French Family Minister Christian Jacob was beside himself with outrage.
”I am shocked that the publisher agreed to publish this book,” he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
”The book actually glorifies paedophilia, and no crime is more ignoble, more shameful. I do not have the power to ban this book, but I would be very happy if it were removed from the shelves.”
Jacob admitted that he hadn’t read the book he was condemning, ”Rose Bonbon” (Pink Candy), a bizarre narrative told in the first person by an absurd young man with an irresistible weakness for little girls. But the excerpts he did read, the minister maintained, were sufficient for him to judge.
”Rose Bonbon” by 30-year-old Nicolas Jones-Gorlin is the scandal of this year’s literary season in France.
Last year at the same time, just before the September 11 attacks on the United States, writer Michel Houellebecq angered French Moslems by having the main character in his book ”Plateforme” express his hatred of Islam following the death of his girlfriend in a terrorist bombing.
While Houellebecq’s book was swiftly, and tragically, overtaken by events, ”Rose Bonbon” appeared after a wave of shocking news reports concerning the sexual abuse of children and just as the first-ever French trial of an alleged paedophile ring opened in Paris.
As a result, attorneys for two children’s rights organisations, L’Enfant Bleu and the Foundation for Children, have taken legal steps to punish its author and publisher.
In addition, the head of Foundation for Children, Anne-Aymone Giscard d’Estaing, wife of the former French president and present chairman of the EU’s Convention on the Future of Europe, has asked Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to ban the sale of the book to minors.
For Jones-Gorlin, the scandal is both unwelcome and
incomprehensible.
”I didn’t expect this violent reaction at all,” he told the newspaper Liberation. ”I’m accused of writing paedophile scenes with compassion. Actually, I wanted to write a modern fable, a criticism of society, with ogres everywhere. I didn’t feel any compassion at all.”
The media uproar took its toll. On August 28, two days after the book was published, its publisher, Gallimard, stopped re-stocking the work in bookstores.
”We must find a balance between creative freedom and the respect for sensibilities which could be offended,” said Gallimard’s lawyer, Laurent Merlet, suggesting that the venerable publishing house was caving in to the pressure.
In the meantime, ”Rose Bonbon” was provoking another intense French media discussion about freedom of expression, a discussion that has even split the government.
According to Family Minister Jacob, ”Freedom of expression does not excuse someone saying that paedophilia is good. After all, we cannot accept and authorise everything.”
On the other hand, Culture Minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon declared that ”Rose Bonbon” does not glorify paedophilia at all.
”I believe that the way the novel is constructed … indicates clearly that there is a fictional distance to this practice, which is morally and socially reprehensible,” he said on France 2 television. ”We all cherish freedom of expression, especially when it concerns literary or artistic expression.”
The French Human Rights League protested what it called ”an attack on free speech”.
”It is vital to protect artistic freedom despite the scandals that certain works could provoke,” the League said in a press statement.
The issue will soon be addressed by the French judiciary.
On September 6, lawyers for L’Enfant Bleu and the Foundation for Children sent letters to the Paris public prosecutor’s office demanding that an investigation be opened to see if ”Rose Bonbon” broke French laws about the depiction of minors in pornographic and violent scenes.
If the case comes to trial and author and publisher are convicted, they face the threat of heavy fines and even ? though this is unlikely – prison sentences.
To counter the threat, Gallimard went on the offensive by resuming deliveries of ”Rose Bonbon” to bookstores, but with each copy packed in a plastic wrapper, to keep minors from peeking, and with a caution to readers.
”No parallel can be drawn between the monologue of an imaginary paedophile and a defence of paedophilia,” the caution reads. ”It is up to the reader to form an opinion of the book – to recommend it or not, to like it, to hate it – in complete liberty.” – Sapa-DPA