The Exchange

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Vanessa Springora in detail, what had happened to her, at the age of 14 in her book on Matzneff

A 83-year-old French writer once celebrated in the Parisian intellectual set now sees himself left out because of his writings about sex with the teenage boys and Girls .

From the 1960s onwards, Gabriel Matzneff made no secret of his passion for a seductive young people. But a new book by one of the teen he slept with in the 1980s led to years of a criminal investigation for the rape of a minor.

And now is a raging debate in France about who is more to blame: Matzneff himself or The World he moved in.

Was it The Man or the moment?

in The moment that Gabriel Matzneff clear that the moral wind was coming against him on 2. To discuss in March 1990, When he appeared on French famous TV-book-program the apostrophe, the last of his published diaries.

. In a jocular tone of the programme presenter, Bernard Pivot , respected Matzneff asks (then aged 53), as it is a serial "collector of young Chicks".

explains All the bald suaveness, Matzneff, as he prefers school-age Girls , not "hardened yet" by the disappointment of men. He says they come to him because he listens and takes you seriously.

The panel nods in understanding. A Catholic woman, to defend faithfulness in marriage, laughing, As If they were on a charmingly naughty child.

During the TV confrontation in 1990, Matzneff, Denise Bombardier , says he is not "macho", But A Man of letters

But then Pivot about a woman, the changes so far mute, a canadian writer by the name of Denise Bombardier , and the mood suddenly.

"I feel Like I live on another planet," says Bombardier's cold. And she launches into a devastating attack on their neighbors.

he understands everything, what about the rights of the child, she asks. Has it never occurred to him that this young girl is corrupted at the end?

"For me, Mr. Matzneff is bitter. We all know how some Girls can be fond of men with a certain literary aura," says Bombardier.

"Some of the older men, Like small children, luring with candy. Mr. Matzneff has it with his Reputation . "

Getty person ally I think that these Young Girls were damaged, most of them perhaps for the rest of your life. Literature can not be represented as an alibi Denise Bombardier
a canadian writer, in 1990

looking back today, what Denise Bombardier , Like the stock market, the scathing reception it got from the Paris literary crowd. They had been warned by her publisher, the attacking Matzneff would not go over Well - and so it was.

In newspaper articles she was described as "frustrated" and a "bitch" (the French is even more obscene).

"So (Bombardier) has discovered that in 1990, Girls of 15 love men who are 30 years older than you are! Well , big deal!", wrote a critic.

A Turning Point for France

It is a measure of the extraordinary rapidity with which moral change in our time, that none of this could possibly happen today.

By no stretch of the imagination, a contemporary author could write so blithely in his seduction of underage Girls - and in Matzneff the case of the young.

And even if he did, it would not be intended-you jump to his defense, accusing his critics of how they are accused Bombardier of 30 years of reactionary neo-Puritanism and failure, the sources of teenage sexuality.

And before just of A Generation that was apparently not the idea of sex between adult men and Girls just not Shocking in "enlightened" circles, that is. More Than that, it was so liberating for the young people Themselves - a final drop of sexual ties, the through the old pre-1968.

In retrospect, although it may not seem that way at the time, the apostrophe-the program is a Turning Point .

Denise Bombardier may have been denigrated in 1990 for the attack on a French literary Treasure admired by President François Mitterrand, no Less - But in reality, they represented The Future .

Matzneff-books were invited into the Blacklist

Matzneff, who had appeared five times previously on the apostrophe, never again.

Gradually, his star faded. There has been a growing dislike for his sexual preferences, and before the recent controversy, he was an all-But -forgotten figure, the outside of the Left Bank .

But in the year 2020, the moral compass has shifted 180 degrees. What was that seduction was now abuse.

What Matzneff saw, as a celebration of sexual adventures with partners who, although young, were always voices, had a nasty Power Game .

And if the publishing Manager Vanessa Springora brought a book this month, the trauma describes climatic effects of their own relationship - at the age of 14 - with Matzneff, it was clear that he was now a literary, non-person.

Matzneff books were blacklisted, and a criminal investigation is underway, although in view of the many years that have passed, it will not run almost at all costs.

In France, the age of the "sexual majority" of the 15. If an adult has sex with a person under 15-he or she will be prosecuted, even if not necessarily for rape.

"at The age of 14 you should not a 50-year-old man is waiting For You When you share out of the school; a hotel room with him and finds herself in his Bed if you should check with your tea," writes Springora in approval.

We all think differently, so no one who is there today to break a lance for Matzneff. By the universal consent of his behavior was unacceptable. The Other people in his "seductions" also exists, and their story is now told.

But it is instructive to look back to the year 1990 apostrophe program - and, in fact, Matzneff the last five appearances in the 1970s and 80s.

he Never had the slightest secret of his preference for the under-aged. His 1975, was the appearance for a book called "The 16-year-old", for goodness sakes.

And to Denise Bombardier , no one said anything.

How France #MeToo has responded

#metoo campaign, vanessa springora, france, gabriel matzneff

Source of news: bbc.com