Byzantine Blog

Dung Beetles

Remember the puny little man by the name of Marcel Bozonnet, the administrator of the French national theatre Comédie Française?

No one can blame you if you don’t, the Bozonnets of this world are as interesting, unique and memorable as the barn colony of dung beetles. What is interesting is that such colorless, irrelevant, dull little men instinctively sense they can never escape the intellectual periphery they are sentenced to unless they can latch on to someone quite brilliant, someone exceptionally gifted and recognized for their gifts.

Beetle Bozonnet saw his once-in-a-lifetime chance to fly high by becoming a tick on Peter Handke’s foot. So on April 8, 2006, he cancelled a planned Paris production of the great author’s play. Not because Handke’s work is anything less then brilliant (although they can’t comprehend it, even the Bozonnets don’t dare question Peter Handke’s genius), but because of author’s political views The Bug found disagreeable:

The cancellation was in reaction to a short item in the Nouvel Observateur, attacking the Austrian playwright for having been present when Slobodan Milosevic was buried in Pozarevac, Serbia, three weeks earlier. The item fancifully described Handke as “waving a Serbian flag” and “approving the Srebrenica massacre and other crimes committed in the name of purification.”

In fact, Handke stood discreetly in an icy rain among the hundreds of thousands of people who quietly paid tribute less, probably, to the former President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia than to the prisoner who died in The Hague before he could conclude his surprisingly effective and convincing defense.

Reveling in the Limelight

But, no explanation helped budge Bozonnet - once he found the host he could sink his teeth in and get all the attention he was starved for so long, he was determined not to let go. “[...] The general administrator proceeded to exercise some soul searching and reached the conclusion that his personal conscience could not allow him to let Handke’s play be shown at the Comédie Française. He scrapped the play. It was a ‘personal decision,’ said Bozonnet.”

This great opportunity that presented itself to Beetle Bozonnet was like a heaven-sent. All he had to do was keep milking it. So, apart from interviews and public parades, he thought now he should also invite all the journalists from all the news agencies and media and give a press conference:

Bozonnet, meantime, gave a press conference on May 4, 2006 to expand on his decision. Yes, he was thanking Ruth Valentini for having drawn to his attention that Peter Handke had attended Milosevic’s funeral. It made him think. He then read the translation (posted on the Website of the Comédie Française) of an article published on March 27, 2006 in a German weekly, focus, in which Peter Handke explained the motivations that led him to attend Milosevic’s funeral: To be a witness. Confronted to the generalized wooden tongues and stereotypes of the French (and European) prêt-à-porter punditry he wanted to be a witness, not for the prosecution, not for the defense, just be there, “with Yugoslavia, with Serbia, with Slobodan Milosevic.”

But that was too much for the ignorant bureaucrat.

“For three weeks, I reviewed European history, from 1990 to date. I reviewed this terrible film! I reviewed it in my mind, ladies and gentlemen! I plunged back in this horror that ethnic cleansing was, the planning of these facts, of these crimes. I learned about all that Peter Handke had said, which I did not know .... I was scandalized by what Peter Handke said. In part I knew it but I did not know the extent: the work of historians systematically questioned, of war correspondents, of your papers, ladies and gentlemen, that have admirably informed us for years, that thanks to their work, their courage, pierced the wall of indifference. This is how I found out what Peter Handke ridiculed.”

Bozonnet even affirmed that all the facts, all the crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing committed by Milosevic had been established by the ICTY. “These are no longer suppositions, one cannot doubt Milosevic’s actions,” he adds. Of Handke he says that “it’s unbelievable, he does not know where is the world, he does not know where is the truth, he does not know where is history, he does not believe in the accounts from witnesses: that’s what he said on Milosevic’s grave!”

Of course, there are a couple of tiny flaws in Bozonnet’s litany and emotional outburst. First, that is decidedly not what Peter Handke said in his short speech, and, second, the ICTY has not proven anything Bozonnet claims it did. Milosevic was not proven guilty of starting four wars, of genocide, of ethic cleansing, of being a “dictator” (he who was elected three times, no less). He may assert those claims as long and as much as he wants. The entire world may too, and the so-called world, and god, and Jesus, and Beelzebub... the fact remains that Slobodan Milosevic has not been found guilty of anything at the ICTY -- read the darn transcripts! -- and that Peter Handke has been consistently correct over the years.

French Elegance

All seemed fine, the Tick was having the ride of its life, some were defending his point of view, some were criticizing and accusing him of the kind of censorship that can only be followed by the book-burning rites, but the point was that Bozonnet the Bug was the talk of the Paris, the king of the world, powerful, famous and grand in every way. Until the time came for him to be reappointed to a position of the director of Comédie Française.

Or not.

Just to make sure everything’s going as planned, Bozonnet made it quite clear he wants to be reappointed and expects to keep his job, during the rounds he made to the French Arts Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres. Minister De Vabres was not hiding his displeasure over the Handke affair at the time, but Bozonnet obviously thought it really didn’t matter since he, Tick Bozonnet, became bigger then both the minister and the great writer.

On July 26 however, minister De Vabres took the wind out of Bozonnet’s sails by announcing that after months of discussions with the company’s actors he decided to appoint Mme. Muriel Mayette to a position of the theatre director. Guillotine aside, this is where the French truly deserve to be praised for elegance -- Bozonnet wasn’t fired, not quite anyway, he was not loudly thrown out of his office, he wasn’t ripped into pieces by the press or public, Monsieur Le Bug was simply dropped out of the picture, like an awkward subject polite people avoid in the conversation.

Back to Cow Dung

The blow was so unexpected and so severe, Bozonnet immediately sat down to write a letter to no other then the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac -- from one President and Great Leader to another. Delusional Bozonnet complained to the French President of a “lack of transparency” in the reappointment process conducted by M. Donnedieu de Vabres. For some reason, he probably expected the President to drop everything that minute and do whatever it takes to reappoint him, sack the evil Minister of Arts, arrest and try Peter Handke, award his loyal and brave theatre administrator for defending France’s honor from unruly writers and get him to address the French troops with few well chosen, patriotic words.

The French press failed to inform us about their President’s sentiments on this occasion, but we can safely assume the staff assigned to take the garbage out of the Presidential Palace must’ve laughed their heads off.

And that is the story about Marcel Bozonnet, of whom we’ll probably never hear again. If the history remembers him at all, it will be only as an arrogant and autistic administrator who banned great Peter Handke from Comédie Française, bringing shame and disgrace to the French theatre.

Cartoon by Nikola Otas