Chapter 9 postscript

Could Octave be the author Frederick?Bergbird himself?Is this book his autobiography? These questions from readers are not without reason.In real life, Bergbird was indeed an ad man.And the publication of this book just ended his advertising career. As this book was about to go to press, Bergbird was still sitting in the offices of the French branch of the prestigious Young & Rubicam group.Like Octave, he is also a creative.Over the past ten years, he has invented countless advertising slogans.He admitted that at first, he felt very proud when he saw the advertisements he invented hanging in France and even all over Europe.And this advertising dream quickly turned into a haunting nightmare.He was outraged and humiliated every time he confronted those "I paid so I was right" characters.Ten years of accumulation finally made this book.He is too familiar with the advertising industry and the inner workings of advertising agencies, and his detailed descriptions are extremely convincing.There is indeed an author in Octave, but Octave is richer, more decadent, more arrogant, more talented, more courageous, and more deeply poisoned than the author in real life.The author guarantees that three-quarters of the content in the book is true, and the weirder parts are often more true.I am afraid that it was this bold and truthful description that made his Yang Ya Group boss fire him on the grounds of a major mistake.This seems to hit the author's wishes, because he wrote at the beginning of the book: "I wrote this book to get fired." However, the firing did not come with the huge compensation that the author hoped for.For this reason, Bergbird filed a lawsuit, and of course, like many helpless consumers, he lost to his powerful opponent.The author once again provided an example for this society with his experience.Fortunately, the powerful opponent did not prevent the publication of this book. More than a month after the author was fired, "99 Francs" appeared on the shelves of French bookstores and quickly became a bestseller. It was then translated into many languages ​​and will be adapted into Movies... Bergbird is now a literary critic, exposed on radio and TV, people pay him to read novels, it can be described as a happy life.

Talking about his life experience, I have to admit that he is a lucky one.He was born on September 21, 1965 in Neuilly, a wealthy suburb west of Paris.My father works in a headhunting company, and my mother works in literary translation.After graduating from two prestigious secondary schools in Paris, he then entered the French Institute of Political Science (Institut DEtudes Politiques DeParis, Sc Po) and the Higher School of Communication (CELSA). At the age of 24, with a post-master's (DESS) diploma in marketing advertising, he started his multi-occupied career.As an advertiser, he worked on advertising ideas for the world's top Yang Ya Group; as a reporter, he provided social news for French fashion magazines such as "Paris Match"; Paris Première (Paris First) TV hosts a literary program; as a literary critic, he even gesticulates in the literary edition of Le Figaro.At the same time, he is also a frequent founding promoter.Since 1992, he has initiated and served as editor-in-chief of several journals.The "Dung Club", which was launched in his college days, has persisted for ten years, and it was notorious at the time. In 1994, he extended the name of the literary coffee in the famous Saint-Germain district of Paris, "Flora", to launch a new literary award "Flora Award".

Among these bewildering identities, Bergbird is probably most protective of his identity as a writer.He is a diligent writer, after successively publishing novels Memoire dunjeune homme d erange (Memoire of a young man out of balance), Vancances dans le coma (Vancances dans le coma), Lamour dure trois (Love lasts three years) ans), "Nouvelles sousecstasy" (Nouvelles sousecstasy), the best-selling book "99 Francs" in 2000 greatly increased his reputation; in 2001 he also published a prose essay "Dernier inventories avant liquidation" (Dernier inventories avant liquidation) ; until 2003, "Window of the World" has not yet been published, and everyone is optimistic about the most authoritative Goncourt Literary Prize in France.The novel tells the story of a father and his two sons who happened to have breakfast in a restaurant on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center in New York on the day of the "9.11" attack, and the true love story between father and son at the last moment of life.The novel eventually won a joint literary award.Berg Bird said at the award ceremony: "I believe that the fiction of stories can help people better understand reality and understand the current world."

For Bergbird, writing is not only venting, introspection, criticism, comfort, but also loss.He concluded: "I was born in a wealthy environment in Noi. Maybe when people are born with everything, writing is to lose. Every book of mine makes me lose something. "Coma Holiday" Let me lose ten years of nightlife; "Love Lasts for Three Years" is my ex-wife; "99 Francs" is my ten-year advertising career.The literature I prefer should be a scorched land, because, after the fire, there are only hot ruins left.It's like a mental striptease.You see, I'm a hunk who does a literary striptease. "

Spicy and sharp is his style, uncompromising is his spirit, and humor is his weapon.Taking advantage of his exposure in the media, he retorted at the attacks from the advertising industry, ridiculed the hypocrites in society, especially in the literary world, and acted bravely at the fallen heroes who were cast aside by everyone. "99 Francs" takes the price as the title of the book, which is a genius idea, and it further shows that the ultimate truth of the world we live in is money.The author of this book even claims that he is "the best and cheapest prostitute in Europe".

Another important task for Bergbird is to defend the purity of literature and prevent her from being corrupted and violated by the ubiquitous advertising.Just because he used to be a good advertiser, he knows the high danger of advertisement; also because he was once an advertiser, he knows the danger of advertisement.He wants to use advertising to defend literature, which has not been polluted by advertising.It is also his strategy to use his own way to control his own body.After the French government had just lifted a ban on television advertising for publications, Bergbaud was a strong advocate for mass book advertising on television.Because only in this way can the sales of books be increased, and publishers can recover their investment without being forced to save capital by inserting advertisements in books.This has been the case with newspapers, and there is no guarantee that books will meet the same fate in the future.What's more, today's era has tended to be an era of reading pictures, and fewer and fewer people read text books.

It is a pity that Bergbird seems to be in the minority again this time, facing that formidable opponent, and it seems that he cannot escape the end of failure. Facing the age giant Goliath, our David is resisting with his only weapon—the pen.In addition, he also has a pink Apple imac computer, an orange Apple ebook portable, and a full set of Calvin in the bathroom at home.Clay supplies, the full set of Seven Star Library on the bookshelf has never been read.He wears only cashmere shirts and has six Louis XV chairs inherited from his grandparents.Downstairs of his residence lives a homeless man who looks a lot like him.In addition, he also asked to maintain four hobbies: drinking alcohol in social situations, having a stable family and stable affairs, in addition to solitary reading and superficial conversation... Our author has temporarily completed his own dedication A fine piece of work for this day and age.

In the process of translating this book, Robin Setton and Jean-Pierre Cousin have received a lot of selfless help, and Zheng Wei has also given his full assistance. The translator hereby expresses his deep gratitude.In addition, Kong Liping, Zhang Yuran, Zheng Bixian and Lei Danyu all provided a lot of convenience and valuable suggestions to the translator, and I would like to thank them here. Translator 2005.3. in Paris, France