Hello
Gentle Reader
Just
as the Swedish Academy attempts to rebuild its former self, another punch is
once again thrown in their lap. However, this time, the punch is not directly
aimed at the Swedish Academy, but rather gets them in the peripherals. For
many, the scales of justice will be watched with duty and scrutiny, as
disgraced photographer and Swedish cultural figurer, Jean-Claude Arnault, goes
on trial on charges of sexual assault and rape.
Jean-Claude
Arnault, is considered the seed that started the hurricane like tempest, which
battered the Swedish Academy, and left it in ruin. Jean-Claude Arnaut was officially
accused of rape back in two-thousand and seventeen, by eighteen different women,
who accused over a period of almost three decades of sexually assaulting and
raping them. Once the media got a hold of the accusations and documentation, a
storm brewed over the winter and erupted in the spring, which left the academy
picking up the ruins, and facing criticism on all fronts. During this storm,
Jean-Claude continually denied the allegation leveled against him as false.
Yet,
the unofficial “Nineteenth Member,” (a style he often used when referring to
himself) has fallen from his former place as a figure of cultural influence in
Stockholm, in to a disgraced public personality, who is being seen as Stockholm’s
version of Harvey Weinstein.
The
trial’s first day of hearings, were yesterday, in Stockholm; and the trial is
private and blocked off from media and public access. However, in the documentation
filed in the proceedings, Arnault faces charges due to two alleged assaults happening
in two-thousand and eleven.
According
to court documents obtained by the media, Arnault (72) forced a woman in a
state of “intense fear,” to perform oral sex on him, and then have intercourse
on October 5 2011. [Fun Fact: the following day, the Nobel Prize for Literature
was announced to going to the Swedish Poet, Tomas Tranströmer]. That same year,
Arnault has been accused and charged with raping the same woman between the
nights of December 2nd and 3rd, while she was asleep.
Again, Arnault denies the accusations leveled against him, and professes
innocence. In the event, Jean-Claude Arnault is found guilty; he faces a prison
sentence of up to six years.
Away
from the trial proceedings, during its third party investigation, the law firm investigating
the ties with Jean-Claude Arnault, found many wives and former wives of
members, and their daughters, had found themselves experiencing displays and
assaults of unwanted intimacy from the accused photographer. It has also been
reported that thanks to this wife (Katarina Frostenson) he was also in possession
of knowledge concerning future Nobel Laureates in their designated year, and
would often leak this knowledge.
There
is no telling how this will play out for Jean-Claude Arnault or his wife Katarina
Frostenson, or by extension the Swedish Academy. It can be stated with certainty
that Jean-Claude Arnault, “The Nineteenth Member,” had successfully shown the
truly putrid and rotting underbelly of what was once called, Stockholm Cultural
Life; the Swedish Academy has been called an institution which values secrecy
and nepotism.
Jean-Claude
Arnault’s Trial, will only be apply greater pressure on the Swedish Academy,
and it will need to work twice as hard to renew and rebuild itself, as an institution
of any moral integrity and cultural importance.
Thank-you
For Reading Gentle Reader
Take
Care
And
As Always
Stay
Well Read
M.
Mary
For Further
Reading –
The Guardian -- "Nobel panel's '19th member' appears in Swedish court on rape charges,"
France24 -- "Frenchman at heart of scandal at Swedish Academy goes on trial for rape,"
The Local Sweden -- "Trial of Frenchman at centre of Swedish Academy scandal starts,"
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