The Limited Times

Philippe Sollers: an eternal passion for literature of an unalterable cheerfulness

5/7/2023, 3:41:23 PM


The writer was classic and avant-garde in his genre. There is one thing that cannot be blamed on him: Sollers never joined the party of death. He was on the side of life, solidly gifted for it. Those who knew him will remember his unalterable cheerfulness, his inexhaustible taste for being; in short, of his joy. No doubt he must be amused - from where he contemplates us - by what we could still write about him, as it is true that for more than sixty

There is one thing that cannot be blamed on him: Sollers never joined the party of death.

He was on the side of life, solidly gifted for it.

Those who knew him will remember his unalterable cheerfulness, his inexhaustible taste for being;

in short, of his joy.

No doubt he must be amused - from where he contemplates us - by what we could still write about him, as it is true that for more than sixty years, he has aroused comments, hatred and admiration. , resentments and cheers.

There's no one smarter than Sollers.

Smart, original and daring.

Classic and avant-garde in its genre.

If we had to compare him, but this kind of exercise is always stupid, we would immediately think of Diderot.

First, for his extreme and tireless curiosity;

then for its encyclopedic culture;

finally for its messy side.

Disorganized in the sense that his work, for those looking at it from afar, can seem like a battlefield.

And, from a…

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