INTERVIEWS
5 QUESTIONS TO HAROLD COBERT, WRITER AND AUTHOR OF "JIM"
INTRODUCTION:
Released in 2014 by "Plon" editions then republished in 2016 by "Le Livre de Poche", "Jim" is a novel written by Harold Cobert. In his book written in the 1st person singular, the author slips into the skin of Jim Morrison during these last months of life, in Paris...
Pierre from The Doors Jim Morrison Fans France went to meet the writer and we thank him for agreeing to answer our questions:
INTERVIEW:
PF : Harold, Hello, you are the author of "Jim" published in 2014, can you tell us a few words about yourself and this book?
HC : Hello! And thank you for having me.
A few words about me? So… Writer, Surfer, Doctor of Letters, only things that are useless! But fan of the Doors, which is essential! Concerning Jim, it is a proposal by Amanda Sthers for the “Mirror” collection that she directs at Plon editions. The original concept is as follows: a writer slips into the skin of a personality that we imagine lying on the couch of a shrink who does not speak. Thanks to this narrative device, we write "I" for this personality and we can revisit our life in an associative and non-linear way. The concept has evolved over the books, the shrink can be replaced by someone or something else, or even simply removed. Jim is the 6th novel in this collection.
PF : So you chose to slip into the shoes of a Jim Morrison in Paris, during his end of life, so why this choice? What inspires you Morrison?
HC : I chose Jim's Parisian period, which only lasts 3 and a half months, because it's when the Lizard King is at a crossroads. The contract linking the Doors to Elektra has come to an end, Jim is tired of his rock star character and overwhelmed by what is becoming of the record industry. This is the moment when he looks in the rear view mirror at his intense and brief existence, and when he wonders about what he wants to do, about what he really wants to be.
Jim inspires me with a character from a Greek tragedy, which, I think, he would not have denied! For me, it's someone who created a character – the Lizard King – to emancipate himself from a disastrous personal and family history, and who finds himself devoured by this character. Killed by himself, sort of. As if, during his lifetime, his myth had already become stronger than him, to the point of suffocating him, engulfing him. Besides its undeniable genius, this intimate tragedy overwhelms me: what is worse than being a victim of oneself, of one's image?
PF : Do you remember the first time you heard The Doors?
HC : Yes, I remember it very well! I was born in 1974, and like many of my generation, I discovered the Doors through Oliver Stone's film. I was fascinated by Jim, by his personality. I listened to all the Doors albums and read all of Jim's lyrics. It is thanks to him that I became a real reader and writer. It made me close to the literature I was taught in high school, it made authors familiar and fraternal to me. And then, by dint of reading, we try to write. The virus never left me.
PF : You give a very personal dimension to Morrison's feelings and emotions in your book, how do you think Jim felt in Paris?
HC : I think he felt lost, probably because he was really and completely lost. Not speaking French, he was quite isolated. The Paris he had fantasized about, that of cursed writers, was not there. Or rather if, without his knowledge, and alas not as he had hoped. He sank into alcohol and tantrums with Pamela. He had come there to write but writing deserted him, in any case it was not as generous as he had imagined. I think he realized that his writing and his inspiration were deeply linked to The Doors. The Doors no longer existed without him, but he also needed the Doors to create.
PF : Finally, we wanted to ask you the question that every fan here most certainly asks: What do you think happened to this 27-year-old young man on the night of July 2-3, 1971?
HC : My personal conviction is quite simple. He went to the Rock'n'Roll Circus to get some heroin for Pamela, too happy to be able to go out and drink to his heart's content without Pam' giving him a fit because he was going to bring her his drug. Jim didn't like injections, but he certainly snorted some of this heroin, which was very pure, in the toilets of the establishment. His body was so broken down by all his excesses that he had a heart attack. We took him out the back of the club, through the corridor that communicates with L'Alcazar, and we brought him back to rue Beautreillis, where we plunged him into cold water - the way we try to bring those who overdose back to life. There was a whole parade of people in the apartment until morning, including the famous Jean de Breteuil, to decide how and what to do with Jim's death. I seem to remember that the doctor who came to certify the death in the morning had to leave the same day on vacation with his wife and children: so as not to compromise his departure with his family, he declared a natural death. And from there, the legend and the myth began…
Interviews conducted in October and November 2017 by Pierre.
