It was stupendous experience to interview this prodigious writer, I personally feel a lot privileged to get deep insight into his extraordinary life. Hope you guys to enjoy reading this interview as much as I enjoyed interviewing.
1. At what age did you start writing?
In hindsight, I started writing too Young. I was fifteen – that was in 1968 - when I wrote a novella, situated in Flanders during WWII( German forces occupied Belgium back then) I read my piece proudly to my mother while she was ironing clothes. She voiced her approval behind a cloud of steam when brave Flemish freedom fighters in my story were fooling the dumb German soldiers. Luckily, this first try never saw the light of day in print, and my mother – and even me - soon forgot what the story was all about. But it planted the first seed.
2. What inspired you to write?
Do you believe me when I answer that now, fifty-three years later, I still don't know why I began writing? Nothing in my upbringing predestinated me to become a novelist. I stem from a lower-middle-class family with a classical work ethos: you had to toil hard in this life to lead a decent existence with a house, a radio, a television, and a car. It was the main idea about life in the sixties in Flanders. But for us, teenagers, news of "love and peace" and the war in Vietnam seeped through the increasingly rapidly spreading TV screens. I was susceptible to information from the big world outside tiny Flanders and dreamed of exploring countries that were mysterious in my young eyes – Yes, India was one of them - and to become an adventurer. Waiting for the chance to become one, I began writing a novel at age eighteen. It had to be exciting and mysterious. To my surprise, a Flemish publisher wanted to edit it. Phobia was born, and I felt myself as a writer, not knowing that it would take me years and many manuscripts before I could say to the mirror: "You're a real author."
3. What was the name of your first novel? .
"Phobia"
4. Do you write to liberate yourself or do you wish to give people a piece of advice through your writing?
I thought that writing would liberate me from specific mental issues, such as transgressive sexual behavior from an elder boy around the time I was about ten and the Angst it engendered. I proved myself wrong. Writing forces you to look your fears into the eyes instead of chasing them.Giving a piece of advice then? I thought I had to be "a committed author," standing up against social injustice in my younger years. But literature is often not at its best when it criticizes society. Non-fiction and analyses from experts are a much better tool for that goal.
5.When did you decide to write the novel "The shadow Of The Mole" ? And what inspired you to write this prodigious novel?
Because of the abuse that happened in my youth, I have suffered all my life from PTSD-like symptoms, so I began to study them. They surface a lot more during war conditions than in times of peace. In our past, court-martials considered post-traumatic syndrome as cowardness and desertion. In WW1, the young medical science psychiatry began to research the origin and meaning of PTSD; I decided to write a historical novel about the theme in the form of a parable. The critical question is: why do we wage war when every war has proved to be counter-productive in the end? I know that we've gathered a lot of data about the source of our aggression, but the key moment of starting a war remains blurred. I tried to capture that critical moment, that particular time of utter madness, in the form of a suspenseful parable.
The idea came to me when I was with Doctors Without Frontiers in the besieged city of Sarajevo during the Bosnian wars in 1992. Amid that ruined city, I had an outdoor interview with a local warlord. (It was less dangerous in the open than inside because the Serbians from the surrounding hills incessantly shelled the city. The warlord had brought his bodyguards with him. They all drove black BMW limousines. He stood in front of me, leaning against his car's trunk. He said: "War is like a mother to me" at a given moment. The sun was behind us and shone in his narrowed eyes. I suddenly had the feeling that I was facing something inhuman, a sort of demon – I don't like to use that word, but that was the feeling - hiding in that man. Of course, the stress of interviewing him while the shells fell on the city, the glooms of the ruins around us, and the fear for my own life produced this strange and sudden inspiration. But I never have forgotten the strength of that feeling, and more than twenty years later, I began to write "The Shadow Of The Mole," based on that one remarkable intuition.
6. Apart from Mole, who is your favourite character in the novel "The Shadow Of The Mole" And why?
It certainly is Marie Estrange, the frontline nurse who works for the young psychiatrist-in-training Denis Michel, who serves in France as a front physician during WW1. There is an amorous but at the same time tense atmosphere around these two young people who know that the war can kill them any moment. Two factors hinder their budding love. First, there is: the strict military hierarchy – Denis is an officer and Marie' just' a nurse –that was very much against amorous relationships between officers and lower-level military personnel. Secondly, Michel Denis has retreated to a fortress of shyness because he has just lost an arm during the shelling of the French lines. Marie is a strong-willed and intelligent woman who resents the social differences between men and women of that time. She feels empathy with the hurt pride of the young psychiatrist and subtly invites him to show his feelings. It wasn't easy to stay away from clichés and platitudes when I wrote about her, but I hope I have succeeded. She's genuinely a lovable person; at least, I loved her when I incarnated her, and I hope that the reader will do the same.
