Paris (AFP)
Gabriel Matzneff's taste for "those under the age of sixteen" is at the heart of his work, but never one of the adolescent girls seduced by the sulphurous writer had spoken: the editor Vanessa Springora describes a relationship under control in a book that is already shaking the literary world.
The new director of Julliard editions tells on 200 pages how she was seduced at 14 by the almost fifties (she calls him G.) in the mid-1980s.
Published on January 2, "Le consent" (Grasset) was released in the context of denouncing sexual violence.
Without acrimony, nor victimization, Vanessa Springora evokes the ambivalence of an era (where sexual liberation flirts with the defense of pedophilia), the fascination exerted by the writer on the literary environment, her relatives and herself, then the weight of this story on his life, punctuated by depressions.
And to describe a hold that continues in the literary field: the writer 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, who signs there his first book.
- Gone era? -
The release of the book revives the debate between defenders of the writer, denouncing a form of puritanism or even a trial made in bygone times, and those defending the victims of sexual violence. And puts the spotlight on the notion of sexual consent.
"How to admit that we have been abused, when we cannot deny having been consenting? When we felt the desire for this adult who hastened to profit from it? For years, I too will struggle with this notion victim, "she wrote.
"It's true. Teens are in demand to test their seductive power, whether they are told they are sexy or beautiful. And it's your fucking adult role to put immediate limits on them", reacted on Twitter the feminist Valérie Rey-Robert, author of a book on "French rape culture".
At antipodes, Josyane Savigneau, member of the Femina jury and former patron of the World of Books, spoke of a "witch hunt" by posting the long article from Le Monde on Matzneff published this week, for which she refused to answer.
- Apostrophed -
Winner of the Renaudot essay 2013, the 83-year-old writer has long been a popular figure in the literary world, invited to television to express his sexual attractions, without too much shock, as illustrated by a sequence of "Apostrophes "with Bernard Pivot, widely shared on social networks.
He is asked about his attractions. Only the Canadian novelist Denise Bombardier intervenes, comparing him to these "old gentlemen" who attract children with candy.
Gabriel Matzneff, still a columnist today at Le Point sur la spiritualité et les religions, has never been condemned by justice, recalls Le Monde, referring to a "malaise" in the literary world.
The age of sexual majority is fixed at 15 years in France. Below, any sexual relationship with an adult is equivalent to "sexual attack".
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 a great stir.
"I hope to bring a small stone to the edifice that we are building around the questions of domination and consent, always linked to the notion of power", explains in the Observations Vanessa Springora, who specifies having started to write his book "well before the Weinstein affair" at the end of 2017.
Solicited via its editor, Gabriel Matzneff did not wish to respond to AFP. In a message to the Obs, he expressed Thursday his "sadness" about a "hostile, nasty, disparaging work, intended to (harm) him".
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