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adarkrainbow · 7 months

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Do you have any more information about the Michel Carré/Paul Collin "Sleeping Beauty" opera? I had never heard of it until now.

I knew you were gonna ask ;)

And don't worry you're not the only one, I just heard about this very obscure thing today while doing my early post! In fact, when you go check the Wikipedia articles of both Michel Carré and Paul Collin, you find nothing about any potential work on a "Sleeping Beauty" production... The piece is however evoked, described and link when you go check the Wikipedia page for the fairy, Urgèle.

Now the source for this Wikipedia paragraph is actually a double link to two articles stored by Gallica - the online archive of the BNF (Bibliothèque Nationale Française, National French Library).

The first link is here.

This article is from a newspaper called "Les clochettes algériennes et tunisiennes" (Algerian and Tunisian bells) from the 10th of January 1904. It was a Franco-Algerian newspaper about literature, humor and commercial business published every sunday. In the "Theatrical Week" segment you can read that an "opéra féerique" (fairy-opera, "or so claims the poster" adds the journalist) had its premier at the Municipal Theater: La Belle au Bois Dormant, Sleeping Beauty by Michel Carré and Paul Collin with music by Charles Silver (who received a Great Prize of Rome).

There is a recap of the plot that goes as such. Princess Aurore (Aurora, played by Mme Rigaud-Labenz) was recently born, and her five fairy godmothers (Primevère, Rieuse, Brillante, Sensible, Prudente - Primrose, Laughing, Shining, Sensitive and Careful) call upon her health and happiness. The King, pleased, invites them to a copious feast, but suddenly arrives the wicked fairy Urgèle (played by Mme Corot). Angry at having been excluded of the christening, she casts a curse: if the princess falls in love when she is twenty years old, she will die. We jump sometimes later, before the twenty years are passed - the princess Aurore is wandering, sad and dreaming, in the palace's garden, but her father's reassurance that once she goes over her 20th year without falling in love she will be free from the curse convinces her to not take part in the various games and entertainments of her young female companions. However the Wandering Knight appears (played by M. Broca) - welcomed by the king, he finds himself alone with Aurore. He is very openly in love with her, but when she answers favorably to his advances, she falls in a deep sleep as well as all the inhabitants of the castle.

A hundred years later, arrives the Prince (also played by M. Broca) - as he arrives in a forest he learsn from a peasant woman named Jacotte (Mme Stéphane), wife of the peasant Barnabé (M. Vialar) that the castle he sees on the horizon contains a princess who will marry anyone that is able to wake her up. The prince recalls that one of his ancestors told him that, once he had kissed a princess and she had immediately fallen asleep. Barnabé, overhearing the Prince revealing this secret, decides to go wake the princess and become king - but he is too afraid by the forest at night when he tries to go to the castle, and after stumbling over a rod/bundle of wood, it suddenly lifts itself in the air, carrying Barnabé with it (think of a witch's broomstick). Right after Barnabé was carried off in the air, the Prince enters, still thinking about the princess, and in the fog he sees Aurore that calls for help and tells him she loves him. He immediately rushes to the depths of the wood. Meanwhile Urgèle, in her cavern/grotto, calls against the Prince all the spirits of evil, while the flying piece of wood drops Barnabé right next to her. Urgèle puts Barnabé in a royal suit and sends him wake up Aurore, while suddenly, in a flashing light, Primrose appears saying "Aurore will be free, the times are over!" - which turns Urgèle's grotto into a celestial dome filled with springtime flowers, benevolent spirits and butterflies. Despite many obstacles ("flames, monsters and gnomes"), the Prince wakes up Aurore with a kiss on the forehead. All the servants wake up, and the two young royals exchange love vows. The old royal garden becomes green and alive again, and the good fairies appear, with laying at their feet the wicked fairy, vanquished.

After this recap of the plot, the critic-journalist tells their opinion. They point out that "apparently" it was a success in Marseille and Lyon, while it is currently played in Alger at the Théâtre de la Monnaie. According to the reviewer, its success is due to the "scenic and féerique" part of the work, "because, in truth, the music is too rudimentary. It is a musical dictation carefully written by an applied student, without any spelling or grammar mistakes. M. Silver is a Prize of Rome, which means he knows the technique of his art in a deep way. Unfortunately, he is missing something that is not demande for the examinations: inspiration. Not everybody can have genius, but M. Silver reveals himself as a beginner talent who under-uses his own work. Among four acts and one prologue, not one dominant moment, not one spark that makes the well-tooled orchestra alive. The author aimed at a too great simplicity, and comes off with a too-great naivety. And yet isn't the musical formula smoothly handled by M. Silver the best way to strongly express spontaneous feelings?"

The reviewer than says the actors really did their best to portray the characters - Mme Rigaud-Labenz and M. Broca were, "as usual" a triumph and only deserve a flood of praise - while the other characters were "episodic", and were "correctly held". In conclusion "the staging was very entertaining, and the play deserves to be seen". And the reviewer's name is "Frontin"

[As a personal note, the sources keep oscillating between calling this an opera and a theater play... In fact, Frontin clearly seems to call this a play, even pointing out with some irony that the work claims itself to be an opera.]

As for the other article, given this is already quite a lot, I will add this into a reblog.

#sleeping beauty #sleeping beauty adaptation #carré and collin's sleeping beauty #sleeping beauty opera #french adaptations

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metamatar · 1 year

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The two decades of the greatest radicalism in French thought – roughly from 1945 to 1965 –were also the decades in which the colonial question became the principal point of contention within French society, just as the rise and fall of American radicalism in the subsequent decade, from about 1965 to 1975, was also a direct consequence of the Vietnam War. Inside France, however, the years of the Indochinese and Algerian wars had coincided with the installation of a new-style, Fordist regime of capital accumulation, thanks largely to French acceptance of the Marshall Plan. While the labour movement itself had gradually been tamed through the 1950s, facilitated further by the French Communist Party’s convergence with its own bourgeoisie on the colonial question, the defeat in Indochina and the bloody combat in colon-dominated Algeria served to move large sections of the French population, including substantial sections of the intelligentsia, into the Right’s embrace. The settlement of the Algerian War then paved the way for full-scale consolidation of High Gaullism.

Aijaz Ahmed, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literature

#this one is 4 u ignatz #but also ties into that post about haiti and hegel #colonialism #philosophy

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fatehbaz · 1 year

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Occupying an interstitial position between different continents [...], [t]his position as a space-between-spaces makes the Maghrib a hub [...]. [I]nvestigate the location of the Maghrib beyond the dominant binary of Arab vs. Francophone, the much-critiqued idea of the Sahara as a barrier, or the assumption of the Maghrib as an insular space. [...] [T]he Maghrib was a revolutionary concept [...]. [T]he idea of the Maghrib was rooted in anticolonial thought, one which the machinations of colonial power and exigencies of postcolonial state building and border disagreements have stalled ever since. [...]

Tamazgha -- as indigenous Amazigh activists have chosen to call North Africa since the 1990s -- was populated by Amazigh populations of Christian and Jewish faiths. [...] These dynamics, however, neither eliminated Amazigh language and culture nor drove out the sizable Jewish populations that shared this Judeo-Islamic space. Rather, it was nineteenth- and twentieth-century European colonialism [...]. Governments have either entirely silenced Amazigh language and culture, as was the case in Libya and Tunisia, or actively repressed them, as was the case in Algeria and Morocco.

Nevertheless, a vibrant Amazigh Cultural Movement (ACM) has struggled to re-Amazighize the Maghrib by inventing traditions and refiguring toponymies.

---

Tamazgha, which this ACM defines as extending from the Siwa Oasis in Egypt to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, has replaced both “North Africa” and “the Maghrib” in activist nomenclature.

Activists have thus reinscribed this consciousness of “al-dath al-amazighiyya” (the Amazigh self/subjectivity) in public spaces as well as in the markers of Maghribi geographies.

