Interview With Author Pascal Bouquillard
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I wrote Eden. That’s is. It wasn’t so much inspiration as it was a kind of desperation—a need to unload all the information I had absorbed and try to make some sense of it. That’s why I decided to write a novel. It had to be a dystopian one, not only because I’ve always loved the genre, but because it allows the writer to stretch the absurdities of human systems to their extreme limits.
We often take pride in humanity’s accomplishments—from our complex societies to our conception of divine beings, or our endless questioning and sometimes answering of the universe. But let’s be honest: most of these discoveries and ideas weren’t ours personally. You didn’t make them. I didn’t either. Most ordinary people didn’t. In fact, many of us still struggle to understand things that were discovered or invented long ago.
What truly sparked Eden—the final straw, as you say in English—was the realization that money, this incredible invention that governs nearly every aspect of our lives, is essentially created out of thin air. That insight shook me to the core. It felt like the ground had dropped out from under everything I thought I knew.
And so, I began to write a story about it.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
We, the people, haven’t truly created or discovered much on our own. Until the second half of the 18th century, human societies functioned much like bee or ant colonies—ruled from above, with most individuals lost in the mass doing their best to survive within a rigid hierarchy. We had kings who governed over us, often not in the interest of the common good, and the vast majority of people lived separate lives, managing their job and their life with the little they had. Some had more than others, but no one came close to the wealth and power of the king.
Then came a turning point in the second half of the 18th century: the American and French Revolutions. Americans and French collectively said, “Enough.” We declared that the pursuit of happiness for each individual was a legitimate and noble goal. We “discovered” that individually was worth fighting for. With that, we began to reshape society. We rejected monarchies and built something new. But in doing so, we made a critical mistake: instead of true self-governance, we accepted a model where a select few would represent the many.
And so the seed of corruption was planted. Because if voting is a form of decision-making, electing someone to vote for you is essentially giving away that power. This is the core idea I explore throughout the novel.
In that section, I draw inspiration from the powerful video Money as Debt by Paul Grignon and take its logic to the edge of absurdity—and beyond. But the deeper root of the problem, as I first introduce in Eden, lies in our decision to entrust power to a privileged minority. Of course, those in power will make decisions that benefit themselves. Who can blame them? Wouldn’t the vast majority of us do the same in their position.
This isn’t about left versus right, conservatives versus liberals. That binary exists largely to divide and distract us. We argue over hot-button issues—Medicare, abortion, guns, woke—inside a prison with an open door, forgetting the key issue: we have no real power, because we do not decide. Those we elect somehow do, and the ones funding their campaigns? They really do. This is what Eden id trying to illustrate.
In effect, we’ve recreated the very system we tried to escape in the 18th century. Don’t get me wrong—representative democracy was the best system of its time. But now, in the 21st century—an era of the Internet and secure global apps, of online banking for instance and instant communication—we can dare to dream of something better. That “something better” could be real democracy. Direct democracy. A system where every willing voice can counts—not just every four years, but every day.
This is what the Edenians briefly experience in the final part of the novel.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I think I do. I wrote both Eden and the Guide almost entirely while swimming. Three times a week, I swim for 40 to 50 minutes with a mask and snorkel. With my head submerged and no need to think about breathing, I enter a state of deep focus—somewhere between laser-sharp concentration and open-ended daydreaming. Before diving in, I simply reread the last passage I wrote. Then I swim. Usually, after one or two sessions, I know exactly what comes next.
Of course, I still have to sit down and write it all out. And sometimes the story takes unexpected turns—often because a character “refuses” to follow the path I had in mind. But by then, the hard part—the core of the storyline—is already there, shaped in the quiet rhythm of the water.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
i. George Orwell, for 1984
ii. Aldous Huxley, for Brave New World
iii. Cormac McCarthy, for The Road ( Some of Eden’s characters even meet the father and the son of this novel somewhere along the storyline)
iv. P. D. James, for Children of Men
v. Taylor Hackford and Andrew Neiderman, for the Devil’s Advocate
And movies all course
vi. Ridley Scott, for Blade Runner
vii. Terry Gillian, for Brazil
viii. Richard Fleischer, for Soylent Green
What are you working on now?
It took me over five years from the moment I finished Eden to when I finally found the courage to review, edit, and revise it. During that time, I volunteered on a project aimed at drafting rules of procedure for a truly democratic assembly. This deeply rewarding and politically galvanizing experience showed me—concretely—that direct democracy is not only imaginable but entirely possible.
Building on that momentum, I wrote the first draft of a guide intended to explore how such a democratic model could be implemented within both the American and French political systems.
After many editing and improvement of Eden original draft, this guide, Towards an Atomic Democracy, ended up, , not just a companion to the novel—it’s part of the plot itself. For readers who wish to go beyond the fiction, the draft is available for download on the Eden website at the bottom of this page https://www.edenxx84.com/ .
I’m currently working on reviewing, editing, and refining this guide. But I can’t complete it alone. We need as many minds as possible to help improve the system and lend it legitimacy. After all, imagining a new democratic framework that could truly emancipate the many—isn’t that an incredible project?
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Hopefully answering questions on your website….
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
if you believe that pigs can fly, very soon pigs will fly.
What are you reading now?
The battle of Social Security – A History of Health Care in France by Nicolas Da Silva
What’s next for you as a writer?
Eden is a cry of desperation. I hope I am not the only one so I want to do my best to make sure what happens in Eden remains fiction.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Friday, or the other Island by Michel Tournier
The island by Robert Merle
Author Websites and Profiles
Pascal Bouquillard Amazon Profile
Pascal Bouquillard’s Social Media Links
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