Over the course of a diverse career as professor of architecture, film critic, urbanist, military historian, peace strategist, and intellectual provocateur, French author Paul Virilio has produced more than a dozen books. Turning his corrosive intellect to the impact of technology on war, the body, and the media, Virilio pierces some of the darker veilings of the future. James Der Derian met with Virilio in Paris. Written work is threatened by the evocative power of the screen, and in particular the live screen. It is real time that threatens writing.
Writing is always, always, in deferred time - always delayed.
Once the image is live, there is a conflict between deferred time and real time, and this is a serious threat to writing and the author. Cinema interested me enormously for its kinematic roots - all my work is dromological, related to the study of speed. Inevitably, after having treated metabolic speed, the role of the cavalry in history, the speed of the human body, I became interested in technological speed. Cinema interested me as a stage in between, the putting into movement of images. It changes the logistics of perception.