Gone are the days when Amazigh people could be simply erased from the cartography of their native lands. Tamazight has acquired a constitutional status in Morocco and an official one in Algeria. Its speakers are working to have it recognized in Libya and Tunisia. [...]

The ubiquity of the Tifinagh alphabet (the Tamazight script) and the proliferation of Tamazight literary and audiovisual production has created a new cultural reality. Across short stories, novels, film, and music, Amazigh creators are reinventing the Maghrib and reconciling it with its indigenous past. [...]

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The rise of taskla Tamazight (Amazigh literature) and cultural production is the single most transformative literary development in the last thirty years of the Tamazghan intellectual movement. [...] Amazigh cultural producers are not just rehabilitating their mother tongue. They also rehabilitate an erased geography, a sense of indigeneity, and the relation-ship between space and people.

Shamal Iiriqiyya (North Africa in Arabic), Afrique du Nord (North Africa in French), or the Maghrib, are geographical and political appellations superimposed on the region [...]. Alternatively, Tamazgha is a politically conscious name that is from the same root as Tamazight.

Tamazgha means the land of the indigenous Imazighen, which reconfigures space, revisits history, and questions accepted toponymies. [...]

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The plurality of the Maghrib and its multilingualism will undoubtably acquire a different meaning when we read them from the perspective of indigenous authors in Amazigh languages. Immersion in the discourses of the ACM reveals [...] foundational ideas like le Maghrib pluriel (the plural Maghrib) [...]. These organizations seeded and then advocated the idea of “al-wahda fi al-tannawwu‘” (unity in diversity). [...]

Whether it is Algerian Kabyle musician Idir, the Moroccan band Izenzaren (Sun Rays), or Malian Tuareg band Tinariwin (Deserts), Amazigh melodies and poetry travel, cross boundaries, and reconnect Imazighen across the globe.

This “traveling Tamazgha” complicates the Maghrib’s location and invites a constant mapping and remapping of the space and its aesthetics.

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Text by: Brahim El Guabli. ”Where is the Maghreb? Theorizing a Liminal Space.” Arab Studies Journal Vol. XXIX, No. 2. Fall 2021. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

#the author is amazigh

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girlactionfigure · 1 year

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By: Hussein Aboubakr Mansour

Underneath the positions of pro-Palestinian progressive Westerners lies a conglomerate of presuppositions and assumptions that are rarely openly discussed or mentioned. One of such major presuppositions is that Palestinian terrorism, the indiscriminate murderous violence /1

targeting mostly defenseless Jewish civilians, is a core part of the Palestinian identity and a normative Palestinian behavior to be expected. As such, this behavior can not be blamed on Palestinian society or institutions but on Israel and Israeli action, which controls the /2

structure of power from which the Palestinian identity emerged. In this position, highly intelligent people discover the most troubling aspect of the conflict but only to dismiss it. This form of humanistic bigotry against the Palestinians came to justify their worst /3

inclination and disregard the lives of Israeli Jews, ending up being one of the most dehumanizing positions towards Israelis and Palestinians. This position is not new but has become a core intellectual habit of the international left since the canonization of the works of /4

Frantz Fanon as a Bible of decolonization. According to Fanon, the murderous rampage of the colonized man against the colonizer is the quintessential act of self-liberation. The blaze of wrath and anger that ends in murder is nothing but the birth pains of freedom. In other /5

words, the struggle, no matter how violent or extreme, is an existential condition and an ontological urgency. These ideas, which started in the circles of the French Left in the 1950s to justify Algerian acts of extreme violence against the French colony, became a solid part /6

of the international left, taught in the most prestigious academic institutions to generations of leftist activists, journalists, professors, politicians, and others. These ideas, the epitome of dehumanization and pathological misanthropy, were not born yesterday and are /7

parts of the major intellectual edifice of leftists' social and political thought. The proliferation of such intellectual pathologies is what ultimately enables armies of American and European journalists, diplomats, aid workers, NGO officials, and others to totally accept /8

the prevalence of violence, icons of death, and the valorization of cruelty in Palestinian culture, both popular and high, and in education. This leads to the interesting simultaneous recognition and dismissal of the most central problem of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, /9

the absolute and final negation of Zionism, by any means necessary, as the central ideological content of the Palestinian identity and its symbols. The final result is an international behemoth made of international institutional structures established and financed to /10

purportedly solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict while, in effect, ignoring its core issue. Palestinian media, religious, political, and educational institutions are left to daily indoctrinate members of the Palestinian society into believing that the meaning of their /11

identity is existential victimhood which could be exited only through the total and complete destruction of Israel done by way of blood, death, and sacrifice. Anyone who dares to examine Palestinian education, media, literature, poetry, music, etc., would not be able to ignore/12

the unsubtle presence of such violent ideas in Palestinian national symbolism and Palestinian self-image. This is ultimately the root cause of the total insolubility of the conflict. Until this conversation becomes a central component of any efforts seeking peace and /13

stability, the problems of terror, violence, the loss of innocent Jewish lives, and the indoctrination of Palestinian youth will continue.

I also would not be honest if I don't address the other side of the coin, the people with whom I stand on most issues, the pro-Israel camp. Many in that camp do see with clearer vision the problem with Palestinian identity and its content of terrorism. Yet, they refuse to make /

any distinction between the Palestinians as humans and the Palestinians as Palestinians. That is, they accept to see the Palestinians exactly the way Palestinian radicalism insists on seeing the Palestinians, walking landmines waiting to explode to totally erase Jewish existence.

They accept the Palestinian self-dehumanization as the ontological truth of the Palestinians: final, exclusive, and irreversible, and not as humans who are trapped into a terrible story made up by generations of mad intellectuals and sadistic tyrants. This leaves nothing but a

a security problem against which Israel must remain strong. No will, no wish, no effort, and no thought are spent about the possibility of helping the Palestinians wake up from their self-imposed nightmare and discover a different way to be Palestinian. Just to reiterate,

I'm not talking here of people who think, feel and talk only in leftist cliches. Those don't see or understand such complex problems anyways. I'm talking about the non-cliche ones who despite understanding the monumental weight of culture and identity refuse to deal with

them seriously.

@HusseinAboubak

#🧵#Israel #Palestine #conflict

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submissivegayfrenchboy · 1 year

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16 / 12 / 2022

🇬🇧🇺🇸 ENGLISH / ANGLAIS 🇬🇧🇺🇸

GAME #11

WITH ARAB / MUSLIM MEN #1

Hello dear readers!

Today we find ourselves for another game, but this time not with famous men.

They are 9 unknown Arab men, each one has a number and I invented an identity for them. Arab/Muslim men are the subject of deserved reverence, due to their undeniable beauty, strength and natural virility. Of course one can also be Arab or Black and worship Arab men. In short, I am a white French boy, as you know, and I imagined a first name, a nationality, an age and a social status for these 9 men.

The game rule is : you choose a fantasy / kink to fulfill for each man. And there's a bonus fantasy, which makes it easier for you to make your choices if one of the fantasy doesn't appeal to you.

First I introduce you to the nine Arab males, then I describe the fantasies / kinks (some look like short stories, you'll see), and finally I present my personal answers.

Do not hesitate to write me in comment your answers (you are obviously not obliged to choose fantasies for the nine men), I am interested in knowing them.

Do not hesitate to write to me also if you like this kind of game and if you want others (on Arabs or on other types of men), and perhaps on specific themes (historical characters or from cinema / literature, characters that I invent, celebrities, men with a specific physique or social class...).

In short, I'm full of ideas but don't hesitate to share yours with me so that these games (which, personally, I really like) remain an exchange between you and me.

THE 9 ARAB MEN YOU CAN CHOSE

1. RAMZHA: Ramzha is a 37-year-old Moroccan who monitors the beaches. Behind his appearance of virility hides a tender and protective man.

