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Toulouse editorial team
Published on
Dec 8 2024 at 2:29 p.m.
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Do you know the creepypastas ? These urban legends flourish on the Internet and give serious nightmares to Internet users, who pass them by and comment on them, between greed and fear.
“Sulfur”, the new novel by Nicolas Druart
“Sulphur”the new novel by Nicolas Druartpublished by HarperCollins Noir, tackles one of these scary creepypastas. The Matchman: Say his name three times and… good luck if you survive. As you can imagine, the Toulouse cop Antoine Aubert has other things to do than chase this kind of nonsense. Except that…
With his sixth novel, Nicolas Druart once again hits the mark: his knowledge of the scenario, his sense of the “twist” (not the dance, but the final twist that makes you jump out of your chair), his impeccable dialogues and his brilliance in acting with the codes of the thriller – in a word its narrative baraka make this book an irresistible page-turner as they say in good French, which you will only be able to put down at the end… after a few sleepless nights… Interview.
Urban legends
Actu : You generally start from a place: here, you start from the famous urban legends that abound on the web…
Nicolas Druart : “It's true that I start by finding a place, but here, I wanted to start from these urban legends with this strange character who brings bad luck to anyone who dares to pronounce his name three times. However, the story takes us towards the Saint-Michel funfair, a place that can be scary…”
When you heard about these urban legends, did you immediately “smell” the horrific potential?
N.D. : “Yes, there was clearly a very interesting romantic basis, close to that of horror films. I did some research on the Internet and I realized that a lot of people liked these stories. These legends represented good vectors for the kind of stories I like to tell, and I decided to tackle this one… which I completely made up.”
Kézako, creepypastas?
There are many of these frightening urban legends circulating on the Web. Slender Man is undoubtedly the best known and the creepiest, but Jeff The Killer, Candle Cove, The Rake and Smile Dog have also given a lot of young Internet users in search of thrills a cold sweat. These creepypastas (the term is a portmanteau: creepy means “scary” in English and pastas comes from “copy-paste”, because these absurd stories are generally copied and pasted and distributed at crazy speed) come in all kinds of formats (video, image, sound, etc.) but these terrifying tales that we tell ourselves while laughing can create real tragedies: in May 2014 in Wisconsin, two girls from 12 years old, lured their best friend into the woods and savagely stabbed her to become “proxies” of the terrible Slender Man…
“What could possibly scare me?” »
With each novel, you take the reader on board, you take them by the hand and – we have known it since Hitchcock – it is the best way to keep them alert, in suspense…
N.D. : “I always put myself in the head of the reader when I write. I ask myself: what could scare me? And it is through this prism that I create an immersion in a place: the descriptions must be visual, auditory and even olfactory The five senses must be engaged. It's like when you go to the funfair: you expect thrills.
You are now recognized as one of the most talented thriller writers in the country. Does that add pressure to you with each novel?
N.D. : “When people buy my book, they expect to be taken by surprise, they know that a “twist” towards the end of the novel will throw knots in their brains. The appointment is made. I expect a certain atmosphere, there are specifications, that's obvious. I don't think in these terms: I write what would scare me, telling myself that if it risks scaring me. quite a few people…”
“The whole southwest is my playground”
Your story is once again anchored in Toulouse and completely charming places become, under your pen, damn disturbing…
N.D. : “I set my stories in Toulouse for practical reasons: it's my city and I know it very well – even if some places are invented. It's a big city, with the potential for crime that that implies. Actually say, the entire southwest is my playground! I like to change the setting: a reader recently told me that she never wanted to take the Toulouse cable car again because of my book!”
An aspect of your writing that is little commented on is humor, second degree…
N.D. : “Completely! I have fun with a lot of self-mockery, even if the themes are obviously serious, even violent. I play at scaring myself and the characters have fun, like when you watch a horror film between friends to scare each other… and laugh about it!”
So-called “genre” literature entertains, of course, but also conveys truths about the world around us, and “Sulfur” denounces the excesses of the uncontrolled use of social networks…
N.D. : “Quite: thrillers and thrillers are the showcase of the world, and it is true that the crazy use of cell phones and social networks worries me. In the book, these urban legends which we know deep down that they are just that, legends, will drive everyone a little crazy like a disease that will contaminate an entire population…”
Comments collected by Yves GABAY
“Sulfur” by Nicolas Druart (Editions HarperCollins Noir, 400 pages, €21.50). Nicolas Druart will be at a signing meeting on Saturday December 14 at the Cultura de Balma-Gramont.
Photo: Nicolas Druart (credit: Mélania Avenzato)
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