Flu : Can you introduce us to your new novel, The Romanian ? What is it talking about? Is it strictly autobiographic or is it mixed with fiction ?
Bruce Benderson : My new book, The Romanian, is not a novel but a memoir. I believe the word in French for it is "journal". The Romanian is an erotic-noir "journal". It's the true story of a homosexual affair that takes place in a country, Romania, where homosexuality is essentially a punishable offense. It is also the story of a dangerous and unstable pairing of an american bohemian and a deprived eastern European, and it's really a heterosexual book about a homosexual pairing, since the Romanian character has sex with a lot of women. Everything in the book is true. It's not fiction.

F : Do you think there's a difference between literature and life ?
B.B : No.

F : Would The Romanian be publish, or is it only written to be read on nerve.com ?
B.B : Yes, I expect The Romanian to be published as a book of about 300 pages.

F : You're running to be famous, and not only fashionable, here in France. Everybody's talking of you those days in Paris. What do you think of that? Do you care ? Are you aware of that and do you search for that kind of reconnaissance? Or you just don't give a shit ?
B.B : I thing you are exaggerating. A certain French milieu appreciates me but I am far from a "household word". I don't believe any writer can dislike being read and known. Feeling that you have communicated with people is very fulfilling. You also occasionally get laid as a secondary benefit. I don't, however, expend a lot of energy looking for recognition, though I am, sexually and psychically, an exhibitionist who thrives an attention.

F : You seem to be, from out of this place, a kind of intellectual reference, both singular and theorical, mostly sexual and personnal? It's not only that you're acting on a big scene, but that you appear to be a singular intellectual consciousness of our times. What do you think about that complex mission, being just like a contemporary messenger ? Imagine, you're not only a messenger, or a star, but a messie ? Would you accept the job ?
B.B : Accept the job ? Does it pay well ? Messiahs are nototiously badly paid. No, I have no mission other than that of expressing myself and seeing what happens. Messianic missions usually include a high moral content, a judgmental attitude. I want, instead, to externalise what I am feeling and thinking ad make something pleasurable, and beautiful from it. I don't mind informing a bit as well, but I'd rather entertain.

F : Some French gay writers such as Guillaume Dustan support barebacking and claim publicly that they gave up safe sex. How do you negociate sex by your own? Not only in your personal life but also in a public way ?
B.B : I don't understand the controversy over barebacking. To me it seems to be purely personal choice. Sexual identity may be political but sexual activity is not. Any attempt to politicize sexual activity is an attempt to control its meaning, which is a bad thing. I support everyone's right to have ultrasafe sex, to bareback, to be careful sometimes and not at all the time, to never have sex, to have sex only with certain kinds of people, or to have sex with everyone. Any political struggle relating to sex should be about freeing it from any imperatives. In my own life my sexual behavior is a response to a few simple variables. I want to have sex because physical isolation is an unhappy state of being. I also, at this time, would like to prolong my life, so I am fairly careful. However, all sex is dangerous to a certain point. Condoms break, noses start to bleed, passions and moods make us go further than we planned. But I think the risks of sex are definitely worth it. Clarity about what we want and its consequences are all we can ask for.

F : Different people out of the French gay communauty are bound to adopt a political way of living. It's not only an homo or hetero way of working but the consciousness and the premonition that their own lifes and works can't be just singular and individual. It's about politics. It's fight against AIDS. It's a fight for their legal and social rights. Things can't run like that for ever ?
B.B : In order to answer your question, I must point out that French homosexual politics is, at the moment, vastly different from American homosexual politics. I thing America is in a post-gay stage. The fight for gay identity has become something a bit redundant. The accomplishments have quickly turned into a new tyranny - the tyranny of the middle class American homosexual. Otherness as a life style and an aesthetic seems to be disappearing. I'm much more interested in class issues now, whether in dealing whith AIDS or in dealing with sexuality. I do not see my life as a political statement. Doing so would be self-indulgent and an insult to the realities of much more oppressed lives.

F : What do you know about French modern literature ? And what is your perception of the french intellectual and artistic contemporary life ? Have you ever heard about Didier Lestrade, Philippe Mangin, Guillaume Dustan, or Nicolas Pagès, for example ?
B.B : Help. I have to admit that I have so little time now to read. Whenever I read, it is almost always for a specific project. I've read Dstan's Plus fort que moi and highly appreciate it. There are books by my friend Benoit Duteurtre that have given me pleasure. I do not understand the French passion for Houellbecq, whom I've read him. I am translating Despentes 'Basie-moi for a large american publisher and am enjoying it. It's very macho.

F : Do you still do photographs ? Is there any chance that we might see one of your exhibition, in NY, on the web or elsewhere ? Do you plan to came in Paris soon ? And what will be the purpose of your trip ?
B.B : I'm photographing a lot now : nudes, fashion, friends. I'm still on a amateur level but learning a lot and I've sold several photos to American magazines to illustrate articles I've written. At the moment, there are no plans for Paris, But I'm sure I'll be there before long.

Remarks collected by Arnaud Jacob - Translation : François Haget

>> Special thanks and all our wishes to Neil Gittings, the nicest guy and the best painter we ever meet in Clichy, Paris, France, whithout whom this interview would not have been possible.