2. NASER: Naser is a 22 year old student from Tunisia. He loves to make jokes and is very seductive.

3. MOULOUD: Mouloud is a 33-year-old Iranian who is a salesperson in a clothing store. He's stylish, cool and funny.

4. RACHID: Rachid is a 36-year-old Turkish man who owns his own business. Intelligent, he has a natural self-confidence and likes to enjoy life, while being a cultured and very organized person.

5. ZINEB: Zineb is a 25 year old Libyan who sells drugs in his neighborhood, he is rather poor and hangs out with his friends. His demeanor is that of a cold and distant man. A little desperate, he takes refuge in video games when he has nothing else to do.

6. MOHAMMED: Mohammed is a 42 year old Algerian who is a millionaire, lives in luxury and comfort. He is authoritative but knows how to laugh from time to time, even with those who serve him (employee and servant).

7. ZINEDINE: Zinedine is a 45-year-old Egyptian. He is a car repairer, gets along well with his colleagues. He is hardworking, but he is also very sporty, almost brutal. On the other hand, he likes to relax by watching movies and series.

8. OMAR: Omar is a 24 year old Iraqi. He is a thieving beggar who likes to hit the weak. Due to a difficult childhood, he developed a penchant for cruelty. So he happens to hit those he steals.

9. KHALIL: Khalil is a model from Saudi Arabia. He is aged 26 years old. Due to his obvious good looks, he turned to modeling. Tasting fame and being obeyed by menial employees, he considered a career in acting. His obvious charisma and his hot-male mentality make him an arrogant and narcissistic man, who nevertheless knows how to be cuddly with the people he loves.

THE KINKS / FANTASIES TO ASSOCIATE

A. You are his personal footlicker. Since you're a foot fetishist, you kept looking at his feet, and he noticed. One day he asked you to massage his feet, you agreed and he ordered you to lick his feet. You wanted it so badly so you didn't hesitate for a second and you swallowed the dirt from his soles, the grime between his toes, the sweat and you sniffed the smell of his feet. Since that day, every time he wants his feet licked, you're the one who takes care of it and you're happy about it.

B. You are his adoptive brother. You were an orphan and his family took you in when you were young. Growing up, he was always as protective as he was dominating: he doesn't hesitate to make slightly disgusting jokes to laugh at your humiliation, like farting in your face or throwing his dirty socks in your face. However, he is always there to fight for you if you have a problem.

C. You are his employee. You work for him, he makes you do things for which he takes credit because he does almost nothing or is so charismatic that no one even notices you.

D. You are his moneyslave. You give him money. At first it was you who paid him for the honor of licking his feet or his ass or his armpits (or all three), but since then he forces you to give him money and also to pay for his groceries. You no longer buy anything for yourself because you like it when he rewards you by giving you his old underpants, or a pair of socks or a T-shirt that he has worn several days (or weeks) in a row and in which he played sports and worked.

E. You are his cleaning man. It's up to you to do the household chores for him: cooking, cleaning the dishes, washing clothes, putting things away, shopping, scouring the toilets, polishing his shoes... He has no regard for you expect everything to be ready when he gets home and if he sees you working he laughs at you for being so submissive.

F. You are his human toilet. He captured you and took humiliating and degrading photos of you. He threatened to send them to your loved ones if you didn't accept the other choice he offered you. Naively, you agreed to take the other option. He then knocked you out. When you woke up, you were immobilized, as if you were a mummy. A tube was attached to your mouth and you had no way to remove it. That's when several thick, smelly droppings came into your mouth. You had no choice but to swallow. He had installed you in the basement of his house to shit you and piss in your mouth. When he wasn't home he would encourage his friends to use his bathroom so you would be continually fed my shit and the piss of mostly Arab men. It was your only nutrition.

G. You are his lover. He seduced you, you fell madly in love with him and you haven't left each other since. You love him more than anything and even if he dominates in your couple, he respects you and loves you sincerely for the good that you bring him.

H. You are his human chair. He puts his ass on your head, either with his pants or his underpants, or with his bare ass directly. He sometimes farts, but he especially likes to put his ass on his head, to feel the softness of your skin under his ass. You find it hard to support his weight but you still like it, and it doesn't matter to you whether his ass is washed or not.

I. You are his son-in-law. Your father or your mother couldn't resist the obvious charm of an Arab male. Since your father/mother got married to him, he is the head of the family. You have to obey him, you lick his feet as soon as your father / your mother is not there, and you are the servant of the couple, because your father / your mother always gives him priority (your father / your mother gives him money if he needs it, always agrees with him, spends more time with him, laughs at all his jokes,.....).

BONUS. You are his miniature / tiny slave. You have been miniaturized and he uses you for his entertainment, in particular by putting you in his ass so that he farts on you, or in his sock so that you absorb his sweat and he crushes you with his big foot.

MY PERSONAL ANSWERS:

1. A.: Being the licker of Moroccan RAMZHA's feet (37 years old). I'm sure after (or during) his workday at the beach, he'll want to have his feet licked.

2. G. : Being the boyfriend of the Tunisian student Naser (22 years old). I like his personality and his face, I'm sure being with him wouldn't be boring and even if he's dominant in bed we can share things on a daily basis.

3. C. : Being the employee of the Iranian salesman MOULOUD (33 years old). I almost made him my lover, but in the END I photo he smokes, and I could never date a smoker (bordering on sex, but not be in a relationship with him). I'm sure he'd be the type to take credit for the tasks he made me do.

4. D.: Being the moneyslave of RACHID, the 34-year-old Turkish boss. I don't want to give away my money (I don't have any anyway) but if I were a man's cash slave, he would have to be very handsome. It makes you want to pay if it's to lick the sweat off the socks and inhale the stench of Rachid.

5. F.: Being the human toilet ZINEB, the 25-year-old Libyan. He whom I imagined as a sad man, I'm sure it would amuse him to know that he has a (white) boy who replaces his toilet. He would give access to his house to all his family and friends who would take pleasure in knowing that their rubs were eaten and their piss drunk by a (white) slave.

6. I.: Being the son-in-law of MOHAMMED, the 42-year-old Algerian millionaire. My real parents could never be in a relationship with an Arab man, but I would find it exciting if I had a father who becomes the obedient companion of a very rich Algerian who makes me lick his feet in front of my father!

7. E.: Being the cleaner for ZINEDINE, the 45-year-old Egyptian who repairs cars. After spending his day at work, he would enjoy relaxing knowing that everything was done for him.

8. BONUS: Being the tiny slave of OMAR, the 24-year-old Iraqi beggar. I'm sure that poor man would feel less unhappy if he knew he had what even rich men don't have: a slave! As I am tiny he could easily hide me.

9. H.: Being the human chair for KHALIL, the 26-year-old Saudi model. After his shooting days or when he's not needed on set or to prepare for the fashion show/photoshoot, he lays his face on my ass.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

🇨🇵 FRANÇAIS / FRENCH 🇨🇵

JEU #11

AVEC DES MÂLES ARABES #1

Bonjour à tous chers lecteurs ! Aujourd'hui on se retrouve pour un autre jeu, mais cette fois-ci pas avec des hommes célèbres. Ce sont 9 hommes Arabes inconnus, chacun a un numéro et je leur ai inventé une identité.

Les hommes Arabes / Musulmans font l'objet d'une vénération méritée, en raison de leurs indéniables beauté, force et virilité naturelle. Bien sûr on peut aussi être Arabe ou Noir et vénérer les hommes Arabes.

Bref, moi je suis un garçon blanc Français, comme vous le savez, et j'ai imaginé un prénom, une nationalité, un âge et un statut social pour ces 9 hommes.

Le jeu consiste à choisir un fantasme à réaliser pour chaque homme. Et il y a un fantasme bonus, ce qui vous permet de faire vos choix plus facilement si l'un des fantasmes ne vous plaît pas.

