WIJ ZIJN LICHT (NOI SIAMO LUCE) by Gerda Blees (Iperborea, 2022)
This thought provoking novel addresses topical themes of personal freedom and explores how far one should legitimately go in challenging social norms. It also touches upon issues related to conspiracy theories that arise from real or imagined state control.
The plot revolves around a small group of individuals (three women and one man) who subscribe to a belief that bodily nutrition derives not from food and drink but from light, music, meditation and openness to one’s own and others’ emotions. The extreme views of this ‘Sound & Love’ (Klank & Liefde) commune is based on an actual group of this name who stopped eating in Utrecht. In fiction, as in in real life, this predictably resulted in the death of one of the members though malnutrition.
The group’s stubborn beliefs fly in the face of reason but seem entirely plausible in an age where distrust of science is portrayed as an example of free thought. After all, we still have climate change deniers aplenty, 2% of Americans firmly believe the Earth is flat and many are convinced prescription drugs or vaccines contain mind or body altering substances. Anecdotal evidence or pure ignorance increasingly replaces logic or facts.
Gerta Blees does not make any judgement about her fictional characters; being more interested in understanding how intelligent men and women could follow such a lifestyle without anticipating the grave consequences. Her neutral position is maintained through 25 chapters which are each told from a different perspective. Some of these viewpoints are of people but others come from things such as the scent of an orange, dementia, a lonely cello and a pair of goat wool socks.
The young Dutch author’s meta style is deliberately idiosyncratic but establishes the point that there is never just one reality or a truly objective truth. For example, the investigation into the facts behind a possible act of criminal negligence is in part conducted by a policewoman whose own daughter is anorexic. This woman’s perspective cannot be detached since she is inevitably influenced by her close-hand experience of dealing with a young woman with an eating disorder.
Blees deservedly won one of the EU Prizes for Literature in 2021 for this bold and original debut. I read the Italian translation of the novel by Claudia Di Palermo. It is due to be published in English under the title WE ARE LIGHT in 2023.