7. As per your recent award winning novel, Alejandra's lie. Which is a political thriller. I would like to ask you few questions based on politics.
a)Do you think politicians use religion as a tool? Our history has proven time and time again that politicians will use any means to intensify their power in certain circumstances (for example: when they're about to lose their control). But unfortunately, the reverse is also true: every religion has extreme factions that use politics to gain more influence. As long as we don't view politics as a means to create social justice and peace in our world and religions as a way to worship a love spreading Divine Being, we are doomed to live in a terrible world where hate, violence, and greed predominate.
b) Do you think uniform should exist in graduation schools and at work places? Do you think uniform civil code should exist?
What is a uniform code? Is it a means to show that you belong to a specific group, or is it a tool for authorities to promote the destruction of individuality? And why should one adorn their religious identity? Is it to show off to others? There are other means to show your proudness about your religion. I'm not inclined to be totally against uniforms and signs of religious identity. Still, care must be given to avoid that these signs of a) similarities or b) differences don't stand in the way of one first similarity: that we are all humans who, in the end, strive to live a happy and prosperous life.
c) What's your view on India and America's political relation in the present scenario?
India doesn't support the invasion of Ukraine but until recently didn't condemn openly Russia's "peace mission." However, in the vote on the UN resolution condemning the attack of Ukraine, India was among the yes-voters. So there is a specific evolution in India's stance. Analysts conclude that America's and Europe's lax attitude versus Russia's foreign politics have helped make this war possible. Others think that the US and the EU have provoked Russia many times in this century.
I have kept one feeling after all the opinions and analyses I've read during the past weeks. This war results from so many factors and tendencies in the decades behind us that there is only one solution. Stop giving each other the blame, withdraw the troops out of Ukraine, give Ukraine a neutral status, and, for Europe, diversify your import of gas and oil so that, in the future, you're not dependent on one prominent provider anymore. It will not be easy; tensions will linger a long time, but eventually, we have to learn to live together, or we're going to die in a nuclear Armageddon
8) One Advice for upcoming writers.
Advice for upcoming writers: Read and write, write and read. And don't forget to live, to experience as much as you can.
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Fun questions
a) Your favourite movie
A tough question. I'm inclined to pick War Horse, not because it's the best movie, but because we have four horses in the meadows and paddocks behind our house. They are my guiding spirits, and it hurts me very much that horses are mistreated often, physically and mentally, when used as "mopeds on four feet" instead of wise and delicate beings with empathic souls.
b) Your favourite song/ singer
Ed Sheeran is one of the last decade's best and most versatile artists.
c) Do you really own a horse stable?
Yes, we own a small horse stable, but we don't call it that. In many horse stables, the horses have to obey the "power" of the humans. We have a horse sanctuary. Our four horses don't have to follow "power": we always try to communicate, to "speak" their "language," if you want. They have a specific language, you know, in sound and bodily stances, and often, that language is very subtle. Our friends are never locked up: we have winter and summer stables, but the doors are always open so that they can have their leisure in our three meadows and four paddocks. My wife is an equine therapist and uses our horses for therapy. We welcome young and old suffering from mental problems or physical limits on our grounds. She and our darlings deliver truly remarkable results. A therapy horse has to feel loved and respected before it opens up and uses its extraordinary soothing and healing powers to interact with humans. I am the 'stable boy", haha, and their caretaker, a job I don't take lightly. Horses are empathetic creatures, and ours need our love and support, just like we need theirs.
d) Favourite holiday spot
Holiday? Do I hear holiday? What's that? An exotic beast? A general craziness? Just kidding. A full-time writer slash part-time stable boy slash caretaker knows no holidays, yet he's happy. We can't leave our one brother and three sisters behind. We wouldn't be able to enjoy our holiday. So we look at it the other way round: every day on our grounds is a holiday.
e) Are you interested in sports? If yes, name them.
I'm a small guy – 5 foot seven – but I have trained the martial arts intensively for more than thirty years, propelled by what happened in my youth. I wanted to be strong, so I started with the offensive fighting disciplines: karate, kick-boxing, win Chung (Chinese box) and English boxing, but gradually I learned also martial arts that focus on defense: aiki-no-jitsu, aikibudo, and aikido. When a bacterial arthritis grabbed me by the throat when I was 58, I had to stop my training. I still miss the peculiar atmosphere of the martial sports.
f) One wish you would ask the Gene if you would be given the Alladin's lamp.
Alladin’s Lamp, please, make sure that after my death, I’ll be reunited with my beloved American Stafford Lientje who died three years ago. Lientje was truly an angelic creature, the mother dog of mother dogs, and I still miss her very much every day.
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Interviewed by Ayesha F Muskaan © Copyright