Tout d'abord je vous présente les neuf mâles Arabes, puis je vous décrit les fantasmes (certains ressemblent à des histoires courtes, vous verrez), et enfin je vous présente mes réponses personnelles.

N'hésitez à m'écrire en commentaire vos réponses (vous n'êtes évidemment pas obligé de choisir des fantasmes pour les neuf hommes), cela m'intéresse de les connaître.

N'hésitez pas à m'écrire aussi si vous aimez ce genre de jeu et si vous en voulez d'autres (sur les Arabes ou sur d'autres types d'hommes), et peut-être sur des thèmes précis (personnages historiques ou issus du cinéma / de la littérature, personages que j'invente, célébrités, hommes avec un physique ou une classe sociale précise....).

Bref je regorge d'idées mais n'hésitez pas à me faire part des vôtres pour que ces jeux (qui, à titre personnel, me plaisent beaucoup) restent un échange entre vous et moi.

LES 9 HOMMES ARABES / MUSULMANS

1. RAMZHA : Ramzha est un Marocain de 37 ans qui surveille les plages. Derrière son apparence de virilité se cache un homme tendre et protecteur.

2. NASER : Naser est un étudiant Tunisien de 22 ans. Il adore faire des blagues et est très séducteur.

3. MOULOUD : Mouloud est un Iranien de 33 ans qui est vendeur dans une boutique de vêtements. Il est stylé, cool et drôle.

4. RACHID : Rachid est un Turc de 36 ans qui est le patron de sa propre entreprise. Intelligent, il a une confiance en lui naturelle et aime profiter de la vie, tout en étant quelqu'un de cultivé et très organisé.

5. ZINEB : Zineb est un Libyen de 25 ans qui vend de la drogue dans son quartier, il est plutôt pauvre et traîne avec ses potes. Son comportement est celui d'un homme froid et distant. Un peu désespéré, il se réfugie dans les jeux vidéos quand il n'a rien d'autre à faire.

6. MOHAMMED : Mohammed est un Algérien de 42 ans qui est millionnaire, vit dans le luxe et le confort. Il est autoritaire mais sait rire de temps en temps, même avec ceux qui le servent (employé et serviteur).

7. ZINEDINE : Zinedine est un Égyptien de 45 ans. Il est réparateur de voitures, s'entend bien avec ses collègues. Il est travailleur, mais il est aussi très sportif, presque brutal. D'un autre côté, il aime se détendre en regardant des films et des séries.

8. OMAR : Omar est un Irakien de de 24 ans. C'est un mendiant voleur qui aime taper des faibles. En raison d'une enfance difficile, il a développer un penchant pour la cruauté. Ainsi il lui arrive de taper ceux qu'il vole.

9. KHALIL : Khalil est un mannequin originaire d'Arabie Saoudite. Il est âgé de 26 ans. En raison de sa beauté évidente, il s'est tourné vers le mannequinat. Goûtant à la célébrité et au fait d'être obéi par des employés serviles, il envisage une carrière d'acteur. Son charisme évident et sa mentalité de beau gosse font de lui un homme arrogant et narcissique, qui sait pourtant se montrer câlin avec les gens qu'il aime.

LES FANTASMES À CHOISIR

A. Tu es son lécheur de pieds personnel. Comme tu es fétichiste des pieds, tu n'arrêtais pas de regarder en direction de ses pieds, et il l'a remarqué. Un jour il t'a demandé de lui masser les pieds, tu as accepté et il t'a ordonné de lécher ses pieds. Tu en avais tellement envie alors tu n'as pas hésité une seconde et tu as avalé la saleté de ses semelles, la crasse entre ses orteils, la sueur et tu as reniflé l'odeur de ses pieds. Depuis ce jour, chaque fois qu'il veut se faire lécher les pieds, c'est toi qui t'en charge et tu en es heureux.

B. Tu es son frère adoptif. Tu étais orphelin et sa famille t'a recueilli quand tu es étais jeune. En grandissant, il s'est toujours montré aussi protecteur que dominateur : il n'hésite pas faire des blagues un peu dégoûtants pour rire de ton humiliation, comme péter sur ton visage ou te jeter ses chausettes sales au visage. Cependant, il est toujours là pour se battre pour toi si tu as un problème.

C. Tu es son employé. Tu travaille pour lui et il te fait faire des choses dont il s'attribue le mérite parce-que lui ne fait presque rien ou alors est tellement charismatique que l'on ne te remarque même pas.

D. Tu es son moneyslave. Tu lui donnes de l'argent. Au début c'était toi qui le payais pour avoir l'honneur de lécher ses pieds ou son cul ou ses aisselles (ou les trois), mais depuis il te force à lui donner de l'argent et aussi à payer pour ses courses. Tu n'achètes plus rien pour toi car tu aimes lorsqu'il te récompense en te donnant son vieux caleçon, ou une paire de chausettes ou un tee-shirt qu'il a porté plusieurs jours (ou semaines) de suite et dans lequel il a fait du sport et il a travaillé.

E. Tu es son homme de ménage. C'est à toi de faire les tâches ménagères pour lui : cuisine, nettoyage de la vaisselle, lavage des vêtements, ranger les affaires, faire les courses, récurer les toilettes, cirer ses chaussures.... Il n'a aucun regard pour toi, s'attend à ce que tout soit près à son arrivée chez lui et s'il te voit en train de travailler il se moque de toi pour être aussi soumis.

F. Tu es sa toilette humaine. Il t'a capturé et a pris des photos de toi humiliantes et dégradantes. Il a menacé de les envoyer à tes proches si tu n'acceptait pas l'autre choix qu'il t'offrait. Naïvement, tu as accepté de prendre l'autre option. Il t'a alors assommé. Quand tu t'es réveillé, tu étais immobilisé, comme si tu étais une momie. Un tube était attachée à ta bouche et tu n'avais aucun moyen de le retirer. C'est alors que sont rentrées dans ta bouche plusieurs crottes épaisses et malodorantes. Tu n'avais pas d'autres choix que d'avaler. Il t'avait installé dans le sous sol de sa maison pour te chier et pisser dans la bouche. Quand il n'était pas à la maison, il encourageait ses amis à utiliser ses toilettes pour que tu sois continuellement nourri à ma merde et la pisse d'hommes majoritairement arabes. C'était ta seule nutrition.

G. Tu es son amoureux. Il t'a séduit, tu es tombé fou amoureux de lui et depuis vous ne vous quittez plus. Tu l'aimes plus que tout et même qu'il domine dans votre couple, il te respecte et t'aime sincèrement pour le bien que tu lui apporte.

H. Tu es sa chaise humaine. Il pose son cul sur ta tête, sois avec son pantalon ou son caleçon, soit avec son cul nu directement. Il lui arrive de péter, mais il aime surtout poser son cul sur tête, ressentir la douceur de ta peau sous son cul. Toi tu as du mal à supporter son poids mais tu aimes quand même cela, et peu t'importe que son cul soit lavé ou pas.

I. Tu es son beau-fils. Ton père ou ta mère n'a pas réussi à résister au charme évident d'un mâle arabe. Depuis que ton père / ta mère s'est mise en couple avec lui, il est le chef de la famille. Tu dois lui obéir, tu lui lèche les pieds dès que ton père / ta mère n'est pas là, et tu es le serviteur du couple, car ton père / ta mère lui donne toujours la priorité (ton père / ta mère lui donne de l'argent s'il en a besoin, lui donne toujours raison, passe plus de temps avec lui, rigole à toutes ses blagues,.....).

BONUS. Tu es son esclave miniature. Tu as été miniaturisé et il t'utilise pour son divertissement, notamment en te mettant dans son cul pour qu'il te pète dessus ou alors dans sa chaussette pour que tu absorbes sa sueur et qu'il t'écrase avec son grand pied.

