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Unspeakable
Unspeakable: The Things We Cannot Say | Harriet Shawcross
2 posts | 1 read | 5 to read
'Compassionate' Guardian 'Extremely affecting' Scotsman As a teenager, Harriet Shawcross stopped speaking at school for almost a year. As an adult, she became fascinated by the limits of language. From the inexpressible trauma of trench warfare and the aftermath of natural disaster to the taboo of coming out, Harriet examines all the ways in which words scare us. She studies wartime poet George Oppen, interviews the author of The Vagina Monologues, meets Nepalese earthquake-survivors and the founders of the Samaritans and asks what makes us silent?
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rockpools
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This is such an unusual mix of topics, and I‘m so glad this book exists.

When Harriet Shawcross was 13, she stopped speaking at school. Years later, as she prepares to say I Do at her wedding, she revisits this time, and explores ‘not speaking‘ in a huge range of contexts.

She looks at selective mutism, taboos around women‘s bodies, domestic violence, the setting up of the Samaritans, talking therapies (or not) and their

rockpools cultural context, responses to trauma, silence in religion and religious orders… And through it all is her own very personal story.

It‘s a very odd mix, but, for me, it works and covered a host of things I‘d never considered before. I liked this a lot.
11mo
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rockpools
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My current non-fiction read is one of those mixtures of memoir and social history that I seem to be drawn to. This one looks at ‘not talking‘, whether through #selectivemutism or the impact of McCarthyism, knowing the dangers speaking will bring.

It‘s quite an unusual mix of topics, and I‘m not sure where it‘ll go next - I think (eventually) into the realms of silence as power. But I‘ve found the first part hugely affecting so far.

squirrelbrain Sounds fascinating! 11mo
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