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Virginie Despentes

Virginie Despentes is a French writer, filmmaker, and essayist. She is best known for her novels Baise-moi (Rape Me, 1993), Les Jolies Choses (Pretty Things, 2008), and Vernon Subutex (2015). Despentes won several literary awards, including the Prix Renaudot in 2015.

Virginie Despentes was born in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle. She grew up in a working-class family. At fifteen, her parents placed her in a psychiatric hospital against her will. She left home and dropped out of school at the age of 17.

She started her career in a record shop and a peep show. She was a prostitute and a punk before taking up writing and filmmaking.

Despentes wrote about her experiences of being an adult in her debut novel Baise-moi in 1993. Later, in 2000, Despentes co-directed and adapted the book into a controversial film. She published several more novels, e.g., Les Jolies Choses in 1998.

Virginie Despentes consolidated her success with her non-fiction work, King Kong Theory (2006), which recounts her experiences in the French sex industry. Her next big project, The Vernon Subutex trilogy (2015–2017), won the prestigious Prix Renaudot. The novels follow the titular character Vernon Subutex, a former record shop owner who becomes homeless after the death of his friend and benefactor.

In 2018, Despentes was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize for Vernon Subutex: Volume 1.

In addition to her writing, Despentes has directed several films, including Les Jolies Choses and King Kong Theory, a documentary based on her feminist essay.

Despentes has also been a vocal advocate for feminist and queer causes and has written extensively on issues such as rape culture, pornography, and gender identity.

Photo credit: JF Paga-Grasset
years of life: 13 June 1969 – present

Quotes

finalfadeouthas quotedlast year
People fuck up their lives. All you can do is go along with it. Or stop choosing friends from among the dysfunctional. It’s not the lost souls, the people no one cares about, who fuck themselves up. No, it’s people who are loved. It’s a way for them to say to those around them: you’re useless. Look, you can’t even help me. I always side with the nonaligned. What can you do for friends for whom you fear the worst? Nothing. All you can do is send messages saying let’s play ping-pong, let’s meet at a café. All we can do is think: I hope it will pass. And be there afterward. Praying that there will still be something left of the friend you had. And then let it go. Much love.
Fernanda Iriartehas quotedlast year
I’m really happy for all those women who’re resigned to the way the world works. I say this without a hint of irony. It just so happens that I’m not one of them.
Fernanda Iriartehas quotedlast year
The figure of the loser in the femininity contest is not just one I find sympathetic – she is crucial to me. The same goes for social, economic or political losers
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