MES RÉPONSES PERSONNELLES :

1. A. : Être le lécheur des pieds du marocain RAMZHA (37 ans). Je suis sûr qu'après (ou pendant) sa journée de travail à la plage, il aura envie de se faire lécher les pieds.

2. G. : Être le petit ami de l'étudiant Tunisien NASER (22 ans). J'aime sa personnalité et son visage, je suis sûr qu'être avec lui ne serait pas ennuyeux et que même s'il est dominant au lit on pourra partager des choses au quotidien.

3. C. : Être l'employé du vendeur Iranien MOULOUD (33 ans). J'ai failli faire de lui mon amoureux, mais sur la photo il fume, et je ne pourrais jamais sortir avec un fumeur (à la limite du sexe, mais pas être en couple avec lui). Je suis sur qu'il serait du genre à s'attribuer le mérite des tâches qu'il m'aurait fait faire.

4. D. : Être le moneyslave de RACHID, le patron Turc de 34 ans. Je n'ai pas envie de donner mon argent (j'en ai pas d'ailleurs) mais si j'étais le cash slave d'un homme il faudrait qu'il soit très beau. Cela donne envie de payer si c'est pour lécher la sueur des chausettes et respirer la puanteur de Rachid.

5. F. : Être la toilette humaine ZINEB, le Libyen de 25 ans. Lui que j'ai imaginé comme un homme triste, je suis sûr que ça l'amuserait de savoir qu'il a un garçon (blanc) qui remplace ses toilettes. Il donnerait l'accès de sa maison à toute sa famille et ses amis qui prendraient du plaisir à savoir que leurs frottés sont mangées et leur pisse bue par un esclave (blanc).

6. I. : Être le beau-fils de Mohammed, le millionaire Algérien de 42 ans. Jamais mes vrais parents ne pourraient être en couple avec un homme arabe, mais je trouverais ça excitant, si j'avais un père qui devient le compagnon obéissant d'un algérien très riche qui me fait lécher ses pieds devant mon père !

7. E. : Être l'homme de ménage de Zinedine, l'égyptien de 45 ans qui répare des voitures. Après avoir passé sa journée à travailler, il prendrait plaisir à de détendre en sachant que tout a été fait pour lui.

8. BONUS : Être l'esclave minuscule d'OMAR, le mendiant Irakien de 24 ans. Je suis sûr que cet homme pauvre se sentirait moins malheureux s'il savait qu'il possède ce que même des hommes riches n'ont pas : un esclave ! Comme je suis minuscule il pourrait facilement me cacher.

9. H. : Être la chaise humaine de KHALIL, le mannequin saoudien de 26 ans. Après ses journées de tournage ou lorsqu'il n'est pas nécessaire qu'il soit présent sur le plateau ou pour préparer le défilé de mode / le photoshoot, il pose son visage sur mon cul.

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@feeterotica @bat-woodfeet-us @leftprogrammingroadtripdean @awesomecrowdcontrol1 @tidodore2 @rainykpoptravelcreator @lovefanfiction01 @innerpiratefun @arabmature @muslimfeet @arabiandomination-blog @arabianmasterr @feetmakesmehard @humantoiletboy @fartsandotherstink

#Personal post #Post personnel #Jeu #Game #Arab men #Arabe #Muslim #Musulman #Feet #Human toilet #Toilette humaine #Pieds

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whileiamdying · 5 months

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Review: ‘A Tale of Love and Desire’ a rich, if jumbled, look at a young Algerian in Paris

BY CARLOS AGUILAR MARCH 10, 2022 7 AM PT

Erotic verses from ancient Arab poetry enrapture a painfully inhibited young man in the sensual coming-of-age drama “A Tale of Love and Desire” from Tunisian director Leyla Bouzid. Insecurity plagues Ahmed (Sami Outalbali), the 18-year-old son of Algerian refugees studying literature at the famed Sorbonne in Paris. There, he falls for Farah (Zbeida Belhajamor), an open-minded girl from Tunis who challenges his sexist hypocrisy.

In touch with her own carnal desires, Farah repeatedly tries to free Ahmed from the emotional blockage imposed by patriarchal norms. Bouzid makes the case that before religious restrictions maligned hedonism, Arab art and philosophy advocated for physical pleasure.

But despite having connected with words that exalt romantic lust, Ahmed still sees sex as an impure act that taints love and not as a manifestation of it. In the disenfranchisement he feels from his heritage, there’s something lost about himself that‘s replaced with an opaqueness of spirit and a defeated demeanor.

Ahmed’s personal struggles mimic the oppression in Algeria and throughout the Arab world. While scenes at home broaden this context, showing his uprooted father’s influence on him, the intermingling of all these ideas lacks strong cohesion. There are lyrical touches in the form of dance and magical realist inserts that act as a visual escape valve for the pressure that builds from the protagonist’s overwhelming uneasiness.

Throughout, we share in Farah’s frustration, as Ahmed’s behavior suffocates the film, exponentially raising the necessity for a narrative catharsis. And in that regard, the director’s intent is effective, given that she waits until the very end to provide this release. Outalbali’s apprehensively quiet portrayal of this repressed individual, out of touch with his Algerian identity, feels deliberately one-noted until a liberating turning point.

Intellectually rich even if jumbled, “Tale” plays like a spiritual continuation of Bouzid’s 2015 debut, “As I Open My Eyes,” in the prominence of Arab music, its political undertones related to the Arab Spring, and because it also focuses on a defiant young woman named Farah with vaguely similar characteristics. Both pieces convey a yearning for an individual and collective freedom that begins with control over one’s own body as a means of expression.

‘A Tale of Love and Desire ’ In French and Arabic with English subtitles Not Rated Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes

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high-school-lit-tournament · 10 months

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High School Lit Tournament Side C

L'étranger (The Stranger): Published in 1942 by French author Albert Camus, The Stranger has long been considered a classic of twentieth-century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its "100 Books of the Century" list. Through this story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."

Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince): A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see, standing before him, the most extraordinary little fellow. "Please," asks the stranger, "draw me a sheep." And the pilot realizes that when life's events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out pencil and paper... And thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed forever the world for its readers.

#high school lit tournament #classic literature #le petit prince #the stranger

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what-and-how-todo-writing · 1 year

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The Myth of Sisyphus

This is going to be a longer post, just letting you all know. Albert Camus is one of my favorite authors, and The Myth of Sisyphus is one of my favorite essays to ever have been written, and I wanted to share it with all of you.

If you have any questions; please let me know. I'm always opened for answering those. Below the line is my ramble, but for those of you who do not know what it's about; it's basically the realization of the 'absurd' does not justify suicide, and instead requires "revolt." He then outlines several approaches to the absurd life in the book.

Brief Biography of Albert Camus

Albert Camus was born in Algeria when it was still a French colony. His father, Lucien, died in World War I when Camus was still a baby. Camus’ mother, an illiterate house cleaner, brought him up thereafter. Showing aptitude for his schooling, Camus was accepted to the University of Algiers. Here he developed his sense of political engagement, joining first the Communist Party and later the Algerian People’s Party. In 1930 he contracted tuberculosis, causing him to give up playing soccer (he was a skillful goalkeeper) and meaning he had to study part-time. He graduated in 1936. Camus joined the French Resistance at the beginning of World War II, and worked for an underground resistance newspaper, eventually becoming its editor in 1943. It was during his military service, too, that he met Jean-Paul Sartre, the existential philosopher. In 1942, Camus published The Myth of Sisyphus, the first of a number of works that strove to look at the meaning of life and elucidate Camus’ theory of absurdism. Also that year, he published his first novel The Outsider (also translated as The Stranger). The Plague followed in 1947, and The Fall in 1952. In 1957, Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (becoming the second youngest recipient after Rudyard Kipling). He died in 1960 as the result of a car accident. Camus was married twice, but had strong criticisms of the institution.

