Mazarine and murdered babies

It's hard to know what to make of Mazarine Pingeot. The natural daughter of the late President François Mitterrand has made a modest name for herself as a novelist and wants, she always says, to be treated on her literary merits alone. She deplores the media's appetite for sensation of the kind that surrounded her childhood as secret daughter of the president's mistress. Yet Pingeot, 33, is pretty deft at stirring sensation for her own ends.

Her latest oeuvre, Le Cimetière des Poupées (The Dolls' Cemetery) , is one of an astonishing 727 new novels being published for the French autumn season which started this week. Pingeot has managed to break out from the mass, not just with her Mitterrand heritage, but because of her subject: infanticide. The topic is macabre enough, but she added spice by appearing to model her tale on Véronique Courjault, a Frenchwoman who is awaiting trial for killing three of her new-borns.

The case made headlines a year ago after Courjault admitted to putting two of her offspring in a deep-freeze at the family home in Seoul.

Her husband Jean-Louis was working in South Korea as an engineer. The case intrigued France because Mr Courjault reported finding the babies wrapped in plastic and his wife insisted that he knew nothing of them. He was charged with complicity but freed pending trial.

Last month the couple's parents denounced Pingeot for indecent meddling in their family tragedy and over 200 people in their central France village signed a petition calling for publication to be halted. Geneviève Courjault, the paternal grandmother, said that Pingeot, whose existence was kept secret until she was 19, should have been sensitive to the pain she would inflicting by raking over the case for entertainment.

With le scandale in full swing, Pingeot switched to the high ground, insisting that she is shocked that anyone should suggest she was invoking the Courjault case. There is no similarity in the plot, she said. "I know what it is to enter the lives of people and expose them to public view," she said. "That would have been the last thing I would have done." She even claimed that the row over her book was due to her notoriety as Mitterrand's daughter. "If it had been another writer, we would never have heard about it," she said.

I have just zipped through the book (it's only 155 pages) and there is certainly no factual resemblance to the Courjaults -- until page 153. The narrator-mother reveals there that she put her baby in the family deep freeze "where it would stay close at hand, ideal and cold."

But any reader would already know that, thanks to the summer polémique. Pingeot, who is expecting a second child of her own, has been doing the media rounds. She made the cover of this week's Paris Match. "It's true that the Coujault affair is not very distant from my story in timing," she tells Match. "And it's true that it fascinated me. But this row shows a misunderstanding of literature."

Fiction has always drawn on news events, she says. "And why the deep freeze ? If I had chosen something else, it would have been linked to another news item."

Pingeot, whom I found likeable and unpretentious when I visited her at home a couple of years ago, seems to have inherited the fascination for death for which her late father was famous. It is tempting to seek in her novel traces of her own life. Before her existence was revealed and she went on to earn a high philosophy degree, she lived a protected life in a state mansion while her president-father kept the docile French media and a novelist away from his private life.   

"There have been terrible things involving infanticide," Pingeot tells Match. "Some new-borns have been put in flower pots. I find that the deep freeze has a very beautiful side from the novelistic point of view.... It's philosophically fascinating to kill one's child. It poses the question of the absolute power of the mother."

Her book is being respectfully reviewed. I found it a little ponderous and afflicted with the monotony of the internal monologue that has lately dominated French fiction. The fashion is, by the way, fading. A lot of the new novels have gone back to plots with old-fashioned action. Coming later this week, L'Aube Le Soir ou la Nuit (Dawn, the Evening or Night). This is Yazmina Reza's novelistic account of the rise of that ultimate action man: Nicolas Sarkozy. 

Tuesday update: Geneviève Courjault was on RTL radio this morning attacking Mazarine Pingeot. She said that Pingeot had lied when she said that she had contacted the family. The mother in her book does indeed seem to be modelled on Véronique Courjault, she added. But Pingeot's portrait of the brutal husband does not resemble her son, she said. 

   

Comments

[Marguerite]

Nicely said, Charles.
C'est tres interesant d'ecrire un livre sur ces bebes congeles alors qu'elle-meme est enceinte. Est-ce qu'elle s'identifierait a ces enfants ? Peut-etre que son pere l'aurait preferee sous la forme d'un Findus.

[azloon]

from animated rats to baby-killing. CB, your range is breathtaking.

"I find that the deep freeze has a very beautiful side from the novelistic point of view.... It's philosophically fascinating to kill one's child. It poses the question of the absolute power of the mother." Mme Pingeot

if someone said this to you at a cocktail party, what in world could you possibly say in reply? "i think i'll grab a few more h'ors d'oevres before they're all gone."

it's clearly something that only could have been written by someone who grew up is as strange circumstances as she did. and read a lot of Poe.

