Pedophilia: Vanessa Springora's story shakes up the French literary world

"The literary aura is not a guarantee of impunity. I give my full support to all the victims who have the courage to break the silence. I invite them, as well as any witness to violence committed against children, to contact 119 ". These words posted on Saturday December 28 on Twitter by the French Minister of Culture, Franck Riester, illustrate the discomfort caused by the release, on January 2, of the book "Le Consentement". Vanessa Springora, now an editor, tells how she was seduced in the 80s at the age of 14 by Gabriel Matzneff, a sulphurous writer who did not hide her taste for "those under the age of sixteen".

Without acrimony or victimization, Vanessa Springora evokes the ambivalence of an era (where sexual liberation flirts with the defense of pedophilia), the fascination exerted by the writer - whom she names G. - then the weight of this story about his life. And to describe a hold that continues in the literary field: the author writes a lot and lays down on paper his conquests and sexual adventures, including with boys during trips to Asia. "As if his passage in my existence had not devastated me sufficiently, it is now necessary that he documents, that he falsifies, that he records and that he engraves his misdeeds forever", writes Vanessa Springora

In a context of denunciation of sexual violence and in the era of the #MeToo movement, the book puts a spotlight on the concept of sexual consent. It also revives the debate between defenders of the writer, denouncing a form of puritanism or even a trial made in bygone times, and those defending victims of sexual violence.

Bernard Pivot accused of convenience

A sequence from the literary program "Apostrophes", dating from 1990, was notably widely disseminated and criticized on social networks. Bernard Pivot questions Gabriel Matzneff in a playful tone about his sexual attraction for "those under 16".

Gabriel Matzneff has never hidden his attractions for teenage girls, as on the set of "Apostrophes", in 1990. Vanessa Springora publishes a book, "Consent", in which she describes the grip he exercised over her in the 80s when she was a minor. pic.twitter.com/T2l2xyEsmC

On the set, only the Canadian novelist Denise Bombardier intervenes, comparing him to these "old gentlemen" who attract children with candy. It marks the spirits by judging that Gabriel Matzneff would have "accounts to justice" if he did not have such a "literary aura".

The novelist explained, during a series of interviews to the Quebec media, having received an email from Vanessa Springora thanking her for being the only one to publicly denounce the actions of Gabriel Matzneff. "Vanessa says that (my intervention) gave her the strength, after 30 years, to write and to decide to speak," she explains. "I did what I had to do," she notes, recalling that this intervention won her many criticisms at the time within the Parisian literary community.

Accused of convenience with Gabriel Matzneff, Bernard Pivot spoke of another "era" to defend himself. But it has drawn the wrath of many Internet users. "In the 70s and 80s, literature came before morality; today, morality takes precedence over literature. Morally, this is progress. We are more or less the intellectual and moral products of a country and, above all, of an era, "wrote the former president of the Goncourt Academy on Twitter, where he has more than a million subscribers.

In the 70s and 80s, literature came before morals; today, morality takes precedence over literature. Morally, it is progress. We are more or less the intellectual and moral products of a country and, above all, of an era.

"You have been complacent towards a pedophile criminal. You have expressed no disgust, no indignation, no empathy towards the victims. You have used the term" pups "to speak of them, to disparage them, ridicule them, disqualify them ", notably called out in a press release the feminist collective #NousToutes.

"Is there any reason not to post someone's article because their behavior is deemed immoral?"

Gabriel Matzneff, still a columnist today for the Point site on which he deals with spirituality and religion, has never been condemned by justice, recalls Le Monde. "Like everyone we hate pedophilia, there is no debate on it. But is there any reason not to publish someone's article because their behavior is judged immoral? ", reacted Etienne Gernelle, the boss of the Point, questioned by AFP. "I do not protect anyone but I do not participate in human hunts either," he insisted, adding that no chronicle of the writer has made "the apology of love with children. " "Otherwise, it would not have passed".

In its law against sexual violence of August 2018, the government gave up establishing a minimum age of consent to a sexual act, promised at 15 years, very disappointing associations. In two cases in recent years, 11-year-old girls had been considered consenting by the courts, causing great excitement.

"I hope to bring a small stone to the building that we are building around the questions of domination and consent", explains to Obs Vanessa Springora, who specifies that she started to write her book "well before the 'Harvey Weinstein affair' at the end of 2017.
With AFP

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