Historical Context of The Myth of Sisyphus

Albert Camus began writing at a turbulent time in the history of mankind. His father was a casualty of World War I, and not long after Camus found himself part of the French Resistance during World War II. The Vichy government had capitulated to the Nazis, surrendering Paris and much of the rest of France too. Perhaps this historical moment can be detected in The Myth of Sisyphus, which represents nothing less than an inquiry into the apparent meaninglessness of life. Furthermore, Camus’ military service kept him away from his native Algeria, perhaps evidenced by the book’s recurrent mention of man’s exile from the world (or from understanding the world). In employing the Greek myth of Sisyphus, though, Camus is keen to stress the ahistorical nature of what he is discussing. That is, though the warring of the twentieth century might have heightened the futility of life—made it more prominently visible—Camus sees the problem of absurdity as one simply fundamental to the human condition. For Camus, mankind’s longing for meaning in a meaningless world was a fact of existence in the past and will remain so in the future.

The feeling that life is meaningless is a consequence of certain unavoidable experiences in life.

If you were to ask someone, “Why do you choose to stay alive?” you might get a host of different answers. Some feel an obligation to family. Others might be driven by a curiosity about what life has in store for them. And some may have never considered the question at all and would reply with an exasperated eye roll.

Camus argues that the most common reason people choose to go on living is a general sense that our activities in life are worth doing.

This is especially true when we’re young, and life seems full of hope and promise. We’re driven by ambitions. We think of ourselves as progressing. And we feel that our actions have good reasons behind them.

But there comes a time in a person’s life when nagging doubts begin to nibble at this optimism. There are two experiences, in particular, that are prone to challenge life’s sense of purposefulness: the repetitive nature of our days and an increasing consciousness of our impending death.

In the grind of the nine-to-five work cycle, where eat, sleep, work, repeat is the mantra of our lives, the repetitive quality of our actions makes itself known. We begin to feel more like machines than people. And constant repetition is enough to drive out any passion we once found in our work. In the exhaustion that we feel at the end of a workday, it’s not uncommon for us to wonder what all this is really for.

To make matters worse, the inevitability of the final destination – death – only looms more and more prominently over our lives as we grow older. It serves as an ever-present reminder that nothing we do in life is of any lasting consequence.

In light of these two unpleasant experiences, it’s not uncommon for an individual to feel that her struggles and suffering in life are pointless.

This feeling that life has no ultimate value or meaning is what Camus calls the absurd.

The reason the absurd is so critical to the present discussion is that it’s directly related to the question of suicide.

It’s often assumed that if life has no meaning, then it isn’t worth living.

If this is true, then it presents a very real, very urgent, dilemma for anyone who feels this way about their life. Do they go on living in denial of the uncomfortable truth that colors their whole perspective, or do they end their life?

The overarching problem in these blinks is to examine whether meaninglessness does imply worthlessness or if it’s possible to live a good life in a meaningless world after all.

The absurd emerges in the confrontation between a person who craves understanding and a world that resists it.

So far, we’ve considered the absurd experience from the point of view of a sense of value. In the tedious toil of our work and in the uncomfortable awareness of our impending deaths, we witness the value of our activities evaporate before our eyes.

But there’s another type of absurd experience that has less to do with value and more with the impossibility of ever arriving at permanent knowledge or understanding of the world.

These intellectual types of absurd experiences tend to be momentary and surreal. For example, we have an absurd experience when we momentarily fail to recognize ourselves in the mirror. Or, another example is when, for a split second, an intimate loved one appears like a total stranger.

What’s common to these experiences is that objects are momentarily divested of the meaning we normally attribute to them. Instead, we see them in their naked materiality as pure things.

Such experiences confirm that the material universe is in itself devoid of meaning. Instead, it’s human minds that are responsible for imposing meaning and order on the world so that we can make sense of it. For example, we label this person a “friend,” that person a “lover,” and those things “shoes.” This works pretty well when it comes to navigating the world on a day-to-day basis.

The problem is that the world is infinitely more diverse and more complex than our limited ability to understand it allows. Objects are constantly overflowing the narrow labels that we place on them, forcing us to re-evaluate those labels. Things don’t remain “friends” or “lovers” or “shoes” forever.

And when it comes to the really big questions, such as understanding why the universe exists, our attempts at understanding are hopelessly futile. Camus compares the person who tries to understand the world to a sword fighter who attempts to take on a platoon of gunmen. Both figures are absurd insofar as they are so hopelessly ill-equipped for the task that faces them.

Thus, Camus defines absurdity as the confrontation between a person who craves meaning and understanding on the one hand and a world that constantly resists understanding on the other.

So, the person who feels the world to be absurd in this intellectual sense feels that any theory that claims to be a final explanation of the world is disingenuous. In all likelihood, we will never come to a satisfactory answer to the meaning of existence. So what then?

The flight into faith is an inauthentic evasion of our absurd situation.

The absurd experience is fundamentally uncomfortable. It implies that our burning desire for purpose and understanding in life will never be completely met.

For some people, this awareness is simply too intolerable to bear. Thus, they seek an escape from the impasse. The typical mode of escape is to turn back to the doctrines of religion and philosophy through faith.

In a sense, faith in a doctrine solves the problem of the absurd by offering people answers to the meaning of life as well as providing a pre-packaged blueprint for living. The problem Camus has with this “solution” to meaninglessness is that it’s born more out of terror than of reason.

Camus is not in the business of arguing that religions or philosophies are false. Rather, he merely points out that both religious and philosophical systems always end up depending upon assumptions that no one can possibly know for certain since they transcend lived human experience.

The only thing we can be sure of is our immediate sensory experience and the things contained within it. Any attempt to make claims beyond our experience is, therefore, an illegitimate move.

Of course, we might question the value of such an extreme adherence to certainty. If one has a more comfortable and enjoyable life with religious faith, isn’t that justification enough?

Well, the problem for Camus is not that blind faith is a betrayal of the truth. The truth is always uncertain, anyway. The problem is that turning to faith is a betrayal of oneself.

When people flee from the absurd into faith, they’re being deeply inauthentic. They are, in a sense, lying to themselves. They’re not living according to what they really believe in their hearts.

For Camus, one doesn’t solve the meaninglessness of life by pretending that it has meaning after all. The only authentic response is to accept and embrace meaninglessness for what it is.

In practice, this means three things: a total absence of hope for a better future, a continual rejection of any doctrine that claims to be an absolute answer to the meaning of life, and a conscious dissatisfaction that never goes away.

While this may seem like a recipe for a rather dreary existence, meaninglessness by no means prevents one from living a rich and fulfilled life. According to Camus, we must revolt against the absurd, not by denying it, but by living life to the fullest in spite of it.

The absurd is the condition for profound freedom.

In the previous blink, we heard the case for why taking refuge in religious faith is an inauthentic response to the absurd.

But, again, one might question the value of authenticity. If one lives a happier life with faith in God and an afterlife, then who cares if they’re being inauthentic?

Well, practically speaking, there are benefits to living authentically with the absurd. Over the next two blinks, we’ll discuss the two principal virtues of authentic living: freedom and passion.

While religious doctrines might placate the discomfort of the absurd by giving meaning to our lives, they also limit us to their interpretation of the world. By offering us a pre-packaged story of what we are and how we ought to live our lives, they confine a person to a monotonous and habitual mode of living.

When we, instead, abandon all attempts to impose meaning and order on our lives, we also abandon the obligation to live in a particular way. When we deny a higher power the right to dictate our lives for us, be it God or Fate or Morality, then how we live is something we must decide for ourselves.

Camus turns to fiction to find an example of someone who takes this logic to its fatal conclusion. Kirilov, a character in Dostoyevsky’s novel The Possessed, ends up getting killed by his own reasoning.

