The debate on censorship, explicit language and Alex Vella Gera rages on. And J’accuse still has much to add. At some point yesterday Alex Vella Gera’s status on Facebook read as follows:
“Kemm qed ituni f’ghajni dan-nies kollha li qed jikkundannaw il-ban ta’ Ir-Realta, imma fl-istess nifs qed jghidu kemm l-istorja tieghi hija bla sens u bla ebda merti, u anke hmieg papali. My artist’s ego is taking quite a beating :)”
(I can’t stand all the people who are condemning the ban of “Ir-Realtà” while at the same time they say that my story is senseless without merits and a very dirty. My artist’s ego is taking quite a beating.)
I am sure I detect more than a little hint of irony in Alex’s statement and I am sure that he is not all too miffed about the criticism his story is receiving. What I wanted to make clear was that my point in Sunday’s article was more concerned with the existence of censorship at University, and on a larger scale in an adult community, than with the qualities of Alex’s writing.
Of course this does not mean that there is not a huge opportunity for a debate within the debate – this time focusing on the value of literary provocation with the use of realistic images or wording that require the narrator to pepper the imagery with expletives and graphic detail best described as cringeworthy.
That cringe. That “put-me-down” feeling is a reaction many, including myself, might have felt when reading the piece. Is that not of itself of some satisfaction to the author? If it is provocation that he wanted then his piece worked. If it is a reflection on the crude reality of the way some men think (and I stress some – because it is all too easy for triumphant feminists to generalise at this moment of exposure) then again the reflective mode is triggered as of the first paragraph just before you put down the piece because you can take no more.
Alex’s gripe is understandable because some chose to rate the piece for its literary value. I stop at an evaluation of the provocation. It worked. The political animal in me is more intrigued with the futility of the ban than with the literary value of three pages of graphic detail.
Personally I could not help reflecting on what the reaction would be if a woman had written a similar piece. Would the whole “demeaning to women” argument have worked? It took me some time to remember that we are not re-inventing the wheel. I remembered a few friends mentioning Charlotte Roche’s “Wetlands”. The book, a huge success in Germany, is easily available on Amazon. Below I have included a link to an interview with the author (on Amazon) as well as link to a ten minute reading from the book. I guess that I should warn that the contents read out are not exactly mild and are only intended for a mature audience.
I know a few female friends who have read “Wetlands”. They all admit it is bizarrely graphic and often disgusting. They also all admit to have read it from cover to cover. Without putting it down. Does that answer the literary question of whether it is art or porn? Does it really?
Product description on Amazon:
With her jaunty dissection of the sex life and the private grooming habits of the novel’s 18-year-old narrator, Helen Memel, Charlotte Roche has turned the previously unspeakable into the national conversation in Germany. Since its debut in February, the novel (“Feuchtgebiete,” in German) has sold more than 680,000 copies, and is the biggest selling book on Amazon anywhere in the world. The book is a headlong dash through every crevice and byproduct, physical and psychological, of its narrator’s body and mind. It is difficult to overstate the raunchiness of the novel. Wetlands opens in a hospital room after an intimate shaving accident. It gives a detailed topography of Helen’s hemorrhoids, continues into the subject of anal intercourse and only gains momentum from there, eventually reaching avocado pits as objects of female sexual satisfaction and – here is where the debate kicks in – just possibly female empowerment. Clearly the novel has struck a nerve, catching a wave of popular interest in renewing the debate over women’s roles and image in society.
Interview with Charlotte Roche
Link to ten minute reading from book. (warning: explicit text)
