Mathilde Merouani, "Masculine"
It’s December 10. Mathilde Merouani, a writer and translator in Paris, never splits infinitives.
How would you describe your story?
MATHILDE MEROUANI: “Masculine” is about a child who thinks she is starting to understand truths about the world and is instead only being made into the shape of a girl.
When did you write it, and how did the writing process compare to your other work?
MM: I wrote it in March 2021, at a time when I was paid to do nothing. I went on walks by a river every day, and I pictured children in the river, and a girl wanting to belong to that group. I’d wanted to write something called “Grammar” for years that would include the idea that the masculine prevails (if you’re talking about one man and a billion women, French grammar dictates that you say ils and not elles to refer to the group). I remember learning this rule at school, and how the boys used it to tease girls. It’s almost funny to me—how deeply misogyny is embedded in the language. Embedded is too passive—there are people who work very hard at keeping the French language misogynistic. I merged the river and the grammar rule, and wrote the story in a few days. I write novels slowly, but my best short stories have so far been those I wrote fast.
What kind of research went into this story?
MM: I checked the spelling of “Calippo.”
What, to you, makes the short story a special form? What can it do that other kinds of writing can’t?
MM: I like short stories that can’t be turned into novels and novels from which you can’t extract a short story. The concision of short stories grants you more freedom to use style in a way that might become nauseating over ninety thousand words. Novels, on the other hand, can include scenes whose whole weight is gathered from everything that came before. If you took that scene out of the larger structure, it would deflate. I guess the novel gets its power from its layering of information: the enjoyment often depends on a slow accumulation of knowledge. With the short story, pleasure comes from all the illuminated lacks—from what you can only infer.
Where should people go to learn more about you and your work?
MM: My website is mathildemerouani.com. My Twitter handle is @MathildeMerwani.
What's the best gift you've ever been given?
MM: When I was a child, I was obsessed with a French singer called Lorie. My walls and ceiling were covered in posters, and I thought we were the same person—she was just older and prettier. She was in her early twenties, but her fans were primary-school girls. I wonder if it was weird for her. When I was nine, my mother told me we were going to the supermarket, but she was actually taking me to see Lorie live. I was so shocked I couldn’t react. The concert must have been boring for my mother. We had McDonald’s afterwards. It was a great night. I then told my friends at school Lorie would probably come to my birthday party. She didn’t.
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