Kirilov argues that for life to have meaning, there must be a God. But since he doesn’t believe there is a God, he can’t believe that life has meaning. He concludes from this that he must kill himself – which he does. He also argues, somewhat absurdly, that through his suicide, he will become a God since the act will prove his absolute freedom and mastery over his own life.

While Camus agrees with Kirilov’s logic, he points out that actually going through with the act of suicide is not necessary to be free. All that is necessary is an awareness of the absurd.

Thus, we have an answer to the question of suicide. For Camus, suicide is not a legitimate response to the meaninglessness of life because it entails renouncing the freedom that this meaninglessness offers us. In this sense, hopeless suicide is just as inauthentic as hopeful faith. While they might seem like opposites, they are equivalent insofar as they both renounce the freedom entailed by absurdity.

The lack of hope in an afterlife leads to greater passion in this life.

Just as freedom is a logical consequence of the absurd life, so too is passion.

What’s meant by passion here is the sense of being present in the moment and having a direct relationship with the world in front of us.

The absurd stance leads to a greater appreciation of the present moment by liberating us from illusory visions of a better future in the next life.

The idea of an afterlife that is infinitely longer and more pleasurable than the one we’re currently living is inevitably going to devalue this life by comparison. These mirages prevent us from fully appreciating and taking advantage of the life we actually have.

By contrast, when we give up hope in an afterlife, all that’s left is this finite life here on Earth – so we better make the most of it.

While the knowledge that our lives are finite certainly causes discomfort, it also instills in us a sense of urgency to enjoy this life as best we can before we die.

This ethic of enjoyment is amplified by what Camus calls the overturning of quality in favor of quantity.

One of the logical outcomes of the absurd is that no experience is inherently more valuable than any other. If it's not possible to know whether there are any objective values, then there can’t be any way of conclusively affirming that one experience is better than another. The absurd leads to radical equality between all experiences.

This leads to a strange kind of ethic. Since it’s not possible to know what the best way of living is, you’re better off just trying to have as many experiences as possible before you die.

An example of someone who lived according to the ethic of quantity over quality is the notorious fictional seducer, Don Juan. This is a character who never shows any interest in achieving some perfect – and impossible – ideal of love. Rather, he merely aims to have as many short-lived, passionate affairs as possible before he dies. He dedicates his life to the pursuit of sensual pleasure, and he lives for the moment.

It’s important to note that Camus does not propose Don Juan as a model to be emulated, but merely an example of someone who pursued earthly pleasures with a passion. Ultimately, the kinds of experiences that you pursue in life are up to you.

Sisyphus’ punishment is emblematic of the human condition.

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a renowned king of the City of Corinth whose intelligence and craftiness in life earned him the ire of the gods.

There are differing accounts as to how he managed to earn the gods’ displeasure. In one story, it’s said he put Death in chains, thereby temporarily ending death on Earth and forcing the gods to intervene.

Sisyphus is, however, more famous for the punishment he received for his misdeeds in the underworld. He was eternally condemned to push a rock to the top of a mountain, only to see it roll back down to the bottom. Each time, he would have to walk back and repeat the process over again.

The gods had good reason to believe that they could have found no worse punishment for Sisyphus. What makes the punishment so tortuous is not the labor itself but Sisyphus’ awareness that his labor is pointless and futile.

It’s precisely this awareness that makes Sisyphus a hero of the absurd, for he is completely aware of his hopeless fate, and yet he continues to live it anyway.

Of course, in Sisyphus’ punishment, Camus sees the fate of all mankind. Whether we work nine to five or not, all of us engage in repetitive daily tasks and struggles that are, in the grand scheme of things, just as absurd and futile as pushing a rock up a mountain.

That sounds pretty bleak. But, still, that doesn’t mean we should despair. For even Sisyphus’ eternal labor isn’t entirely tragic.

In a remarkable twist of fate, says Camus, rather than being crushed by the awareness of the hopelessness of his situation, Sisyphus is liberated by it. That’s because a fate only seems intolerable when placed in contrast with the illusion of a better life. But, Sisyphus is free of the illusion that he will ever have anything more than what he already has. Thus, he does not compare his fate to something better. He merely acknowledges his condition and accepts it for what it is.

Camus imagines that in that period of respite when Sisyphus is walking down the mountain to retrieve his rock, that he feels a strange sort of satisfaction. Despite everything, he has become attached to his rock. If Sisyphus sometimes feels sorrow at his condition, we shouldn’t be surprised if he sometimes feels joy as well.

Like Sisyphus, we, too, can find joy and satisfaction in the struggle.

Final summary

For Camus, the complexity of the world will always exceed our ability to comprehend it. What’s more, we will never discover an ultimate meaning to our lives simply by examining the world around us. That means we have three choices: we could turn to faith in unprovable doctrines to give meaning to our lives; we could die by suicide; or we can be brave and accept the meaninglessness of existence for what it is. Camus believes the third option is the most authentic. But this doesn’t mean we must live a difficult and unhappy life. While the absurd experience is certainly the source of confusion and suffering at times, it’s also the condition for a freer and more passionate existence here on Earth.

Other Books Related to The Myth of Sisyphus

Camus studied philosophy at university, and an inquiry into the meaning of life—or lack of—forms the basis of much of his work. In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus defines his philosophy of absurdism—which, in brief, is the confrontation between man’s longing for meaning and the world’s refusal to provide it—through discussion of other philosophers.

In fact, Camus explicitly claims not to be a philosopher, such is the distinction he draws between himself and these other writers. Accordingly, Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Jaspers, Edmund Husserl and Friedrich Nietzsche all crop up intermittently throughout the work. Camus feels all of them have one fatal flaw (aside, perhaps, from Nietzsche): that they try to resolve the absurd, rather than finding a way to live with it in full view.

Later in the book, Camus turns to literature in an effort to see if absurd art is possible. He praises the Russian novelist, Fyodor Dostoevsky (author of Crime and Punishment and Notes from Underground), for his ability to show the absurd as it functions in daily life, but criticizes Dostoevsky, the man, for turning back to God in order to resolve life’s meaninglessness.

In the book, Camus also cites Franz Kafka, Honoré de Balzac, Marcel Proust and others as writers whom he feels expose the absurdity of life in their work. Camus’ own novels, such as The Plague, where to exert a great influence on the twentieth century and beyond.

#essayist #philosophy #absurdism #albert camus #writeblr #writing #book summary #fyodor dostoyevsky #franz kafka #honore de balzac #marcel proust #female writers #queer writers #my writing #original content #original writing #lgbtq writers

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austerlitzborodinoleipzig · 2 years

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Last evening at the Poet's Club

The theme for the second part of the evening was exile. Three people opening. A French man, a Syrian poet and refugee, and my sister.

The French recited a poem, written in French by an Algerian poet and anticolonialist fighter.

My sister recited Zagajevski's To go to Lwów,

The Syrian said : exile is my existence. I'll tell one of my poems, but before that, I'll say something happy, I'll recite a love song. He did, and finished with one of his texts about revolution.

A third generation Iranian immigrant said that sadly she did not know any Iranian or Persian literature. She recited Baudelaire's L'étranger instead.

And the last one said: I'm from Lebanon and the last thing I want is to think about exile. How about a poem about tits, written by a French 15th century poet? (Clément Marot's Les Beaux Tétins)

#humeur du monde

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tilbageidanmark · 2 months

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Movies I watched this week (#170):

2 with French-Algerian actor Ramzy Bedia:

🍿 Youssef Salem Is Successful is a broad French comedy about a failed Algerian writer, who suddenly becomes famous when his tell-all book about his family wins The Prix Goncourt for literature. I liked the score made up of electronic Berber beats, and the two strong female characters, unorthodox and feisty. 7/10.

/ Female Director

🍿 Pecan pie is a 2003 Michel Gondry short-short, made at the same time as 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. Jim Carrey in pajamas drives a bedmobile while singing an Elvis tune.

