Edito My Way n°21 : Language Endangered

During the evening of the first round of the French Presidential elections, a slight dizziness came over me: where language began to slip-away, to float, it became unhooked from the real, a strangeness gradually descended, but also a disgust. The propaganda work of the parties of the extreme-right, and therefore the FN, consists in utilising the words and values of democracy in order to subvert and pervert them: it is a language hold-up and the word which is most often hijacked is that of liberty. It can even become, as it has in the Netherlands, the name itself of the extreme-right party! You are sold liberty in order that it is better taken from you.

Thus, in order for one to grasp some time to think about language and its effects on speaking beings, we need the “lifeline” of writing; such is the expression of Laurent Demoulin as offered to us by Annette Gouzou. We must find the ephemeral traces left by Denis Meyers, those which Céline Aulit has marked for us. We need the Babouillec poetry, which Patricia Wartell urges us to discover, of the incomparable mute autistic poet, Hélène Nicolas. We also need Maria Karzanova’s insights into the subtle insemination of the Russian language by the object a, and a space where the subject, as we are reminded by Milena Jekova, can invent his own language.

So, after such a campaign to date and before we enter the speeches of the second round, I propose a necessary cure; a short session of reading, of the five texts of this issue 21 of My Way. They are a breath of fresh air, a respite, a hit of oxygen.

Translated by Raphael Montague