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/lit/ - Literature

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4623767 No.4623767[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Say I was born in America and I really wanted to write a book based in France, would simply researching the country enough through various encyclopaedias be enough?

Should an author ever write a book set in a place he has never been to or lived in?

>> No.4623778
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4623778

never

>> No.4623782

>>4623767
Nigga if you really want to capture the essence of the place you'll have to go there. You can't find that shit in an encyclopedia lmao

>> No.4623790

>>4623782
This. It should be self-evident. Just fucking travel there, learn French, see for yourself. Otherwise, your book will reek of clichés, gayness and will be a lukewarm version of an imaginary France that will only please the uneducated.

>> No.4623807

>>4623767
Just imagine it and make it all up, that's what I do and I've won awards.

>> No.4623828

>>4623807

Shut up tolkien, go back to your grave gayelf

>> No.4623835

Why does it have to be France? I wouldn't write a book in France if it weren't supposed to resonate with the readers in France, I would rather make it a fictional place based off the associations I have with what I perceive France to be like--that way it will resonate with the right people. Also, FUCK FRANCE.

>> No.4624070

>>4623835

I just wanna write something in the Franco-Prussian war, I've been looking at a lot of art from that period lately and it's making me real keen.

>> No.4624230

It's best to take a trip there at least, but yes, you can write a book about a country, place or time you don't know first hand. Otherwise there would be no such thing as historical fiction and science fiction would be in a lot of trouble as well. But you do have to do a metric fuckload of research.

>> No.4624234

>>4624230

That's kind of what I was thinking. Even though it's a foreign country to me, the time period I'm interested in was 143 years ago, so I figured with enough research that I'd be able to do it.

If I intended on making the setting in modern day France I wouldn't even try.

>> No.4624237

>>4624070
I've always thought the suppression of the communards was absolutely fascinating.

>> No.4624258

>>4624234
A good enough writer can set anything anywhere. If the story needs it then it's possible.

>> No.4624298

>>4623778
I've sat here trying to think of a good enough reply for this, but all I have is "I love you"

>> No.4624814

Well he can, it depends on the readers he is aiming at; if the target is regular citizens who will never travel or will do it as tourists at best, then he will just be building/feeding a certain image of something they will never meet, which is fine cause it can be anything. On the other hand, if his target is wider then I think a dive in the culture in question is more than necessary.

>> No.4624822

It worked for Thomas Pynchon.

>> No.4624839

absolutely not you sniveling mongoloid

not as if your book would ever gain any recognition, but by all means if you'd like to seem as plebby and uncultured as you actually are, go ahead and write about a place you've never been. especially france

>> No.4624948

>>4623767
I am French and I don't think you have to come to France to write a book set in France. Some Americanisms should be avoided (don't make your characters drink big glasses of milk while they reveal their annual salary to strangers, don't set the action in a drive-in, don't make constant references to God and your constitutional right to carry firearms, you know), but other than that, any reference to French culture will likely be some kind of unnecessary and tacky exotism.
Edgar Allan Poe, in the Murders in the Rue Morgue, places the action in Paris, and he's inventing everything (the name of the streets are all fake, etc.) because he never went to Europe. For a French reader, it's fine, we don't even realize it; and if we realize, we don't care at all. Because it's good and that's all that matters. Be vague and concentrate on the action, not on the decor.
Read French contemporary literature (most of it is terrible) if you want to taste some bits of French reality by the way. Read: Houellebecq, Emmanuel Carrère, even Christine Angot or Lolita Pille (it's ultra pleb but useful in your case), Immortality by Milan Kundera, etc.
For 19th century France, read 19th centurybooks.

>> No.4624968

>>4624948
>poe
>good

CLASSIC FRENCHFAG

CLASSIC

>> No.4624979

>>4624948
poe is not the best example. if i'm correct he is only even popular there due to baudelaire's obsession and translations of his depressing 3rd grade poems

today i don't think really think you can capture the real nuances of france without having been there, unless of course you're not concerned with the atmospheric qualities of the novel and are fine with writing second-rate romance novel schlock

>> No.4624985

>>4623767
>Should an author ever write a book set in a place he has never been to or lived in?

Never, unless inaccurately portraying a place he's never been to is his goal for some weird reason.

>> No.4624999

French here, I think you should give a try to Emile Zola.
Naturalism is all about description and I think that's what you looking for. You should start with Germinal and l'Assomoir

>> No.4625004

>>4624999
>>4624070

I forgot La debacle, the story is based in this period

>> No.4625012

>>4624968
>not liking poe
must be american
opinion discarded

>> No.4625025

Did Flaubert time-travel and go to the ancient Carthage to write Salammbo, which is very realist? Did Shakespeare go to Verona to write Romeo and Juliet? Did Philip K. Dick go to the moon to write Ubik? Did Montesquieu go to Persia to write is Persian Letters? Did Borges go to Tlön, to Arabia, to China to write his short stories?
(Hint: no, no, no, no, and no.)
THE DECOR IS IRRELEVANT. AVOID AMERICANISMS AND FOCUS ON YOUR STORY.

>> No.4625198

>>4624979
> baudelaire's obsession

Add Mallarmé and Valéry to the bunch.

But I could also say

>if i'm correct Shakespeare is only even popular outside of England due to the romantics obsession and translations of his crazy late plays.

>> No.4625203

If you want, just don't expect it to appeal to anyone from or who has been to France.

>> No.4625232

>>4625025
> Did Montesquieu go to Persia to write is Persian Letters?

Persian Letters is set in France.

Otherwise, I agree with you.

>> No.4625242

>>4624985
So, basically, half of Western literature shouldn't have been written (including most of Shakespeare's plays).

Do whatever you want, OP. It's not like anybody care.

>> No.4625256

>>4623782
>capture the essence of the place
>implying that's not the most clich" thing ever

France is a 550 000 square kilometers-wide, 65 million-people country. No matter how much time you spend there, you'll never know enough about it. Just be clear about the level of accuracy you're seeking for, and spend time in France accordingly. There are plenty of ways to approach the complex reality of a country, travelling there and reading history/datas/fiction about and from there are only two of them. And they each have they own benefits and shortcomings.

>> No.4625314

Depends on how much of the book is about the country.

>> No.4625526

>>4624822
Yeah, just use the Baedeker.

>> No.4625532

>>4623835
I fart in your general direction, you son of a silly person.

>> No.4625551

If you have the finances and time, then sure. Doing first-hand research is highly ineffective. Research the subject online. If you have any questions then interview several natives through Skype.

>> No.4625710

>>4624948

>lolita pille
the french tao lin

>> No.4625759

>>4624948
>lolita pile
sounds sexy

>> No.4627031

>>4624234

I think if it's that long ago, then it should be a lot easier. I mean even now if you wrote a book about the 70s, the memory of that time period is foggy in the minds of those who were there and a lot of people weren't there at all. Culture changes pretty rapidly and France from over a century ago would have been a much different place than France is now. As long as you have accurate facts (such as dates and locations) then I really don't think anyone, even people from France, would know any better.