A Letter from 2005
April 6, 2005 Dear Andrew, I recently finished a small book by Edward Said, Humanism and Democratic Criticism, and it made me think of many conversations we’ve had over the past couple of years. So…
Tag: Pierre Bourdieu
Not This Spotlight, Please!
Yet, one cannot but wonder whether incessant complaints about Bourdieu’s style and terminology are not a symptom of a deeper and different problem, since other “difficult” writers—Habermas, Foucault, or even Weber come to mind—do not…
I Beseech You, Orianne Aymard
Peace and harmony appear so closely woven in every cell of her being that the spirits of darkness would search in vain for a loophole. –Melita Maschmann, Encountering Bliss: My Journey through India with Ānandamayī Mā …
Know Thyself
There are many intellectuals who call the world into question, but there are very few intellectuals who call the intellectual world into question. –Pierre Bourdieu, Sketch for a Self-Analysis
Elie Wiesel and Worthy Remembrance
See, Wiesel has often made this claim quite explicit: I am above politics, my message is so precious and pure it cannot afford to be sullied by compromise. Such is the transcendent dignity of the…
Bourdieu on Algeria
The somewhat exalted libido sciendi that drove me, rooted in a kind of passion for everything about this country, its people and its landscapes, and also in the dull but constant sensation of guilt and…
A Writer and His Readers
And nothing would make me happier than having made it possible for some of my readers to recognize their own experiences, difficulties, questionings, sufferings, and so on, in mine, and to draw from that realistic…
Dear Isabel (Letter/4)
Tuesday 23 June 2015 Dear Isabel Page 4, line 3 Have you, with all your white privilege, ever led the space of non-whites? Did you simply choose journalism because it made you feel special and…
Dear Isabel (Letter/3)
Monday 22 June 2015 Dear Isbaelita Page 3 This page inspires me to offer you the following writing topics to add to your comprehensive list, unless you’ve already exhausted each of them by writing at…
Kurushindeta: A Response to The Book of Mev by Clara Takarabe
Dear Mark, I’m at Schiphol. I started your Book of Mev again and read it in about 7 hours. After p. 251, I cried through nearly every page. p. 303 nearly killed me. At the wake, p….