[Frank Schnittger]

"Last month the couple's parents denounced Pingeot for indecent meddling in their family tragedy and over 200 people in their central France village signed a petition calling for publication to be halted" CB

Infanticide is still murder and the rights of the child are paramount. On what basis could a family possibly claim that their "sensibilities" are more important than the fact that a family member has committed serious crimes for which they are accountable to society?

I cannot comment on Mazarine Pingeot's book as I haven't read it. But surely a discussion which raises the issues as to why mothers sometimes kill their babies is important?

It used to be the way, in Victorian times, that all scandal had to be brushed under the carpet so that a veneer of respectability could be maintained. Far preferable is the more modern tendency to confront such issues openly and honestly.

200 villagers may want the book censored. Just what other skeletons in the closet are they trying to hide?

[rocket]

"I find that the deep freeze has a very beautiful side from the novelistic point of view.... It's philosophically fascinating to kill one's child. It poses the question of the absolute power of the mother."

Is this above statement supposed to demonstrate the superiority of the French novelist?

This kind of Philosophical garbage really makes me vomit

Not surprised with the monarchical type rule of her father that the notion of absolute power absolutely haunts this illegitimate "rejeton"

She'd do better to work with underprivileged kids to pay back her free meal ticket that she was given.

[Mathieu Q.]

There's no reason to get angry like this, Rocket. Nobody seems to complain about all these books and movies (see "Zodiac" recently) about serial killers that are especially popular in the US. What is the problem here then ? I believe we find those sorts of things fascinating and scary at the same time because they raise questions about our deepest motivations and our own violence; that's if we don't discard the subject a priori by fear of discovering that the border between the mind of the criminal and that of the average person is not that thick. It's not "Philosophical garbage"; it's the whole point of philosophy, sociology and other humanities to challenge and unsettle our perspective on ourselves and on the world, to understand ourselves better. In the case at hand, it would be indeed very interesting to think about why, in our societies, the child does not "belong" to the mother but to society, which is in my opinion the modern, hidden version of the religious belief that life is sacred and cannot be taken away, even by her creator (I'm not advocating against this fact, just neutrally thinking: that's what philosophy is about - letting emotions aside for a moment).
That said, I haven't read anything by Mazarine Pingeot so I have no idea about the value of this book.

[Robert Marchenoir]

Frank, the point of the protesters is that nobody has been convicted yet, so Mazarine is using her notoriety to possibly slant the trial, and using this criminal case to bolster the sales of her book.

She is giving us a lot of high-brow talk about the freedom of the artist, etc.

However, if all she was interested about was art for art's sake, why did she need to pick up a case from yesterday's news? If all she was interested in was human nature, why could not she take her inspiration from fifty years ago or the other side of the world?

Also, what makes me very doubtful of her motives is the quality of her book. I have read excerpts, and her writing is really, really awful. She clearly is not a writer. Even schoolchildren should be ashamed of writing like that. She would never be published if she were not her father's daughter (at least, I hope so).

She is doing a disservice to the Courjaults, literature and trees alike.

[christopher muir]

Seems to me that Pingeot is skating on thin ice. The book could be seen as a device to make a lot of money from some sedentary philosophical musings. It would have been a tougher self-assignment to write the book in documentary style like Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood." That would have required a good bit of travel and much challenging door knocking. She could have added her philosophical discourse as an appendix. Of course, not having read the book, I acknowledge that she may have foot-slogged a bit before typing the manuscript...does anybody know?

[Frank Schnittger]

Robert - according to CB "The case made headlines a year ago after Courjault admitted to putting two of her offspring in a deep-freeze at the family home in Seoul".

I presumed from this that she had admitted the killing and that any remaining legal issues centred on her degree of culpability (Murder, manslaughter, or not guilty by virtue of insanity etc.)

In any case the reference to the deep freeze seems to be the only similarity between the book and the Courjault case so the issue of prejudicing the court case hardly seems relevant.

I have no doubt that the controversy will help sales of the book, and this may have been calculated on Mazarine's part. However her only offence in that case (besides being a poor writer) is that she deliberately confuses base marketing motives with rhetoric about artistic freedom.

Not a bad marketing strategy if you want to pass off poor quality writing as high art. Artists have been seeking publicity and courting controversy to sell their wares since time immemorial. We are the fools for buying into it.

