In 1997 when I finally first started the healing process surrounding the sexual abuse of my childhood I titled my journey “Silent No More”. Every time I blog, repost, comment, or update somewhere about sexual abuse I hear that phrase in my head ….Silent No More.
New/old chapter in the continuing saga of abuses by humans is the Marion Zimmer Bradley revelations. They are not new. They are old. They are just no longer hidden. Below is a post link with the story from MZB’s daughter.
Marion Zimmer Bradley: It’s Worse Than I Knew
JUNE 10, 2014 BY
Trigger warning: child rape, child abuse
LEAN IN TO JOY with BONEWEAVER 
Wow….speechless.
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Yes. I don’t know the author, but very shocking to me and so much more so to those who enjoyed her work.
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The Mists of Avalon left me sort of cold, I disliked her excuse for magical ethics and part of that story. But when I was very young, I read the Darkover series of novels. They were some of the first feminist novels I ever read. So to find this aspect of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s life is shocking.
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This whole thing is just disgusting and horrible. I worry about things like, the other authors whose works I enjoy and whose lives touched hers . . . how far does this spread? Did they know? Can I in good conscious support their work without knowing if they knew or not? How can we even know if they knew or not?
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Other are asking the exact same questions. I am waiting to see how collaborators respond to this now being public.
As I mentioned elsewhere, abusers are very good at hiding in plain sight. Between society not believing children and humans being invested in thinking well of those they know it is difficult for people to allow the nudging clues to coalesce into a coherent picture of truth. Our very nature resists it. Keep the delicate balance of cautioned awareness that allows abuse to be seen without falling into jaded suspicion of everyone and every action is hard work.
All that said, after seeing the revelations of the daughter and the testimony of MZB in support of her husband, I am having a hard time imagining a response that would convince me the collaborators were in the dark.
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To set your mind at ease on one front: http://www.diana-paxson.com/writing/avalon/marion-zimmer-bradley/
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Thank you for sharing this! I hadn’t seen it yet.
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You are welcome! I kept checking for her response. 🙂
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I liked this, not because I like what happened, but because I like the spreading of this information.
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