Stefan Wul
Stefan Wul was the pseudonym of Pierre Pairault, a French science-fiction author born on March 27, 1922, in Paris. He balanced a career as a dental surgeon with his writing, producing eleven science-fiction novels between 1956 and 1959. Wul's works often explored themes of alienation and estrangement, reflecting the cultural landscape of mid-20th century France and offering a counterpoint to the more optimistic views of science present in earlier literature, such as that of Jules Verne. Despite creating significant works, Wul remains largely unknown in the English-speaking science fiction community, with only one novel translated into English, while some of his stories inspired animated films. Notable adaptations include "La Planète sauvage" (Fantastic Planet) and "Les Maîtres du temps" (The Time Masters). Wul continued to be active in the French science-fiction scene after retiring from dentistry in 1989 and passed away on November 26, 2003. His contributions to the genre, while not widely recognized in Anglophone circles, hold importance in the context of French literature and science fiction.
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Stefan Wul
Writer
- Born: March 27, 1922
- Birthplace: Paris, France
- Died: November 26, 2003
- Place of death: France
Biography
Stefan Wul was the pseudonym used by Pierre Pairault, a French science-fiction writer. He was born on March 27, 1922, in Paris, France, the son of Henri Pairault, a factory manager, and Graziella Pairault, née Le Creurer. On January 8, 1951, Pierre Pairault married Jeanne Brault, a personal secretary. He trained as a dentist and throughout his career maintained a private practice as a dental surgeon while writing eleven science-fiction novels between 1956 and 1959. He typically drew upon the themes of alienation and estrangement that were common throughout French literature of the period, and in many ways his science fiction can be seen as a response to Jules Verne’s Victorian-era assumptions of the positive good of science and technology. At the same time, Wul’s work was also competing with the large volume of American and British science fiction that was flooding the French markets in translation. However, the reverse has not been the case.
Wul’s work has remained relatively unknown to the English-speaking science-fiction community, and there is relatively little discussion of him or his works in Anglophone science- fiction fanzines or online fora. Only one of his novels, Le Temple du passé (1957), was translated into English, under the title The Temple of the Past (1973). However, two others were adapted into animated films which were subsequently released in English versions. Oms en Série (1957), was the basis of René Laloux’s film La Planète sauvage, released in 1973 in the United States and England as Fantastic Planet. The film is best remembered for its unusual method of animation, using figures sketched on paper which were subsequently cut out and provided with hinges where the character’s joints would be. The resulting animations were somewhat stiff, which gave a peculiar dignity to the characters and the story of human exiles trapped on a world of giant robots who capriciously treat them as pets or pests. L’Orphelin de Perdide (1957) was the basis of another Laloux film, Les Maîtres du temps (1982), English release The Time Masters, which featured graphics by Jean Giraud, better known to his fans by his pseudonym Moebius.
Wul published his last science-fiction novel, Noô, in 1977. In 1989, he retired from dental surgery, although he remained a visible member of the French science-fiction community and his books were frequently republished. He died on November 26, 2003, at the age of eighty-one.