Thoreau and me

Nourished by readings on ecological risks and the urgency of a radical energy descent, Cédric, a painter in his forties from Paris, is crossed by deep existential anxieties. This particular sensitivity put him mysteriously in contact with the spirit of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), the founding figure of decreasing philosophy. This one appears regularly to Cédric, like a Jiminy Cricket of today, borrowing over their encounters various animal and plant forms more or less accomplished – a sort of animist incarnation of their common empathy for nature. They thus pursue an intermittent philosophical conversation that allows them to see that two centuries apart, the issues arising from the exacerbation of capitalism and consumerism remain unchanged. Despite scientific and technological advances, humans persist in succumbing to the same follies rather than seeking simple pleasures. Temporarily seduced by the theses of collapsologists and then survivalists, Cédric ends up finding land in the countryside, near a lake, to build a self-sufficient hobbit house. Very freely inspired by Walden, or life in the woods, Henry David Thoreau's masterpiece, this comic strip traces the ecological awareness of a man today and raises the universal question of the change of life: faced with the impasses of our social model, how can we lead a meaningful existence? Book published with the support of the Île-de-France region Elegant and subtle, Thoreau et moi is a brilliant inner quest born of our environmental anxieties, very loosely inspired by Henry David Thoreau's master book, Walden.