A second paving stone for Schmitt’s literary Tower of Babel

Initially, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt intended to travel to Quebec to present the second volume of his saga The passage of time, baptized The gate to heaven.

Sylvain Sarrazin
Press

Unfortunately, the gates of heaven were closed to him and he was unable to catch his flight to Montreal. It is therefore through USB ports that we conversed with the author of this new opus, where he propels his heroes to Mesopotamia, at the foot of the Tower of Babel.

For the record, Schmitt himself embarked on the construction of a literary Tower of Babel with this fresco kneaded with eight imposing bricks, featuring Noam, Noura and Derek, three immortal characters born in the Neolithic and crossing the history of mankind, up to our time.

And seeing the 600 pages of The gate to heaven, which take over from the 570 pages of Lost paradises, we better understand the answer given by the writer to the question “What is your favorite word?” “Once asked by Bernard Pivot in the show Culture broth: his sights were set on “plump”, an adjective particularly conducive to its plump cobblestones! When we reminded him of the anecdote, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt laughed, and even if he confesses to having forgotten it, he actually slipped “plump” into his last book (“a vast room with plump columns », P. 243). “It is true that I love that word, as well as ‘lime tree’. ”

But cut off the chubby details, and let’s take a look at what flesh has been put around the bone in this new opus. We find the thread of the vicissitudes of Noam, resuscitating in a cave several centuries after his beheading, again losing sight of his beloved Noura. His footsteps guide him to Mesopotamia, where he discovers the emergence of civilization: writing, architecture, urbanity, astronomy … Having reached Babel, he investigates in the shadow of this large tower under construction, seeking to shed light on the designs of his sponsor, the tyrant Nimrod. Fascinated by the face of cities, become a healer, he is tossed from door to door, entangled in the strategies of the queen of the neighboring territory or in the interfraternal tensions of Nimrod’s advisers, relentlessly seeking Noura.

Beauties and cruelties

This framework in which a great deal of knowledge emerges seems to have fundamentally inspired Schmitt. “Our ancestors of that time invented a way of being in the world which will subsist, by taming the waters, by the canals, the earth, the fields, the animals, the breeding, with a completely different relationship to nature” , lists the author, without forgetting the urban and social organization, which fascinates its protagonist. “These are the first cities, towards which Noam experiences very ambiguous feelings: astonishment, wonder, but also fear. Men no longer live in nature and organize themselves into social classes, a world in which we still live today, ”he continues. Noam will discover great advances, including writing which will logically constitute a key element for humanity and its own adventures.

To set such a scene, the writer does his own research (“I don’t always know what I’m looking for, so to be able to find it, I have to look for it myself”, he says), relying on his high-level training, occasionally validating certain points with specialists.

A task that will be made easier as the saga progresses, going through periods he knows like the back of his hand – like that of ancient Greece, scheduled for the fourth volume.

In this effervescent Mesopotamia, Noam will also undergo severe trials, grappling again with the ferocity of his immortal half-brother, but also with his descendants, which will lead to a difficult dilemma involving the chosen one of his heart. Does Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt act cruel to his characters? “Life is cruel and the tragedy of existence has always interested me, even though I am not a tragic author. My greatest encounters with the public have been on absolutely terrible subjects, like The other’s part Where Oscar and the Pink Lady. I am not afraid of what is frightening, and as I have a beam of light, I am not afraid of darkness ”, a philosopher who would refuse, if it was offered to him, the immortality bequeathed to his protagonists, realizing as he goes through his account the “real burden” of this poisoned gift.

Undress the Bible

The project certainly aims to create an epic following the history of mankind, but it appears with The gate to heaven that a Judeo-Christian point of view is adopted to do this, with many biblical references. So, could we imagine a Chinese, native or African Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt telling this saga, but wearing different cultural glasses? ” Completely. We are necessarily from somewhere, and I write from where I am, that is to say from the Mediterranean basin, which are the roots, including spiritual ones, of the world in which I evolve ”, agrees the author , warning that Noam will travel to other continents in the next installments.

But if biblical copies are abundant there, it is more to show how Man is a machine for producing meaning; Noam’s story is a bit of an undressing of the Bible, seeking to strip his stories of the frills with which they have been adorned.

“The Bible is a novel that is still being written. This is my plump novel! », He launches, laughing, when asked about his relationship to the sacred collection.

Often put back to back with Sapiens, the work of historian Yuval Noah Harari, The passage of time will it lead to a projection into the future, as the Israeli did with Homo deus – A Brief History of the Future ? Schmitt will not sell the fuse; only a few strings, indicating that hypotheses about the future will be sketched at the end of the eighth and final volume, refusing to reveal whether they turn out to be optimistic or pessimistic. By its release, motus and plump mouth. “You can’t imagine the amount of secrets I keep,” he teases, before returning to work on the Egyptian mysteries of his third volume, The dark sun.

The gate to heaven

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

Albin Michel

592 pages