Thursday, August 04, 2011

"checking out some fromm, some sartre, camus..."

I've recently been looking into Slavoj Zizek again which has whet my philosophical appetite more than usual. The thing that is most intriguing about Zizek is the way he seems to synthesize so many diverse influences into a coherent perspective. It's made me want to reread some older philosophers to try to decide how I feel about them. At the moment, I mainly want to look at some of the existentialists like Camus and Fanon. When I first got into them (in high school) I wasn't Muslim so reading them now should be interesting considering that Camus was born in Algeria and both of them had a lot to say about the Algerian Revolution (and by implication, political revolution and jihad in general). The other day I went to Borders and got Albert Camus' Resistance, Rebellion, and Death and The Rebel. I'll probably read some Gabriel Marcel next and then pick up The Wretched of the Earth again.

See also:
islam and existentialism
ali shariati

5 comments:

Daniel Ibn Zayd said...

You might also check out Albert Memmi from Tunisia's "The Colonizer and the Colonized".

Abdul-Halim V. said...

Thanks for the suggestion. I actually took a class on Frantz Fanon way back in the day and it was on the syllabus. But yes, Memmi is worth another read.

Also, I'm almost finished with the first Camus book but I got through the section on Algeria recently. Unfortunately I'm a little disappointed to be honest. Camus was opposed to Algerian independence. He was a liberal and opposed to the abuses of colonialism, and wanted greater autonomy for the Arabs but still thought that Algeria should remain a part of France.

Daniel Ibn Zayd said...

To me Camus is a metaphor for the so-called left in France today, as well as, say, the comprador class that runs things here in Lebanon. They will always side with so-called "Enlightenment", and are loathe to admit that there is a different way of looking at things (i.e., Islam, or anything outside of a "modern, civilized, secular" approach). This has morphed with the general "there's nothing to be done" mode of post-modern theory, unfortunately. They also have trouble stepping down from their class position; this is my biggest problem with Zizek. I don't want to be preached to by someone who is not down on the streets, who separates life from resistance. You know, you might want to check out Ali Shari'ati as well (Iran). The link above goes to my book review pages if you are interested in exploring a bit. [Remove this last line and link if you wish; don't mean to abuse your comments!]

Abdul-Halim V. said...

I don't mind the links as long as they are on-topic. (But I got an error message when I tried to read it?)

I've been meaning to get into Ali Shariati for a while.

ali shariati

Daniel Ibn Zayd said...

Seems to be working....

On the Sociology of Islam is an inspiring read.

Ali Rahnema also wrote a political biography of Shari'ati called: An Islamic Utopian.