Young adults from Quebec spend a weekend together. They enjoy life. They discuss and share their opinions.
“Without realizing it, these are young farmers of the noosphere. They want to change the world, but they don’t know how,” says Jean Chicoine, author of le fermier de la noosphère (the farmer of the noosphere).
The concept of noosphere is drawn from philosophy. It’s a term coined by Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin from the Greek words for us and spheres. It is the sphere of human consciousness, the canvas of everyone’s thoughts.
- le fermier de la noosphère
- Jean Chicoine
- Les Éditions du Blé
- $21,95 $ papier, 264 pages
- ISBN: 978-2-924378-97-7
The book is written in a unique style developed by Chicoine. It is marked by the lack of complete sentences beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period. The words are written in phonetics, to express the way Québécois speak. The pauses between chapters are marked with commas.
“I started to butcher my language in Quebec 30 years ago. I wrote in phonetics. It’s been a long road,” says Chicoine. “But even if you want to play with the rules, you have to retain the logic of the language.”
In his first book, the narrator is a francophone in Manitoba. “I translated his accent. I find playing with language interesting. It’s the fluidity of text and thought. Language is being transformed. This shows one way of thinking. It breaks the rules.”
This book is a bit of the story of his own youth in Quebec, taking place in 1970. Chicoine says, “I condensed the events of that age into a weekend, with a bit of imagination and the concept of the noosphere.”
“I always wanted to write,” he says. “When I was young, I dreamed of being an astronaut. But I wore glasses. So I made another choice, to be a poet.”
Chicoine was inspired by the dream of his high school teacher, to write a novel in second person with long sentences that continued to flow like a river for two or three pages before arriving to the final point, period.
“I always wanted to write,” he says. “When I was young, I dreamed of being an astronaut. But I wore glasses. So I made another choice, to be a poet.”
Chicoine arrived in Manitoba in 1989 and published his first book in 2007. “During my life, I have had all kinds of jobs. And I wrote. I write what I want to write.”
He wants to write a fifth book. “I don’t have any ideas in mind for a novel right now, but it will come to me. I am very open to my imagination. My father told me that when you have a question, put it in your head at night. Let it simmer and the answers will come. You don’t have to worry.”
