Some inspiration to write, draw, doodle, stitch or collage your story of the immobilities of gender-based violence during the time of Covid-19.
The French writer Georges Perec wrote an autobiographical work called Je me souviens(1978) (reworked/adapted as Memories (1986) by Gilbert Adair), which consists of a list of 480 memories, each beginning with the words “Je me souviens”/”I remember”.
Most of Perec’s memories, rather than being purely private, deal with the sort of ‘things which, in such and such a year, everyone of more or less the same age has seen, or lived, or shared, and perhaps dismisses as unimportant or deemed unworthy of writing about. The evocativeness comes from the spare, dry relating of detail, leaving the power of memory unstated. Perec’s father was killed in the French army at the start of WW2 and his mother died in Auschwitz. Holding onto ‘trivial’ details about things that would otherwise be forgotten perhaps isn’t such a trivial thing for any of us to wish to do.
eg
– I remember travelling on …..
– I remember that photo/picture of….
– I remember what he/she looked like when….
– I remember tasting….
– I remember thinking….
– I remember I wish I had said…
– I remember the smell….
– I remember I dreamt…
– I remember feeling…
– I remember wishing….
Make a list of 8-10 memories that you have and note them down as factually as you can, with some good sensory detail or a bit of contextual historical detail. Keep each memory to no more than 2 or 3 sentences.
Try alternating ‘I remember…’ with ‘I don’t remember…’.
Think about using the senses to describe. Here are some examples:
I hear…chattering voices; espresso machines whirring and fizzing; dishes clattering, softly, just clinking together; laughter; chairs scraping, mobile phone with dance music ring tone
I feel…brick wall under my arm; a warm cup in my hand; the fibres of the cardboard, hot air blowing against my face; the sense of the other customers as they pass; a wooden curve across my back.
I smell…coffee and warmed milk; synthetic lemon; my blue perfume; bergamot;
I taste…orange and tea; a hint of honey; electronic cigarette, dark chocolate and rice cakes; them.