The fourth issue of French cultural review Possession immédiate has just hit the newsstands. Part-book, part-magazine, Possession immédiate is an independent publication launched in 2014. John Jefferson Selve, the editor in chief , is the former publisher of erotic magazine Edwarda. In this editorial, he tells us more about the latest issue of Possession immédiate.
I have a friend capable of synaesthesia – he associates colours with the signs and symbols he sees. Those signs can change over time, yet the colours often remain the same. They are the profound mark of these strange associations. They are the hard matter, the symbol to be perceived. Approached this way, this fourth issue of Possession immédiate is deep blue, red and black. Tricolour. Real, symbolic and, in a way, imaginary. This “red and black” tinted with anarchy is lacking in France. We pretend not to see it as we doggedly attempt to shift the meaning of words and pictures towards the laziest form of thinking.
These days, when an executive from a big company is manhandled by his employees, the event is dealt with using vocabulary that hints at terrorism – that way, we don’t have to qualify it as “political”. In publishing, the autumn literary season is just an opportunity to recycle three or four ironic or sentimental works, to the extent that journalists no longer dare use the word “literature”.
The fear of displeasing anyone is endemic.
And it is spreading every day. Language seems to be suffering from both bulimia and anorexia. It runs on empty among all the media buzz. A sort of blind injunction forces us to fill the void at any cost. “Stay positive” goes the song. In other words, “Submit”. Whatever you do, don’t make too much noise and make sure you use the right words. Today, having a marginally critical or pessimistic opinion – at a dinner party, for example – is akin to high treason: “Think fast, think well, then fall back into line,” seems to be the soundtrack to our times.
Our freedom means resisting that refrain and, when it comes down to it, it is perhaps through this awareness, this affirmation, that the greatest joy will be found.
So what does it mean to be free today? That’s a question that takes us into many different territories. It opens breaches, paves the way for sensations, it embraces language.
J. Jefferson Selve
INFORMATION
Possession immédiate
Volume IV
10€
http://possession-immediate.com
