In the spirit of James Joyce’s explanation of how he wrote Ulysses, I’ll explain some of the writing markers I used in the writing of Out of Competition.
Out of Competition is my own private reversal of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
Out of Competition foresees unfolding history in the 21st century.
Fortuitously, my novel is prophetic of 21st century events and cultural happenings on multi-levels. If anyone doubts my prophecy claims, written in shorthand here, I have digital-copy demonstrating what I’m saying.
In 2010, after reading the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, I decided on a Russian invasion of a French Film Festival as the story basis for a novel.
Instead of a monumentally-misguided Napoleon in the summer, fall, winter of 1812 blundering his way into and around Russia for six months, Out of Competition’s Russian characters invade/blunder into a Riviera film festival one fortnight in spring in the near future.
My mind unconsciously led me to the subject of democracy. Even while writing up this subject I never consciously thought or believed that Democracy, its processes and institutions, were truly at risk in a developed country like the United States.
The Prophecies:
In 2014 and in 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine.
Writing Out of Competition descriptions of marchers and street violence appeared early, and were mirrored by later Black Lives Matter marches. I had no conscious idea these protests would explode during Trump 1. I didn’t know there would be gilet jaune protests in France either. I didn’t foresee the current protest anger against the French government.
While writing this novel I never thought the United States could be so fragile. Yet, we have witnessed American democracy disintegrate in the hands of an unqualified president, with disqualifying insurrection charges against him suppressed by the Supreme Court’s deliberate ignoring of section 3 of the 14th Amendment in the American Constitution.
In 2019-20, I completed the first-draft of a storyline based on my proposition that democracy is fundamental to the operation of an enlightened film festival, because in my view, if a culture, at all levels, does not meaningfully support democracy then democratic principles and processes are undermined throughout a nation.
The prophetic nature of my novel culminates in the denouement. Writing in 2021, one character, Merryl, manages an extraordinary 2 billion dollar box-office success after her written/directed Reinvasion of the Body Snatchers goes worldwide. In 2021, I hadn’t even heard of Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie’s plans for making Barbie. The first I knew of their film was in 2023.
