Upon publication of the decree published in Official newspaper of July 17, by which the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, prohibited the sale to minors of the book way too small, of Manu Causse, for its “pornographic character”, Nicolas Mathieu got angry. behind the hashtag #wheniwas15the writer has taken, on Instagram, the head of a revolt worried to see freedom of expression abused on the pretext of wanting to protect youth.
“Adolescence is sexual, literature has its place to be fuel there. I know Thierry Magnier, I know that he is a committed and benevolent publisher, I don’t need to read this book to know that this ban is a joke”, explains the writer, who relays on his account some of the approximately 3,000 texts that have flourished since July 20 on Instagram.
Stories of adolescence and learning, contradicting a morality that would like sexuality and eroticism to be a matter for adults. “People are happy, in the heart of summer, to let the tingles of adolescence come back, there is an obvious madeleine side, which explains the multitude of stories”, observes the writer.
The stories are often the same
The 45-year-old writer’s followers are often of his generation. It is all their youth from the 1980s and 1990s that is reborn before our eyes. The stories are often the same, it’s about old libraries, country houses, the Marquis de Sade, old SAS… A damp atmosphere makes the networks feverish and smells good of this bygone age, which in its time screamed its desire and his youth. “I always thought it was a miracle to come across erotic texts in my teenage wanderings, but I realize by reading the other stories on Insta that we were all there! », says Coralie, who was 15 just before the year 2000.
In the summer of 1997, Clara Beuve was living in Epinal and had just turned 15. That summer, we listened to Gala, MC Solaar, Lââm, the girls read Young and beautiful and the boys turned up the collar of their polo shirts. In her text, she recounts a childhood and adolescence where desire remains a mystery, where too many taboos confine her to a puritanical education. It will be the chance of an old VHS which will reveal to him the erotic film of Sunday evening on M6, before the departure in camp and the first kisses.
Today, Clara is a speech therapist and on her Instagram account “Clara. sur.la.lune”, she shares her passion for children’s literature. “I am from Epinal, like Nicolas Mathieu, and it was by following him that I responded to his call for mobilization, she explains to us. I know Manu Causse, and I read his collection 16 Shades of First Time. I defend the idea of a children’s literature that provides a framework for the discovery of eroticism and sex. »
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