[Edward Johns]

"....she went on to earn a high philosophy degree, she lived a protected life in a state mansion while her president-father kept the docile French media and a novelist away from his private life."
You have to speculate as to how much presidential pressure may have been used on "docile" educators to result in a "high philosophy degree".

[Derek Smith]

A small point but an important one given the comments about Courjault. Infantacide is not murder in the same way that manslaughter is not. All are culpable homicide, but infanticide requires the mother's mind to be unbalanced. Therefore the mens rea necessary for the full offence of murder is missing.

[Daniel Strohl]

I am not interested at all in a book like this one, even if the author is "likeable and unpretentious".

And after having read Robert's commentary about her writing, I feel comforted regarding my somewhat a priori judgment.

However, since the conversation goes about writing, I would like to point out that we are lucky enough to have on this blog the Saint-Simon of the first half of the XXI.st century in the person of Charles, who has a piercing but nevertheless indulgent eye on what happens in the kingdom of France and at "la Cour de France".

Charles, I like what you do, and I guess I am not alone on this blog.

[Tara_Lane]

Count me among those who was taken aback by her statement about the philosophical interest in death-by-deep-freeze.

Rocket, you got a good laugh out of me with your remark that she must have read a lot of Poe. ;)

[rocket]

Mathieu

Thank you for illuminating my day.

"...if we don't discard the subject a priori by fear of discovering that the border between the mind of the criminal and that of the average person is not that thick."

Oh really! Maybe for you, but then I choose of my own free will not to belong to that "monde de tes croyances philosophiques"

[Terry]

Derek:

"All are culpable homicide, but infanticide requires the mother's mind to be unbalanced."

Really? Infanticide REQUIRES the mother's mind to be "unbalanced"? Perhaps, you mean that the common defense to infanticide is that the mother was temporarily insane. This is what negates the criminal intent (mens rea) necessary to convict. All people who murder are unbalanced. The question (at least in the US) is whether they insane. A twin sister of a friend of mine hid her pregnancy during college and dumped the baby in the dumpster, where she died. They figured it out. There was certainly something wrong with this person, but she was not insane. Her "punishment" did not include jail time anyway.

Are we talking French law?

[Terry]

What is the law in France on the "insanity" defense?

[Sandrine]

"And after having read Robert's commentary about her writing, I feel comforted regarding my somewhat a priori judgment."

Wow, Daniel vous me décevez. Je ne savais pas que Robert avait la science infuse... Ça doit être "génial" de croire absolument TOUT ce qu'une personne dit sans surtout jamais envisager de se faire son propre avis.

[azloon]

cb, my informal poll of the number of posts per blog entry shows this one lagging a bit.

i am wondering what sort of american subject might stop potential u.s. contributers in their tracks, as this one has our french friends.

one i came up with was "how charles manson reflects the american character."

[bourgeoisgentilhomme]

Rocket, you really should get used to the idea that fiction is fiction. The novelist is not suggesting we slaughter infants, you know. We need people to talk about the distasteful topics and bring them to the attention of society. Otherwise, all we achieve is a hypocritical "passing by on the other side of the road". The book may well not be the best written, it may well lack entertainment value, but the writer does have the right to deal with unpleasant topics. Or what would you suggest that writers deal with? Should we have novels based on nice people, saying nice things, in nice surroundings?

[rocket]

bourgeoisgentilhomme

Personally I don't care what she writes. That's her business. And I mean literally... business. She can write about OJ Simpson for all I care. What really rubs me the wrong way is how her own early life was shrouded in secrecy, financed by taxpayer money, in order to not offend those who reign supreme and how today what IMHO seems to be sensationalism which goes against all that was done in order to protect this "young lady" which motivates the writing of this book.

Even after attaining her majority, IMHO it seems as if she did nothing herself as per the research of her paternity.

"In 2003, she published a series of literary comments, "They told me who I was" ("they" being the books)." - Wiki

It's a question of morality for me not a question of writers rights.

I'm not so much against Mazarine Pingeot as I am against the behaviour of her father and mother who felt that they exercised the supreme control over the life of this child while the media in France turned a fearful blind eye.

Is it respect of private life or IMHO fear. I'll go with the second one.

[Daniel Strohl]

Sandrine,

"Wow, Daniel vous me décevez. Je ne savais pas que Robert avait la science infuse..."

Mais il a sans aucun doute un excellent style, ce qui le qualifie pour parler du style d'une autre personne. Sur ce point particulier, je lui fais toute confiance. Quant au reste, je partage certaines de ses idées, même si j'ai remarqué comme vous qu'il donne rarement dans l'euphémisme et la litote lorsqu'il les exprime ...

