Writers 3-3: J.M.G. Le Clézio: At the Forestside of History

I often tell myself, I was lucky. I was the last author in West European literature who could still write, and not only write, but fascinate the world with my experiences of the colonies, already lost to that first world, as old folk still call it sometimes. For a writer, nothing is more important than to represent his time, time is the signifier, the writer the signified, and to find one's own voice is easy for the writer, no matter what struggling, lackluster writers try to convince you off, but to be the voice of your time, that is the true quest, although it can hardly be called a quest, as it is more luck. Some writers better than myself, possessing a more agile vocabulary, a more twisted way with words, deeper themes that flow through the veins of history, all but lack being born under the right constellation, some not older than a few days as myself, some born not a week later as myself, and yet, in a lifetime what does it matter, you would think, but then it turns out, it does. My experiences already represent those of a past generation, but lingering still are the shadows of the heart of darkness of the Western age, still casting its silhouette forward to direct the opinion of an already decaying generation, no longer pointing the way, but trying to clasp on. If I was living, I mean, being still a part of time, mattering still to the opinions being shaped, I would write about technology not nature, no flood, no desert, no forest, no oceans, no waves, no winds, no thrusts, no viscous air, damp moisture, no arid heat, but how can I salvage time. The voice that speaks, is not my own, the voice that is to be heard, but an echo itself that resembles the dying sound of stars imploding, hundreds of light years away, and under the constellations of dead planets creatures not much stranger than us too find their way, sailing on a past forward that already lies behind them. So is it strange then, that I say that under such Orphan stars, I am not more but lucky.