success
currently
harms
the
process
of
writing.
Like I
travel
much to
make of
it
promotion,
I have
today
less
time to
write.
Fortunately
that I
already
wrote
the
first
ten
books of
Darren
Shan!
- CG:
One
of the
interests
of your
books,
it is
the way
in which
you get
mixed up
truth
and the
forgery.
The hero
is
introduced
like
having
really
lived
this
history.
The
monsters
are
announced
like
truths.
Most
malicious
are not
those
which
one
thinks.
- DS:
Yes,
that is
significant
for me.
A book
must
distract
but also
make
reflect.
Steve,
the
friend
of
Darren,
which
feels
betrayed
because
it was
pushed
back by
Krapula
will
return
besides
in the 8
the
2nd
volume
whose
action
proceeds
fourteen
years
afterwards.
Will it
take the
way of
the evil
or that
of the
good?
Will it
carry
out its
revenge?
I know
it but I
will not
say it
to
you...
- CG:
Which
reception
the
books
did they
receive?
- DS:
They
quickly
very
were
received
in the
United
Kingdom
then in
the
United
States
where
they
were
published
eighteen
months
later.
For
three
days
that I
am in
France,
I have
also met
many
children
who read
or
studied
my
schoolbooks,
in
Strasbourg,
in
Lille.
Some had
prepared
and
played
me
certain
scenes
of the
books,
in
particular,
that
where a
woman is
made
tear off
the hand
by the
man-wolf
at the
time of
the
representation.
The
books
were
translated
in
fifteen
countries
on the
whole:
Japan,
Brazil,
Spain,
Korea,
Finland,
Israel...
In
Japan,
they
meet
also
much
success
in spite
of the
difference
in
culture.
I will
go
besides
to Japan
for work
but also
for the
World
cup of
football...
Lastly,
Warner
bought
the
rights
of the
first
two
books
and took
an
option
on the
following.
If the
draft
amendment
is born,
one will
mix the
history
of the
first
three
books to
make
only one
film of
it. But
what one
will do
of my
stories
will
escape
me
completely...
It is on
these words that
the interview
finished and I
left Darren the
Irishman with
the questions of
the readers who
had arrived in
front of the
stand.
Completely
reassured on the
identity of my
interlocutor
(but a little
perhaps
disappointed not
to have seen a
True Vampire) I
discreetly left
all my family
implements at
the bottom of my
bag...
Notes:
1. Freaks, the
monstrous
parade, is an
American film of
Tod Browning,
with Wallace
Ford, Leïla
Hyams, Olga
Baclanova,
Roscoe Ates and
Henry Victor.
Made in 1932, it
puts in scene
deformed beings,
monsters which
occur in a split
and which are
with the catches
with a beautiful
acrobat and his
accomplice, who
misused the one
of them. The
monsters concoct
a terrible
revenge... |