Je n'achèterai pas le livre pour le lire et me faire ma propre opinion quant au style, pour l'excellente raison que je suis allergique à ce type de "philosophie" à visées commerciales fort apparentes, du moins si j'en crois ce qu'aurait dit Madame Courjault, d'après chaipukelle radio, à savoir qu'elle ne reprochait pas à Mazarine d'avoir employé le "concept" (le mot est de moi) des bébés congelés, mais d'avoir utilisé le nom de Courjault pour la promotion du livre. Si c'est vrai, c'est bien sûr l'éditeur qui l'aura fait, mais pas sans l'accord au moins tacite de l'auteur. Si ce n'est pas vrai, je souhaite du succès à Mazarine pour ce livre, mais je ne le lirai pas.

PS : let us continue in English, of course we don't want to be impolite with our fellow non-French speaking bloggers.

Sandrine, I have noticed that you "speak" English with a Texan accent, for example when you write "I tell ya that ...". Does this mean that Washington is already a Texan colony where it is "de bon ton" de drawl à la GWS ?

[Sandrine]

"je suis allergique à ce type de "philosophie" à visées commerciales fort apparentes,"

Cela me parait très bien de ne pas acheter un livre pour cette raison. Vous savez, je ne le lirai pas non plus et c'est à peu près pour la même raison que vous. Mais par contre, dire d'emblée que vous ne le lirez pas parce que Robert a dit que le style n'était pas assez bon, je trouvais que c'était un peu léger.

Maintenant Daniel, il existe des endroits fabuleux en France appelés "bibliothèques municipales" et bien souvent, tenez-vous bien, il y a des livres dedans ! :o) Donc, si vous ne souhaitez pas "enrichir" un auteur en achetant ses livres en librairie, rien ne vous empêche d'emprunter un de ses livres à la bibliothèque pour vous faire une idée par vous-même. Elle est pas belle la vie ? Et comme ça, vous vous serez fait votre PROPRE opinion, comme un grand ! lol

Bref, je rigole bien sur, c'est un moyen comme un autre, mais si les gens arrêtaient de lire des livres sous prétexte qu'ils ne sont pas recommandés par Robert, ce serait lamentable... Thank God nous n'avons pas tous les mêmes goûts !

Concerning your other demand, the truth is I watch TV a lot and the actors use the "ya" a lot. So it's hard not to be influenced by that. And it's pretty true also that in the street the "ya" is very common even if it's not with a texan accent, which I can barely understand actually...

[Daniel Strohl]

Sandrine,

Lorsque je vais au centre ville acheter notre pain "chez Paul" (au levain, of course), je passe devant la bibliothèque municipale, où je ne m'arrête pas - je ne tiens pas à "me prendre la tête", comme on dit maintenant, avec Mazarine, Mein Kampf etc.

Je passe aussi devant le lycée Bartholdi, où j'ai fait ma philo - il y a un certain temps déjà. A l'époque, nous avions un très brillant (dans le bon sens du terme) professeur qui était le plus jeune agrégé de France si mes souvenirs sont bons. Le seul défaut que je lui avais trouvé est qu'il nous avait fait étudier la monadologie de Leibnitz - je viens à peine de m'en remettre - heureusement que la récupération est plus rapide dans d'autres domaines!

Regarding accents, I have got difficulties as well - my "Sonotone" doesn't help too much. Two years ago, when we still lived dans le parc régional du Verdon, I watched often a Chinese station
(CCTV 9) on satellite. Almost all of the (Chinese) speakers and commentators spoke a really perfect English, without any disturbing accent. We had also Fox News - but their accent was terrible; quant au reste, je vous dis pas ...

[Daniel Strohl]

Sandrine,

In my post dated 23.8.2007 16:51 please replace the words "je vous dis pas" by "schwoudy pas".

Schwoudy is the nickname of our mayor (Colmar) who has the reputation to know what he wants and to push his ideas through the "Conseil Municipal" and the city's administration ... To be a civil servant is not always "une sinécure", contrairement à ce qu'un vain peuple (de droite) croit bêtement ...

[azloon]

Sandrine/Daniel

please review for a possible quiz next week:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valspeak

it's way cool, approaching tubular.........

[Daniel Strohl]

Azloon,

Very interesting link. Thanks.

[Pierre]

Get 'Dead Babies', by Martin Amis. One of his first. It's excellent...