Jacques Sternberg

Jacques Sternberg (April 17, 1923, Antwerp, Belgium – October 11, 2006, Paris) was a French-language writer of science fiction and
''fantastique''.

Biography

Sternberg was born to a well-to-do Russian-Jewish family. He was a poor student in school, particularly struggling in French. He began writing around the age of fifteen or sixteen. His early writings tended toward the fantastic and the burlesque, and it was only somewhat later that he began writing science fiction.

After school Sternberg worked as a packer in a cardboard factory, before moving to Paris with the hope of becoming a publishing writer. The literary climate of 1950s Paris was dominated by the Surrealists and Sternberg found some success in that environment. Sternberg never identified with either his Jewish or Belgian heritage preferring to think of himself as simply "mortal."

In his writings Sternberg never wrote of either the rich or the poor, but only of the employee, which represented the only world which he knew and could imagine. (source: Lamediatheque.be)

Sternberg, a very apt helmsman, owned a diminutive 12 Ft dinghy (Zef class, excellent for day cruising but slow and utterly unfit for racing) and often undertook arduous coastal treks, even in comparatively bad weather. An anarchist at heart, he rejected organized regatta and racing – Not unlike Bernard Moitessier, the famous ocean vagabond – and wrote a biting satire of yachtsmen, sponsors and yacht clubs, in his erotic-nautical novel ''Le navigateur'' published at the peak of Eric Tabarly's success. Dinghy sailing means living a very close relationship with the sea and it is one of the keys to understand the important place of the sea in Sternberg's work, specially in what may arguably be his best novel ''Sophie, la mer et la nuit''.

Sternberg died from lung cancer, aged 83.

Overview

Jacques Sternberg straddled the line between the ''fantastique'' and science fiction, which he stated was only a subset of the former in a notorious essay, ''Une Succursale du Fantastique nommée Science-Fiction'' Branch of the Fantastic Called Science Fiction published in 1958.

In Sternberg's works, the causes of terror are not ghosts or vampires but the modern-day city, often depicted as a giant, evil entity, ready to crush the hapless humans who dare live within its body. This theme reappears in novels such as ''L'Employé'' he Employee(1958), ''L'Architecte'' he Architect(1960) and ''La Banlieue'' he Suburb(1976).

Sternberg's short stories, collected in ''La Géométrie dans l'Impossible'' he Impossible Geometry(1953), ''La Géométrie dans la Terreur'' he Terror Geometry(1958), ''Contes Glacés'' cy Tales(1974) and ''Contes Griffus'' lawed Tales(1993), to name but a few, successfully mix several diverse elements: a very dark sense of Surreal humor, a kafkaesque notion of the absurd, a taste for the macabre, and finally, a somber, pessimistic vision of the world and the future. In Sternberg's fiction, love is never a source of redemption, but something impossible, almost alien, as in ''Sophie, la Mer, la Nuit'' ophie, The Sea, The Night(1976) and ''Le Navigateur'' he Navigator(1977).

Sternberg's science fiction stories followed the same absurdist tradition and were gathered in various collections such as ''Entre Deux Mondes Incertains'' etween Two Uncertain Worlds(1957), ''Univers Zéro'' niverse Zero(1970) and ''Futurs sans Avenir'' uture Without Future(1971). Themes included aliens misguidedly posing as African-Americans to invade America, the 533rd crucifixion of Jesus, the casual destruction of Earth by aliens who cannot understand humanity, etc. Sternberg's stories anticipate the experimental texts of the New Wave and the humor of Douglas Adams.

Sternberg's novels exhibit the same dark, misanthropic characteristics: ''La Sortie est au Fond de l'Espace'' he Exit Lies at the End of Space(1956) (with a touch of humor) or ''Attention, Planète Habitée'' eware, Inhabited Planet(1969) (minus the humor) follows the same, merciless logic.

In addition to his own writing, Sternberg edited several compilation books, writing prefaces to his own selections of the works of Pierre Henri Cami (1964) and François Valorbe (1967), as well as one on the subject of kitsch art. Sternberg also wrote for film director Alain Resnais, penning the script of his 1968 surreal time travel feature, ''Je t'aime, Je t'aime''.

