Sylvain Tesson : La Consolation de la forêt

Abstract

French travel writer Sylvain Tesson relayed his six months stay alone in a hut by lake Baikal in Dans les forêts de Sibérie (2011). It is his response to the “call of the wild,” an ode to nature and the rejuvenating climate of the Siberian forest. The narrative develops the silence and the physical experience of solitude that Tesson aspired to, rejecting cities and the noise of Western civilization. Life slows down, as the writer reduces the amount of material objects to survive. His main concern is for ecology and how to leave as little of a carbon footprint as possible onto the landscape. Tesson manages to slow down time and opposes movement, displacement and social acceleration, to fend off what Byung-Chul Han considers hyperactivity. Siberia romantically influences Tesson’s writing on the raw geography of the place, its fauna and flora. He references an earlier foray into Siberia by Chris Marker, Lettre de Sibérie (1958). However, seen from the summer 2020 situation with fires raging in Siberia, its future is at stake resulting more in a lament for future generations.