rise these days? Does painting tend to reflect the world or does it
create another one? I also wanted to show that images are not that peaceful. You
can use them to take action, even to kill.
What part does the Internet play in your novel?

Internet is a character in itself. Instead of being described in its technical
complexity, it's depicted as a character that can be either threatening, kind or
amusing. Remember the computer screen has a dual role -- displaying as well as
concealing. This ambivalence is the theme throughout. In such a game, the big
winner is of course the one who knows how to free himself from the machine's
grip and put humanism and intelligence before all else.

= Can you also tell us about your issue: Internet: anges et demons! (The
Internet: Angels and Devils!)?

Cultures en mouvement (Cultures in Movement), a magazine I sometimes write for,
asked me in April 1999 to guest-edit a special issue on cyberculture. I brought
together specialists from very different fields -- an economist, a sociologist,
a psychiatrist, an artist, the head of an association -- to talk about the
Internet. We quickly agreed that the Internet brings out the best as well as the
worst. So we called the special issue Internet: anges et demons! (The Internet:
Angels and Devils!). The articles were published in the magazine at the same
time as we opened a site with the same name hosted by place-internet.com. The
media praised the site, which presents the Internet calmly and with a healthy
reserve.

= What exactly is your professional activity?

I spent about 20 years at Bull. There I was involved in all the adventures of
computer and telecommunications development. I represented the computer industry
at ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and chaired the network
group of the X/Open consortium. I also took part in the very beginning of the
Internet with my colleagues of Honeywell in the US in late 1978. I'm now an
information systems consultant at EdF/ GdF (Electricite de France / Gaz de
France), where I keep the main computer projects of these firms and their
foreign subsdiaries running smoothly. And I write. I've writing since I was a
teenager. Short stories (about 100), psycho-sociological essays, articles and
novels. It's an inner need as well as a very great pleasure.

= How did using the Internet change your professional life?

As I fell into computers when I was very young, I don't think I was affecte