Jean-Marie Straub

57. DEBATE ON IMAGES AND VIRTUAL
REALITY

Philippe Quéau:1
I was speaking about abstraction. It seems
that for some observers…
Jean-Marie Straub: But what
are you selling, you represent
what? You’re a salesman! You’re
from the CIA or the World
Bank?
PQ: …Civilization’s progress
comes from the capacity to distance itself; you go outside of
yourself to become more aware
of yourself.
JMS: I know of only one abstraction; it’s that of Cézanne.
PQ: With the virtual, we have
an additional capacity for abstraction that is going to help
us move forward.
JMS: Progress again! But good
god, it’s the biggest lie in the
history of humanity! You’re
running into the abyss; those
are future generations that you
are programming, and that
is barbaric. You’re a publicity
agent!
PQ: I don’t believe in the
prophets of the “Big Day,” with
this outpouring of spiteful
anger, bile, and hatred.
JMS: I have neither anger, nor
bile, nor hatred; in fact, it’s precisely because I care! The only
thing we have is the planet; I
love life and it’s out of love that
I’m telling you what I’m saying.
PQ: You’re full of hatred, and
me, what I want to give is a
message of love. I have three
children and they are going
to live that! You have simply a
dump truck full of hatred and
insults to unload; you don’t
even know who I am and you
treat me like a CIA agent, and
you speak German with a kind
of incredible hatred; never have
I been treated like that; I’m beside myself… Too many people
believe themselves made of the
same fabric as the world; we are
spiritual beings. Virtual technology allows us to democratize this fundamental intuition
that we came here by accident
but that we are perhaps called
to manage; the virtual is a way
of saying to ourselves that the
real is only the real, only the
thing.