The French Championship is sometimes presented as the League of talents.
Among the latter, there are even some unsuspected… Thus, Paul Lasne, the defensive midfielder of Stade Brestois, publishes a collection of texts entitled “MurMures” (Ed. Le Tiers-Livre), which is scheduled for release on February 1st.
There is no question here of a sportsman's biography or a simple logbook.
“MurMures” is a true literary object, with millimeter writing, a very personal tone and poetic accents.
During the 55 days of the first confinement, the native Ile-de-France native let his pen run through the events of everyday life upset by the Covid: a full at the supermarket, a homemade haircut, the preparation of a cake with the big, the awakening of the youngest to football, an unexpected doping control, etc.
Returned for his greatest pleasure on a daily basis in Ligue 1, the left-hander, some 250 L1 matches with Bordeaux, Ajaccio, Montpellier and Brest, recounts his meeting with writing.
Listen to Paul Lasne, RTL guest this evening, in replay.
It's full of intelligence.
https://t.co/0McJV48tAz
- Bertrand Latour (@LatourBertrand) January 21, 2021
When the time came, Laurent Lasne (author in particular of a biography of the great Soviet guardian of the 1960s, "Lev Yachine, a soviet novel", published by Le Tiers Livre), journalist, writer and owner of Editions Le Tiers Livre, judged opportune to edit Paul's MurMures.
“The publisher has replaced the father,” says Lasne father.
If the book had been average, I would have found him a printer, so that he had 40 copies to give to his friends.
In which case, I would have done Paul a disservice by editing it and it would have devalued the modest work I do in my little publishing shop.
The publisher considered that this text deserved to be published.
I'm proud somewhere that he got to the end.
I knew Paul a sensitivity to words.
I myself was more oriented towards poetry than the novel.
He was not a reader but liked to read nice texts.
"
How did the idea for this book come about?
PAUL LASNE.
It came quite spontaneously, without really having a road map.
During the confinement, I felt that something special was happening.
At the start, I had the intuition to write a text when I came back from shopping, I felt the need to put it on paper.
There was a second text, a third, then it took a little thickness and finally, I stuck to it as a discipline.
What does "MurMures" mean?
I was looking for a title related to containment and quickly thought of the walls.
Whispers came pretty quickly then.
I like the echo, the repetition carried by "Murmures".
In addition, the texts are so many intimate confidences, murmurs.
The capital "m" is intended to highlight the walls.
Technically, how did you go about it?
I had set up a mechanism.
There were two times in my day: writing and formatting.
As I say in one of the texts, I really like the contact, the act of writing with a pen and a sheet.
The instinct for words is a little beyond us, we write without thinking too much and that makes a first draft.
This is where the fun is.
For me, there is an aesthetic of writing: the wooden table, the little café and the active hand.
In the evening when the kids were in bed, I would go to the computer to start shaping, improving, removing what was really too bad, etc.
PSG express newsletter
Our information on the capital club
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
Have you written before?
I have a few small texts in my drawers but these are unfinished things or without real purpose.
The first time I wrote, I was playing Ajaccio.
I related a getaway with my wife.
On a whim, we went to Madrid to see a Clasico in 2013. It took 12 hours to do Ajaccio-Paris-Madrid.
We ran into the stadium, I thought I lost my tickets.
I was at the bottom of the chasm outside the Santiago Bernabeu and found them.
We saw the game and the next day at 6 am, we were on the plane home.
I had started to write about this adventure.
READ ALSO>
Antoine Griezmann launches into children's literature
What type of reader are you?
For a very long time, up to 24-25 years old, I didn't read at all or just a book every now and then, I didn't care.
The only seed my father planted was the daily summer vacation dictation when I was a child.
He left me free to choose the length, between one line and three paragraphs, as well as the time of day, but dictation was compulsory.
Often, the text related to football or sport.
I started reading when I had my first child.
And there, it is gaining momentum.
I take a liking to it and find pleasure in it.
It is also complementary with the fact of writing.
It allows me to see how the authors play with words.
At the moment, I am reading Le “Hussard sur le toit” by Jean Giono.
It is a bit topical because it deals with the cholera epidemic.
I hope to get out of that soon… Otherwise, Romain Gary and Joseph Kessel.
I have also read Sylvain Tesson and Philippe Delerm.
Do you feel any interactions between writing and playing football?
I'm sure the two are related, in the sense that writing allows me to break away from my core business.
When I play, I am completely focused on the game. At our level, it requires a lot of concentration.
No time to think about anything else.
But when it's time to write, an armored door closes and I'm completely in it.
It's a time that allows me to get away from everyday life, training, matches and allows me to come back to it better.
It acts like a breath.
Your father, Laurent, himself a writer and journalist, is in this case your editor.
What role did he play?
He had two labels: the benevolent dad who encouraged and advised me without ever intervening on the merits, because I did not want it.
And then, the editor, much more intractable and critical, who only wanted to publish something finished.
I wanted him to have an objective and honest look.
If he edited the book, I know it's because there is something that holds up.