Anorexia nervosa

What do you do if your already highly-strung 14 year-old daughter listens to a group called Anorexia Nervosa, whose latest album is called Suicide is Sexy? What if she dresses in black, pierces her body and obsesses about dying? In France the influence of so-called "Black metal" music has been placed in the spotlight after the appalling suicide of two young teenage girls. They jumped from the 17th floor of an apartment block in Paris, after tying their hands together. In a note found in one of their pockets were the words: "Life isn't worth it." The girls were Goths -- members of what is now a Europe-wide tribe known for a certain morbidity. That in itself is unexceptional. But what has got French commentators worked up are the contents of one of the dead girls' weblogs. It contains long extracts from the lyrics of the French group Anorexia Nervoisa (the name is already something of a provocation) which -- to my tender ears at least -- are pretty startling. I won't go into them here -- but suffice to say that death, blood, cavities, excreta, death, rape, suicide, and more death are the order of the day. If you buy the CD, you'll hear it all screamed out to a background of violently thrashing guitar. It sounds like the battle-song of the Uruk-Hai prior to an assault on the city of Gondor. Some campaigners see it as a "drift into Satanism" -- and are taking the record label to task. Even if Anorexia is basically a group of nice lads, the argument goes, that doesn't exonerate them of all responsibility for spewing out this kind of hate-filled nonsense. Adolescents after all are adolescents, the critics say, and some will take it all too seriously. Others are less censorious -- especially towards the Goths as a movement. One Roman Catholic deacon who I met says that the violence, the morbid posturing and the death obsession are all actually constructive -- in a soulless world they let youngsters let off steam. More to the point, Goths in his experience are mutually very supportive. Being a member actually decreases the chance of suicide.