Selected bibliography

* ''La sortie est au fond du couloir'' he exit is at the end of the corridor(1946)
* ''La Géométrie dans l'Impossible'' he Impossible Geometry(1953)
* ''Le Délit'' he Infraction(1954)
* ''La Sortie est au Fond de l'Espace'' he Exit Lies at the End of Space(1956)
* ''Entre Deux Mondes Incertains'' etween Two Uncertain Worlds(1957)
* ''La Géométrie dans la Terreur'' he Terror Geometry(1958)
* ''L'Employé'' he Employee(1958)
* ''Une Succursale du Fantastique nommée Science-Fiction'' Branch of the Fantastic Called Science Fiction(1958)
* ''L'Architecte'' he Architect(1960)
* ''Manuel du Parfait Secrétaire Commercial'' andbook of the Perfect Commercial Secretary(1960)
* ''La Banlieue'' he Suburbs(1961)
* ''Un Jour Ouvrable'' Working Day(1961)
* ''Toi, Ma Nuit'' ou, My Night(1965; transl. as ''Sexualis '95'', 1967)
* ''C'est la Guerre, Mr. Gruber'' t's War, Mr. Gruber a play (1968)
* ''Attention, Planète Habitée'' eware, Inhabited Planet(1969)
* ''Je t'aime, Je t'aime'' Love You, I Love You(1969)
* ''Univers Zéro'' niverse Zero(1970)
* ''Le Coeur Froid'' he Cold Heart(1971)
* ''À la Dérive en Dériveur'' rifting in a Dinghy(1973)
* ''Dictionnaire du Diable'' The Devil's Dictionary, printed as "Dictionary of contempt" in alt. editions (1973)
* ''Futurs sans Avenir'' (1971; transl. as ''Future Without Future'', 1974)
* ''Chroniques de France Soir'' hronicles of France Soir(1971)
* ''Lettre aux gens malheureux et qui ont bien raison de l'être'' etter to Unhappy People Who Have Every Reason to Be So(1972)
* ''Contes Glacés'' cy Tales(1974)
* ''Lettre Ouverte aux Terriens'' pen Letter to The Earthmen(1974)
* ''Sophie, la Mer, la Nuit'' ophie, The Sea, The Night(1976)
* ''Vivre en Survivant'' o Live As A Survivor(1977)
* ''Mémoires provisoires'' emporary Memories(1977)
* ''Le Navigateur'' he Navigator(1977)
* ''Mai 86'' (1978)
* ''Kriss l'Emballeur'' riss The Packer(1979)
* ''Rêver la mer'' reaming of the sea(1979)
* ''Agathe et Béatrice, Claire et Dorothée'' gathe and Béatrice, Claire and Dorothée(1979)
* ''Théâtre'' heater a play (1979)
* ''Suite pour Evelyne Sweet Evelyne'' uite for Evelyne Sweet Evelyne(1980)
* ''Le Supplice des Week-Ends'' he Torture of Week-Ends(1981)
* ''L'Anonyme'' he Anonymous(1982)
* ''Dictionnaire des Idées Revues'' ictionary of Reviewed Ideas(1985)
* ''Les variations Sternberg'' he Sternberg Variations(1985)
* ''Les pensées'' houghts(1986)
* ''188 Contes à Régler'' 88 Tales on Account(1988)
* ''Le shlemihl'' he shlemihl(1989)
* ''Histoires à Dormir sans Vous'' tories to Sleep Without You(1990)
* ''Histoire à Mourir de Vous'' tory to Die of You(1991)
* ''Contes Griffus'' lawed Tales(1993)
* ''Dieu, Moi et les Autres'' od, I And Others(1995)
* ''Si Loin De Nulle Part'' o Far From Nowhere(1998)
* ''Profession: Mortel'' rofession: Mortal(2001)
* ''300 Contes Pour Solde De Tout Compte'' 00 Tales to Balance All Accounts(2002)
* ''Divers faits'' arious facts a posthumous release (2016)

References

External links

(in french) Jacques Sternberg en Solitaire

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sternberg, Jacques
1923 births
2006 deaths
Writers from Antwerp
Belgian Jews
French science fiction writers
French fantasy writers
Deaths from lung cancer in France
French male novelists
20th-century French novelists
20th-century French male writers
Belgian emigrants to France