Prendre la parole - on shame and the urgency of speaking at all or speaking anyway

17 x 12 cm, riso printed, side stitch bound, 60 pages, self-published
Edition I: April 2024, 20 + 10 AP
Edition II (edited): June 2024: 50 + 5 AP
Excerpt:
French: Prendre la parole (literally: To take the speech. To take the floor.)
It sounds as if the words have to be taken off the shelf. Or as if they are buzzing in people’s heads or through the air so that they need to be captured to be used. Seize them! , it shouts in old movies when someone has committed theft or assault. Are the words fleeting as thoughts and must be captured with voice and tongue? Criminals who are still at liberty without permission must be apprehended. The word must be taken from the privileged robbers who have claimed it for themselves for too long. Thoughts and dreams are only words and speech if they are said out loud. Speech is something that can only take place in front of an audience. Otherwise, it is a soliloquy. Because an audience is needed to turn a soliloquy into a speech, speakers also need a space, a place, a podium, a stage, or at least an upturned fruit crate to speak. Speaking is therefore impossible without space, which is why people who want to speak must take the floor.
English: to take the floor
… A minority or oppressed group takes a ground on which it can stand. People can take more ground together and create more space. Political movements, left-wing in particular, like to take the floor to sit on it together or to block spaces or paths because one cannot be carried away so easily while sitting on the ground.


Words cannot be held captive in the head or mouth, because otherwise, they are thoughts and dreams. Words need recipients to become speech and thus be heard. What characterizes the word is that it does not want to remain itself, but wants to become an emotion or action. That doesn’t mean dreaming is lesser than action or – even worse
– forbidden.