I was disappearing, evaporating, slipping away. A dreadful sensation, like being ripped from the realm of the living, but in slow motion. As though my soul was leaking through the pores of my skin. I began wandering the streets all through the night, searching for a sign. Some proof of life. Around me, the city, misty and otherworldly, was taking on the sepia hues of an old film. If I raised my eyes, the railings of the public garden in front of which I was standing seemed to be moving on their own, turning like a magic lantern, three or four images a second, like eyelids blinking, slowly and regularly. Something inside me was still in revolt. I wanted to scream: Is anybody there?
Vanessa Springora (born 16 March 1972) is a French publisher, writer and film director. She is the author of the memoir Consent, describing sexual abuse she experienced beginning at age 14 from the pedophile Gabriel Matzneff, then 49. The book became a bestseller and prompted changes to the French age of consent. Via W
Literature is above moral judgement, but it is our responsibility as publishers to point out that sex between an adult and a person who has not reached the age of sexual consent is a reprehensible act punishable by law.’
With these words, Vanessa Springora brings to a remarkable close her autobiographical novel which, in 2020, will shake up the literary world and French society in general. https://www.growthinktank.org/en/the-ogre-and-the-child-consent-by-vanessa-springora/
Gabriel Michel Hippolyte Matzneff (born 12 August 1936) is a French writer and pedophile. During the 1980s, he made several trips to the Philippines where, as he described in one of his books, he raped pre-adolescent boys, some as young as 8 years old. Matzneff remained sheltered from prosecution throughout his literary career, benefiting from wide and enthusiastic support within French literary circles.
In February 2020, following intense media coverage of a book published by one of his victims, Vanessa Springora, French prosecutors announced that a criminal investigation had been launched, though the statute of limitations meant the case was dismissed. Via W
Even at the age of fourteen, Springora instinctively understands that her abuser is using language to steal her soul. One day he determines to write her assignment for school, an experience she describes as a "dispossession." Throughout their relationship he takes endless notes in his Moleskine notebooks, and uses them later to turn her, barely disguised, into a character in several novels that are published to some acclaim by the most esteemed Parisian publishing houses. "I was just a character, living on borrowed time, like every other girl who'd come before me. It wouldn't be long before he erased me completely from the pages of his wretched diary. For his readers, it was merely a story, words."
Vanessa Springora tr. Natasha Lehrer, "A Note from the Translator," Consent: A Memoir, EPUB ed., (New York, New York: HarperVia, 2021).
La passion occupe tout mon imaginaire. Je lis, trop tôt, des romans auxquels je ne comprends pas grand-chose, si ce n’est que l’amour fait mal. Pourquoi souhaite-t-on si précocement être dévoré ?
Plus tard, avec un peu plus de maturité et de courage, j'opterai pour une stratégie différente : dire toute la vérité, avouer que je me sens comme une poupée sans désir, qui ignore comment fonctionne son propre corps, qui n'a appris qu'une seule chose, être un instrument pour des jeux qui lui sont étrangers.
Chaque fois, la révélation se soldera par une rupture. Personne n'aime les jouets cassés.
Vanessa Springora, Le Consentement (Grasset, 2020)
