Preoccupied by boys

A new English translation of French literary theorist Roland Barthos' book Incidents, that gave the world its first inkling of his homosexuality, has photographs by a young gay Indian photographer from Kolkata, who shares his preoccupation for young boys

A new English translation of French literary theorist Roland Barthos' book Incidents, that gave the world its first inkling of his homosexuality, has photographs by a young gay Indian photographer from Kolkata, who shares his preoccupation for young boys
In his diary-like stream-of-consciousness jottings published in French, posthumously in 1987 as Incidents, French literary theorist, philosopher and key intellectual figure of 20th century France, Roland Barthes gave the world its first inkling of his homosexuality.u00a0





One of the four sections of the book, a fresh translation of which has just been published, is about vignettes of the time he spent in Morocco, and his explicit and erotic love for young boys and men.

In 2005, the writing stirred the imagination of a 25 year-old gay Indian photographer, who was urged by a friend to read the book. Bishan Samaddar read Richard Howard's elegant translation, and Incidents
has had a troubling hold on him ever since.

Four years on, he was asked by his boss, publisher Naveen Kishore of Seagull Books, to visit Morocco and shoot photographs for a book he had just bought the world rights for. Call it a strange coincidence, but it turned out to be a translation of Incidents by Teresa Lavender Fagan.



Kishore believed Samaddar, a programme officer at Seagull at the time, would be equal to the task.

"Barthes' preoccupation with young men in this book is much like Samaddar's in his photography," says Kishore.u00a0
And so it was that Samaddar, armed with his Nikon digital SLR camera, landed in Morocco in November 2009. "I did not look for images to correspond with those that Barthes refers to in his book. Such pictures would have been inane, too much like illustration. The trick was to go for motifs that recur in his writing, like mint leaves and curly hair," says Samaddar, who visited some of the places Barthes had -- Marrakesh and Casablanca among them -- in pursuit of these images.

Samaddar's quest was not without hurdles. "In Morocco, people are not open to photography. Besides, English does not take you anywhere there. As a result, I couldn't get pictures of people," says Samaddar, who was obviously disappointed at the time.

Back at the Seagull office, designer Sunandini Banerjee thought nothing of rummaging through Samaddar's earlier body of photographs shot in India as well, to put together a "playful interpretation" of Barthes' work.
She used certain images relevant in the Indian context that resonated with Barthes' words. For instance, a reference to a funeral procession has alongside it the image of an idol immersion parade in India, a sense of profound loss uniting the two. "I found that these pictures were suddenly bringing new angles into the text," she says.

Once the book was ready, it had to pass the final test: an approval from the Roland Barthes estate. "We had played around with it and now, having sent the book to the estate, we waited as though a biopsy report was on its way," says Kishore. But Barthes' half-brother and the legal guardian of his oeuvre, Michel Salzedo, liked the fresh perspective this version of Incidents offered and gave the publishers his go-ahead.

Incidents
September 17, 1979
Yesterday, Sunday, Oliver G. came for lunch; I had taken the trouble of preparing for him, entertaining him, that ordinarily means I am in love. But during lunch, his timidity or his distance intimidated me; no euphoria of a relationship, far from it. I asked him to come sit next to me on the bed while I took a nap; he very kindly came, sat on the edge, looked at an illustratedu00a0 book; his body was very far away, if I stretched my arm toward him, he didn't move, closed up: no ease; moreover, he quickly went into the other room. A sort of despair came over me, I wanted to cry. I realised that I would have to give up boys, because they had no desire for me, and because I am either too scrupulous or too clumsy to impose mine on them; that this was an inescapable fact, proven by all my attempts at flirting, that this makes my life sad...

Incidents by Roland Barthes
Translator: Teresa Lavender Fagan
Publisher: Seagull Books
Price: Rs 725

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!