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Bernard Werber (born September 18, 1961 in Toulouse) is a French science fiction writer active since the 1990s.
BiographyBorn in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) the 18 September 1961. Beginning at the age of 14, he wrote stories for a fanzine, an experience which would later be useful in his novels, such as L'Empire des anges (The Empire of the Angels). After leaving school, he became a Scientific Journalist for about a decade, mainly for Eurêka, the magazine of the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie in Paris. During this period, he developed an interest in science, which he mixes with his favourite themes, ants, death and the origins of the human race. The works of Bernard Werber have been translated into 35 languages. With 15 million copies sold throughout the world, Bernard Werber is one of the most widely known modern French authors in the world. He even showed up in a TV program in South Korea once.[1]. Following on from his book L'Arbre des possibles (The Tree of Possibilities), he started the Arbre des possibles Web site, a « project to research or imagine the possible futures for mankind [2]. » The first full-length film by Bernard Werber Nos amis les Terriens (Our friends the Earthlings) released in April 2007, was produced by Claude Lelouch. NovelsHis style of writing mixes different literary genres, notably the saga, the science fiction of the inter-war years, and tracts of philosophy. In most of his novels, Bernard Werber uses the same form of construction, alternating informative articles in the style of an encyclopaedia and normal prose. The articles define or enlarge upon the ideas in the main text. Also there are connections between his novels. One finds characters like Edmond Wells both in the trilogy Les Fourmis (The Ants) and in the L'Empire des anges (The Empire of the Angels). Also there are recurrent themes like l'Arbre des Possibles (The Tree of Possible Things) of Isidore Katzenberg, or even the novel Nous les dieux, which treats the ideas first presented in the short story L’École des jeunes dieux (The School of the Young Gods). In the two novels, Werber describes various authors. We are presented with an author who, at the end of his life, writes a last book which makes sense of his previous work. Thus in having a certain similarity of characters, themes and styles, one can conclude that he is trying to give a certain coherence to the ideas that he is developing. Some of his detractors accuse him of passing off certain scientific theories as proven, although they are only hypotheses with a scientific foundation. For example in the Les Thanatonautes (The Voyagers beyond Death) Werber states "more girls than boys are born on the Earth"; but the statistics show the opposite: even excluding the counties where the practice of selective abortion occurs, the human sex ratio at birth is 1.05 to 1 in favour of boys. The figures, by age band, only show more women than men after 30 years of age, and more so in the developed countries. The 3rd October book launchSeveral years ago Bernard Werber decided to launch a book each year on the 3rd of October, after the end of the summer holidays. The aim is to to give the public something other than the prix Goncourt[3]. Stage & ScreenIn addition to the film Nos amis les Terriens, released in 2007, Werber has also produced a short film, La Reine De Nacre ("The Mother-of-pearl Queen"), and written a play, Nos Amis Les Humains ("Our Friends, the Humans"). SymbolismThe symbolism in his books is extensive. Animals such as the dolphins, rats and ants are intelligent animals, or at least are presented as such. Also he returns frequently to the symbolism of figures that, according to the manner in which they are explained, reflect the stage of the evolution of the soul. Werber's PhilosophyNone of his works are intended to prove or support any particular scientific theory, but to present in a work of fiction various little-known discoveries to the public at large. L'Ultime secret (The Ultimate Secret) is a good illustration of this. It contains the following sentence: « Ils vont aller de surprise en surprise jusqu'à l'extraordinaire dénouement basé sur une découverte scientifique peu connue mais réelle. » (They are going to go from surprise to surprise eventually leading to the extraordinary conclusion, which is based on a little known but nevertheless real scientific discovery. ) Bernard Werber is a distinguished member of INREES, Institute for Research on Extraordinary Experiences, an association which exists to promote the acknowledgement of extraordinary or unusual experiences among the clientele of medical health professionals, doctors and carers. "It is time to remove the customary divisions between the official and the irrational views of the world. There are facts and occurrences and it is important to discuss them normally without passion or systematic exclusion. The world is not a simple dichotomy between belief and non-belief. There is a place for a third way, which may be summed up in a sentence: I cannot explain it yet, but that doesn’t prevent me thinking about it and seeing if it might not have some use." This approach is reflected in the contents of his novels, like for example the Thanatonautes, which proposes a spiritualist version of near death experiences, or even Nos Amis les terriens which talks of alien abductions. Science, the paranormal and spirituality influence several of his novels. WorksLes Fourmis trilogy
Les Thanatonautes trilogy
Le Père De Nos Pères trilogy
no third book (as of 2007) Other novels
Experimental books
Short stories
Comics
Films
Theatre
References
External links
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