this issue is entitled #incest. but it should be called heavy silence. since silence is its real protagonist. the silence surrounding. and towering over. incest. and any other kind of sexual violence or harassment. a silence that seizes us. and overcomes us. all of us. without exception. when we face the hard truth.
silence. it’s our tragedy. huge. devastating. silence. filling all the space. in our heart. in our soul. in our head. all around us. until it takes the breath away. from us. from others. nobody speaks. nobody says a word. nobody screams. nobody does anything at all. time stops. nobody breathes. everything stays still as if it was waiting for the sky to clear up. for the clouds to disappear. and for the little birds to start singing again. even if they have been devoured. by that mute. shameful. silence.
I do not want to judge. I do not want to condemn. nor do I want to understand. justify. I just want to. I wish to. I would like to. expiate through this issue. at least in part. me too. this silence. and give voice to the pages of this book.* as a personal meditation. as a start. a musical one. which I imagine somewhat operatic.
I would have liked to receive your stories. drawn and written. shaped out of the memories that this book.* unavoidably. rouses. and yet silence. silence again. settled on the hands and mouths. of those who were supposed to tell. the truth.
it doesn’t matter. at least we can read.
dedicated to all the actors. the good and the evil ones. and to all the spectators. mute or singing. of this huge tragedy.
*The Incest Diary, Anonymous, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
on this subject:
THE KISS: A MEMOIR, Kathryn Harrison, Random House, 1997
FESTEN – THE CELEBRATION, Thomas Vinterberg, DVD, 1998