Isabelle Aubert-Baudron
Psychiatric nurse, translator, author, publisher, creator and coordinator of Interzone network. CV Isabelle Aubert-Baudron & Galerie
Interzone
Literary and artistic international network of William Burroughs’ and Brion Gysin’s’ readers, created in August 1997. Its members undertook, at the end of the nineties, to experiment self-production with the technology of computer and internet, and realized they could make it at little cost. Interzone Edition is an application in publishing.
Home-made production
After an experience of publication in the eighties I did not want to repeat for financial reasons (Avec William Burroughs by Victor Bockris, éd. Denoël), I decided to do without publishers and put up, for my own books and translations, a technique of cheap home-made making allowing to handle the whole chain of production of a book, from translation/writing to publishing.
The books are printed in A4 format, paper-backed, on Bristol board, with a cardboard ivory cover, leather texture.
Publishing on request
With this technique I can publish the books according to the requests, by unit, which avoids investments in printing of a large number of copies, storage and the risk of unsold books. As I print only books which are sold, and get the money as soon as they are printed, I am certain not to lose money.
Valuing quality over quantity
This way of publishing also permits to put at the readers’ disposal books which do not interest publishers for commercial reasons, but which deserve to be accessible to French speaking readers, like Alfred KORZYBSKI‘s work on general semantics, as none of his books had been printed in uncut version in France, in spite of the importance of this discipline in this day and age.
Hence this technique of publication has the advantage of being independent of criteria of profitability and productivity, and permits to publish books which would have never been available in the context of commercial publishing.
Experiment of a non-Aristotelian economy
At this level, Interzone Editions is an experiment of a non-Aristotelian economy conceived in the early 2000 in the framework of Interzone, an economy based upon general semantics, starting from Alfred Korzybski‘s research on the symbolic function of money.
General semantics is not a technic of personal development: it’s a logic of thinking based upon quantum physics and Einstein’s theory of relativity.
This non-Aristotelian economy represents an alternative to the Aristotelian models applied in management, which, once put to tests, lead to the collapse of economy and to the failure of the system which rests upon them. (see A non-Aristotelian logic : general semantics in the framework of evolution of the West & THE DIFFERENT STEPS OF EVOLUTION OF THE WEST: Aristotle, Descartes, Korzybski ).
A use of writing in accordance with its functions
The original function of writing does not consists in enriching the different actors of books production, nor in giving financially preferential treatment to intermediaries rather than to the authors, a commercial aspect which presently prevails.
What are those actual functions?
1. Symbolic function of language (Korzybski): a word is a symbol, a sign which stands for something. If it stands for something, it becomes a symbol for this something. If it does not stand for something, then it becomes not a symbol but a meaningless sign. The passing off, on an unsuspecting listener, of noises for words, or symbols, must be classified as a fraud.
2. Function of time-binding (Korzybski) : binds the author and the reader through time-space : when I read a book, I am bound to his author, at the moment and in the place he wrote it.
3. Magic function, described and experimented by Brion Gysin and William Burroughs, which consists in creating reality : « Writing is about making it happen. » (Brion Gysin) : « Mektoub, it’s written » : a writer writes a scenario of reality his readers may actualize in their own life, and hence, create their own reality.
4. Through the link between the author and the reader, writing establishes between them a collaboration which produces, in function of the principle of non-additivity in mathematics, a phenomenon called by Burroughs and Gysin « The Third Mind » : as regards human cooperation, 1+1=3.
« Gysin: When you associate two minds …
Burroughs: …There is always a third mind …
Gysin : …A third higher mind …
Burroughs: …Like an invisible collaborator. » ( The Third Mind ).
One of the aims of Interzone Edition consists in creating awareness on those functions, the knowledge of which is limited to Burroughs’ and Korzybski’s readers, and in applying them in practice.