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2 more by unique Austrian documentarian Nikolaus Geyrhalter:

🍿 Homo Sapiens (2016) is an eerie, wordless and scoreless vision of post-human abandonment. Without explanations and with a static camera, it visits deserted locations around the world years after the people had given up on them. Derelict concert halls, prison cells, bank vaults and train cabins, from Fukushima, and Chernobyl, and the many other disaster areas people have left behind, surrounding them to the elements, letting the birds and the rain and the weeds take over again. It's hypnotic and transcendental.

It's as if Edward Burtynsky and the Koyaanisqatsi guys had sex with Werner Herzog, but decided not to give the new baby any clues. 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes. 9/10.

🍿 His 2005 Our daily bread was similar: Without voice over narration or subjectivity, it looks at the insides of giant agriculture factories, massive industrialized farms and high-tech conveyor belt food processing. How do the packages on the supermarket shelves get there? Who picks the tomatoes, the olives, the apples and peaches? Who inseminates the pigs, slaughters the cows, guts the salmons, collects the chickens and the salt in the ginormous mines? Endlessly fascinating. Makes you want to stop eating food.

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Steve Martin X 6:

🍿 STEVE! (Martin), the new 2-part in-depth documentary about this smart and melancholic comedian-musician. A warm and wonderful run-down through his rich life. He accomplished so much during his extraordinary career, and much of it so well. 9/10.

🍿 My third re-watch of his warm and funny An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life again, a riff on friendship. With friend Martin Short (Excellent in his 'Stepbrother to Jesus' number!). Impeccable comic timing. ♻️

🍿 Shopgirl, a wistful love-triangle, based on his novella and script, about class and romance. A lonely woman living in a Silverlake apartment, works at the glove counter of Saks Fifth Avenue. She is being wooed by two different men, an immature slacker and a sophisticated older Martin. Jason Schwartzman is generally unbearable to watch, but here he is an insufferable loser. Eventually, it's too slight, a perverted fantasy of a rich, white, old man. However, it's always nice to find Screenwriting Symmetry 101 touches, f. ex. when Martin kisses Claire Danes for the first time, it happens exactly at 46:00, one hour before the end of the story. 5/10.

🍿"Excuse me. May I go to the bathroom first?..." Another re-watch: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, an old-fashioned story with 60's sensibilities, which was indeed faithfully re-made of a 1964 Marlon Brando / David Niven vehicle. Mick Jagger and David Bowie were originally supposed to play the Steve Martin and Michael Caine roles. ♻️

🍿 The Absent Minded Waiter short (1977) was his first produced screenplay, directed by his friend and 'Jaws' co-writer Carl Gottlieb.

🍿 All of me, a lame "comedy" that aged poorly. Were the supernatural-themed 1980's nonsense the worst decade for movies? Just terrible. 1/10.

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2 more by Jean Vigo:

🍿 First watch: L'Atalante, the classic enigma about barge dwellers and incompatible newly-weds and an old skipper who loves cats. I'll need to watch it a second time in order to fully appreciate its beauty. 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes.

🍿 Jean Vigo directed only 4 movies before dying of TB at the age of 29. His Jean Taris, Swimming Champion was an innovative documentary that introduced some poetic avant-garde effects, slow-mo, underwater reverse shots, innovative freeze frames. (Photo Above).

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2 Eastern European classics from 1965:

🍿 The Oscar-winning WW2 drama The Shop on Main Street, still considered one of the best Czechoslovakian films. A dim-witted, henpecked carpenter in the Fascist Slovak State is appointed "Aryan controller" of a Jewish widow's store. With Ida Kamińska as the confused old lady. Another 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes.

🍿 Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures was the highest-grossing Soviet comedy in 1965, with 70 million tickets sold. 3 unrelated episodes of weird slapstick featuring some nerdy student named 'Shurik'. Tom & Jerry meet Richard Lester meet The Three Stooges. 2/10.

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2 thrillers with lovely Paraguayan actress Lali González:

🍿 Rest in peace, a new, engaging Argentinian thriller about a debt-ridden industrialist who leaves his loving family behind in order to escape from a dangerous loan shark. Here Lali González plays a sexy young widow. The fancy Jewish wedding reminded me of a similar one in Damián Szifron's terrific film 'Wild Tales'. The ending was weak. 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes. 7/10.

🍿 "Run, Victor, run!" 7 Boxes (2012), my first thriller from Paraguay. Like the Brazilian 'City of God', it describes a world of acute poverty, which made it a tense watch. It tells of a young pushcart boy at the sprawling Asunción market who has to deliver some wooden boxes with unknown content. This Lali González was a cute teenager here. 6/10.

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3 Temporal Loops:

🍿 Instead of watching my favorite rom-com 'Palm Spring' for the 14th or 15th time, I tried the other acclaimed time-loop story Russian doll, my first anything with Natasha Lyonne. But there was no comparison. The tired NYC hipster atmosphere didn't hold a candle to the sunny flow of Tala and Abe's wedding, and none of the characters were as lovable as Sarah & Nyles. Not even Greta Lee! The first season was hard enough to stay awake through. 2/10.

/ Female Director

🍿 Repeat Performance (1947) is the earliest film featuring the Time Loop Trop. But it works more with the Hollywood concept of 'Destiny', the idea that "If you wish upon a star, all your dreams will become true", no matter how unlikely. However, it's based on a second rate Noir script, made by an unremarkable director, and with uninspiring actors. 3/10.

🍿 12:01 PM came out before 'Groundhog Day', and set up many of the rules for playing 'Time Bounces' from that point forward. An ordinary office Nobody gets stuck but only during the one hour of his lunch break. It was nominated for the 1991 Oscars. 4/10.

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3 shorts by surrealist Kansas City artist Suzan Pitt:

🍿 Asparagus, an avant-garde feminist film, which was shown together with Lynch's Eraserhead. Strangely erotic, psychedelically-fetishist, and politically-ambiguous. A 'Planète sauvage' / R. Crumb sensual nightmare, full of (literal) shit and swallowed phallus symbols.

🍿 Joy Street (1995), a journey of a depressed woman from suicide to a colorful healing.

🍿 Pinball (2013), a drug induced, dissonant, nearly-abstract headache, played fast to the discordant Ballet Mecanique (1952 revision).

/ Female Director

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My second (after 'The Bigamist') directed by film pioneer Ida Lupino, The Hitch-Hiker. It was "the first American mainstream film noir directed by a woman" and, interestingly, portrayed the two men who were taken hostages by a psychotic killer as helpless and emasculated.

/ Female Director

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2 directed by Demetri Martin:

🍿 "Crest Atheist Formula..." Demetri Martin: Demetri Deconstructed, his latest stand up. The first five minutes were weak, but the rest was hilarious and funny.

🍿 Dean, his 2016 directorial debut, a low-key comedy about overcoming loss, was apparently a semi-biographical attempt to deal with the death of his father. Similar Indie vibes to 'People, Places, Things' and many other stories about young Brooklynite illustrators grappling with love, parents, and growing up. His clever drawings (here and elsewhere) are really lovely. 7/10.

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2 Danish Oscar contender shorts:

🍿 This Charming Man won the 2003 Oscar for best shorts. It's a terribly outdated comedy of errors about racism and micro-aggressions and about a Dane who got mistaken for an Pakistani immigrant. 1/10.

🍿 The sentimental On my mind was nominated in 2022 for the Best Live Action Short. I actually forgot that I've seen it before. ♻️

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The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob, my second (and last!) flimsy, nervous comedy with Louis de Funès. When I was 10, I thought he was the funniest man alive, but in hindsight, he's just not. 1/10.

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The Orchard End Murder (1981), a uneasy and unpleasant English story about two weirdos complicit in the senseless murder of an innocent girl on top of a heap of apples. 1/10.

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(My complete movie list is here)

#jean vigo #movies

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