On the famous web There giraffe on fire by the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, two huge faceless female figures, one traversed by drawers, the other holding a shred of red flesh, walk on a desert ocher ground. In the background, a giraffe is engulfed in flames. Painted in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War and a few months before the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, this oil on wood has been described by the artist as “an omen of war”.
In the novel Les giraffes en feu, by Gabriel Allaire, the canvas is indeed the source of a conflict, when a laminated representation of the work, suspended in a community room of a residence for seniors, ignites the revolutionary passions of grandparents and their teenagers, determined to bring peace to their town.
It’s because, in their municipality of Granby, a zoo — not the one you’re thinking of — has aroused renewed interest among the international community since Olaf, a movie star gorilla, was admitted there as a resident. Nostalgic for past successes, great Hollywood stars parade, hoping to revive, for a moment, glory and admiration.
Anxious to take advantage of this opportunity for growth and profits, the owner of the zoo and the adjacent hotel entered into a partnership with a family of local entrepreneurs: Daniel Fortin, Nancy Vallée and their son, Émile. Together, they organize exclusive banquets, which offer famous visitors unusual experiences and privileged access to animals; banquets which, until dawn, keep honest citizens awake.
In protest, a group of revolutionary mascots led by a graffiti artist takes to the streets of the city to claim the right to sleep and to advocate the virtues of sleeping in.
The journey of an idea
This absurd and, to say the least, incredible story bears no resemblance to the initial plan sketched out by Gabriel Allaire, at the beginning of the writing. “It’s a bit of a mistake, he admits, laughing, seated in a café on rue Villeray, in Montreal. I first wanted to write the story of a character who understands that the world is ruled by insomniacs, an idea that came to me thinking of the lexical field — derived from insomnia — that we use to describe the world: exhausted lands, empty oceans, etc. In short, this character thinks that the solution to make the world better is to sleep more. I started to write, but the hero slept all the time, and it was flat in tabarouette. »
From this first draft, however, one scene remained in his mind, that of a demonstration for the right to sleep, where the participants lie down on the ground to sleep. “I’m convinced that the next revolution will be with people lying down,” he said, thinking aloud. Afterwards, I developed characters, and they appropriated my idea. Instead of writing a pamphleteer novel, I composed a rom.com on acid. There is a world between the idealized project and the final project, and I have to learn to mourn it. One day, I may have the means to write down my initial idea. »
This idea of the revolution through sleep has therefore turned into a reflection on our relationship to work and on the status granted to those, too young or too old, who are not part of this system at the heart of our economy. . “While writing, I wondered about what makes 74-year-old women dream. Why are we more interested in the dreams of youth than in those of elders? I think it’s because young people still have the power to capitalize, to monetize their aspirations, whereas if an old man wants to dance ballet, you can’t imagine him getting on the stage and joining Les Grands Ballets. But doesn’t he have the right to just want to dance? »
It is therefore this ability to stop, to take the time to dream, which unites adolescents and elders in giraffes on fireand which allows them to initiate a revolution that wants to allow citizens to reconnect with their desires and passions, to rethink what is really important to them, to think about growth other than financial.
The paradoxes of work
At the center of this great movement, the middle generation, represented by the adrift couple formed by Daniel and Nancy, confuses ambition and passion, gets lost in a maze of hours that they forget to count, runs out of steam, away from what matters to achieve his vision of success.
“There are a lot of paradoxes in the work. It’s interesting how it can be unifying and destructive at the same time. It’s a privilege to love your job. So much so that we sometimes have the impression that it will escape us if we don’t invest an astronomical amount of time in it. But at the expense of what? Daniel, for example, feels the pressure often placed on men to be providers, to provide for their families. But this pressure forces him to watch those he loves from afar. »
Gabriel Allaire is aware of the labels that one might want to attach to his book: moralizing, pamphleteer, nostalgic… “I don’t know why these terms are connoted pejoratively in literature. What I like is looking at them from a different angle, manipulating them to make something quirky and original. »
Committed or not, the novel does not end with any clear answer to the findings and reflections that emanate from it. Except perhaps that of choosing to love each other, despite everything. Because love, like sleep, is perhaps the most radical gesture there is.