Writing into the Taboo - part 2
June 5th 2008 22:34
In 2003, I was a young mother, when Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the bath in Texas, USA. It was a story that so profoundly disrupted my world, I was outraged, horrified, distraught. I decided to write an article about it. After a month of research in which I delved into Andrea Yates’ history, I discovered that she had postnatal depression that was never properly diagnosed or treated, that she didn’t want more kids, but he husband did, that she was home-schooling all of them, there was a shift. This was certainly not my intention when I set out to write about mothers who kill their children, but I found my outrage had changed.
Something had happened in the writing.
A reluctant empathy emerged.
A begrudging compassion broke through the armour of my anger. As much as my heart grieved for her innocent babies, I found there was room in me for some grief for a woman despised.
It is this transforming quality of writing into the taboo that is so powerful. It also accounts for why some people believe we should stay away from certain topics, lest we empathize with them.
Are some things better left not understood?
Holocaust philosophers like Emil Fackenheim claim that the study of the Nazi mentality should be left alone. George Steiner's novel which was turned into a play, called The Portage to San Christobel of AH (1979) was highly controversial for its attempt to explain the Nazi mentality. In this play, Adolf Hitler is found alive in a remote South American swamp by a group of Israelis and he is brought back to face the world. In the play, Hitler delivers a monologue defending and explaining his actions, claiming that the Nazi's got their idea of a Master race from the Jews from their notion of the Chosen People. He claims that the Holocaust was not unique, and cites other examples, like the 20 million Africans killed by the Christian Belgians in the Congo. Or the millions killed in Stalin's Soviet Union. He then says that without the Holocaust, the Jews would never have realized their 2000 year old dream of a state of Israel, so in fact, more than anything, to him the Jews owe the establishment of Israel.
This monologue was met with great controversy, because, critics claimed, it could prompt empathy with a cause that should not be understood.
Are there some things that are so evil, so painful, so dark, so unworthy of investigation, that we should actively avoid understanding them? Have some people, by their actions, given up their right to be understood, forfeited compassion by the breaking of an immutable taboo?
I am drawn to write about things I am afraid of understanding. As we write, we delve into unexplained feelings. We write in order to answer the question, ‘what is this feeling?' We write to work out the intricacies of desire, lust, longing, hatred, anger: 'If I find pornography so degrading as a woman, why am I turned on by some of it?' 'Why am I attracted to men who are abusive?'
For me, the excitement about writing into these topics, is that I don't know the answer at the outset. I might even be scared of the answer. But I am curious. I do want to go and stand at the edge. I want to know who I am. What I am capable of.
www.joannefedler.com
Book trailer for Things Without A Name
Something had happened in the writing.
Andrea Yates and her family
A reluctant empathy emerged.
A begrudging compassion broke through the armour of my anger. As much as my heart grieved for her innocent babies, I found there was room in me for some grief for a woman despised.
It is this transforming quality of writing into the taboo that is so powerful. It also accounts for why some people believe we should stay away from certain topics, lest we empathize with them.
Andrea Yates - a woman despised
Are some things better left not understood?
Holocaust philosophers like Emil Fackenheim claim that the study of the Nazi mentality should be left alone. George Steiner's novel which was turned into a play, called The Portage to San Christobel of AH (1979) was highly controversial for its attempt to explain the Nazi mentality. In this play, Adolf Hitler is found alive in a remote South American swamp by a group of Israelis and he is brought back to face the world. In the play, Hitler delivers a monologue defending and explaining his actions, claiming that the Nazi's got their idea of a Master race from the Jews from their notion of the Chosen People. He claims that the Holocaust was not unique, and cites other examples, like the 20 million Africans killed by the Christian Belgians in the Congo. Or the millions killed in Stalin's Soviet Union. He then says that without the Holocaust, the Jews would never have realized their 2000 year old dream of a state of Israel, so in fact, more than anything, to him the Jews owe the establishment of Israel.
This monologue was met with great controversy, because, critics claimed, it could prompt empathy with a cause that should not be understood.
Are there some things that are so evil, so painful, so dark, so unworthy of investigation, that we should actively avoid understanding them? Have some people, by their actions, given up their right to be understood, forfeited compassion by the breaking of an immutable taboo?
I am drawn to write about things I am afraid of understanding. As we write, we delve into unexplained feelings. We write in order to answer the question, ‘what is this feeling?' We write to work out the intricacies of desire, lust, longing, hatred, anger: 'If I find pornography so degrading as a woman, why am I turned on by some of it?' 'Why am I attracted to men who are abusive?'
For me, the excitement about writing into these topics, is that I don't know the answer at the outset. I might even be scared of the answer. But I am curious. I do want to go and stand at the edge. I want to know who I am. What I am capable of.
www.joannefedler.com
Book trailer for Things Without A Name
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Comment by tlcorbin
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Have I explored the taboo, the forbidden, the dark side or worse, one word: yup.
Have I explored those things in writing, somewhat.
Would I like to explore more sure, sure.
My major deterrent, fear: I'll succumb to it's lure.
Raven
Comment by Joanne Fedler
I hear what you say about succumbing to the lure, but I believe that writing something out, does just that, it helps to get it out. What happens if we don't ever express our deepest darkest desires - where do they go? Do they someday just explode out of us like all our repressions, bullied into submission by 'respectable' social norms? I don't know, but I am fascinated by this stuff. I think denial and repression are far more dangerous than self-expression. Expressing a desire is a place of self-discovery. If one needs 'help' if that desire is really unhealthy and a danger to others, then I believe by writing about it, we can make those choices.
Jo
Comment by Louie
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cheers
Louie.
P.S. Should get time to try buy a copy of your book this arvo. Nice long weekend to give it a good read. hope its selling well.
Comment by Morgan Bell
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i saw Oprah interviewing David Crespi who murdered his children, claiming psychosis/depression and i didnt feel any empathy at all, i dont know if it was just the format it was presented in but i couldnt relate to him at all
Comment by tlcorbin
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The very chemicals that are produced to get them emotionally through child birthing and child rearing can at times turn on them: that man won't ever experience the malady. So, no mutual grounds for empathy.
Raven
Comment by Morgan Bell
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Comment by tlcorbin
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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Current Business News
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Artist Quirk
Comment by tlcorbin
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