About the National Writer

 

A round up of the different aspects related to the inclusion of literature and the writer as part of the national identity, La fabrique de l´écrivain national by Anne-Marie Thiesse can be used as a support handbook for the various cultural identity processes from the 18th century onwards.

Literature and its creators, the writers, are an important part of the re-writing, reconstruction and (re)creation of identity narratives. Either in France or the USA, in the Middle East or Africa, the writer is assigned an institutional role in the identity building process. A role which means not only being assigned a prestigious role and the incumbend priviledges but equally restrictions and limitations. Once the writer is bold enough to touch upon - even with the softest critical take required by the intellectual status itself, the national narrative is not only ready to expell him or her, but also to accuse him or her of treason. Which means often the expelling from the national historical narrative. 

The book is rich in arguments and situations as well as in information that help to trace long-take historical processes. However, the focus is rather on the chronological mapping of the phenomenon than on the critical evaluation. Equally, it does not refer extensively on the eventual relationship between what does it mean being a writer with the intellectual status, particularly as a critical take on contemporary facts - Dreyfus case, anyone.

Therefore, it contributes to the debate by the systematic outline instead of pushing forward new interpretations and critical points of view. 

Writing about Iran´s Foreign Policy

 

Iran´s Foreign Policy. From Khatami to Ahmadinejad a collection of articles edited by Anourshiravan Ehteshami and Mahjoob Zweiri is an useful read for someone interested to know a little bit about the diplomatic endeavours of the Islamic Republic. The articles are written about academics, current and former diplomats, political appointees and cover from very general aspects related to the foreign policy theories applied to the case of Iran to the relationships between Iran on one side, and European countries, US and UK, on the other side. It also includes various details about the relationship between Iran and Iraq, as well as the neighbouring countries and the Gulf countries.

The generous insights shared by some people with years of direct contact with the Iranian realities. However, diplomatically, there are so many very important aspects that are willingly or not omitted from those otherwise very interesting articles. 

For instance, what are the decision making mechanisms in matters of foreign policy. At what extent the Foreign Ministry has the capacity of taking decisions in this respect, and if yes, what kind of decisions and if not, what other institutions are involved in the process and at what extent. Also, when it comes to the nomination of diplomats, is the Foreign Ministry the only institution with attributions in this respect? 

Also, what exactly is the diplomatic program of Iran? How does Russia - and China - outplay their interests in Iran and how does this connect with other international players interested in engaging, such as Arab countries and European countries?

The situation of the human rights is tangentially mentioned in some of the articles but not as a serious impediment in pursuing the foreign policy goals but the situation of dual citizens imprisoned under various accusations is for a long time a matter of distrust in bilateral relations. 

I would have expected more applied analysis of the Iranian revolutionary export abroad, not only in Iraq - which is extensively covered - and Lebanon - less than it deserves but also, for instance, in Africa, or Syria, or Yemen. 

Last but not least, the Iran-UK relations are analysed and commented by two experienced diplomats. However, for obvious politeness reasons, the situation of the debt owed by UK to Iran which is a serious element of wariness in the bilateral relations is absent from the otherwise interesting evaluations.

Overall the book is useful, but would give to many of the articles for various non-diplomatic reasons with the benefit of the doubt. The take is ambitious but it delivers much less that it promises. Still, it is better than nothing and given that Iran will probably keep the first page of the news for a lot of reasons in the next months, it´s good to dedicate some time to this edited volume. 

Colonialist Stories, Told Differently

As we are more and more talking about colonisation and colonizers in different contexts, it is useful to keep in mind that the process as such encompasses more than one part of the world and surprinsingly, reveals the simple reality that various countries and empires at specific historical moments were involved in colonization processes. 

Histoire des Colonisations by Marc Ferro covers seven centuries of European expansionism, completed and/or complimented by other expansionist adventures: China, Russia - both as a capitalist and a communist empire -, Japan and even Egypt. The approach follows the French historical take of placing events and encounters in the long duration in order to obtain patterns and read mentalities. Although such an approach is not always appropriate as it obliterates important concrete events for the sake of the vague perspective setting, in the case of colonizations, Marc Ferro take is very relevant for outlining various processes and individual features of different stages of colonization or national patterns. From the 13rd century onwards, colonizations were used as a tool for religious outreach, search for new territories and economic resources, lately cheap resources and workforce, as in the case of France, among others, in North Africa. 
The author explores not only historical facts and events, but also connects with intellectual movements, cultural works and the construction of national elites and the birth of the concept of race.

Although it was written in 1994, it maintains valid perspectives for the recent discussions regarding colonialism, as it frames the right trends and matrix. It is dense and one can easily read it as a passionate journey across ages and continents. 

The only weakness of the book is that given the impressive amount of information, it rather limits the space for critical discourse and theoretical comparisons. The critical part is significantly missing which is a pity due to the tremendous volume of information featured that clearly needs more than a ´neutral´ storification.

Book Review: When We Cease to Understand the World

´The night gardener used to be a mathematician, and now speaks of mathematics as former alcoholics speak of booze, with a mixture of fear and longing´. 

When We Cease to Understand the World by the Chilean writer Benjamin Labatut, shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize is first and foremost a great example of science history writing. Covering the most dramatic episodes of scientific discovery since the end of the 19th century through the tormented personalities of its authors - Fritz Haber, Grothendieck, Schrödinger, Karl Schwarzschield, Heisenberg etc. - it is a realistic landscape of how limited is human knowledge. Sounds as an oxymoron but drunken from the sea of knowledge we sip from every single moment we may forget this basic knowledge. 

The book is rich in information and full of details, portraying more or less known scientific personalities - like, for me, Shin´ichi Mochizuki - focusing more on their personalities and struggles than on their achievements. It succeeds at a great extent to insert the complex knowledge - especially pertaining to quantum physics and complex mathematical equations - into a mentality frame and a specific historical sequence.  

We are extolling the power of mind and of scientific discoveries as such, but it´s our Enlightment expectations which take over sometimes, and sometimes it is just the lack of proper information about what we are praising. But really was Enlightment such an Enligtened time in the history of humanity? As any good book - no matter the topic - When We Cease to Understand the World is raising questions after questions about science, humanity and human decision-making and responsibility. 

We can read the book as a novel - and it is mostly written as such - but also as a popular science book, when the attribute of ´popular´ does not mean necessarily mediocrity. It is a book abour our present and the power we have to both use our mind for good or for bad, although most probably we don´t have too much control over our own achievements. Those who realize it, like the mad mathematician Grothendieck, ended up out of time. Like the author´s gardener featured in the last chapter of the book for whom talking about mathematics is like the memory of a booze for an alcoholic. Therefore, Voltaire´s ´cultiver notre jardin´ acquires a very different meaning.

Within the Mind of A Daesh Follower

 

A Cameroon-born teacher who relocated to France and worked as an educator with underpriviledged children in Paris, Sophie Kasiki takes the radical decision to join the Islamic State, without actually being aware what she is doing. At least, this is what she confessed in her post-escape memoir, Dans la Nuit de Daech. Confesion d´une repentie, published by Robert Laffont. 

Recently converted to Islam, Kasiki was convinced to go to Rakka, by two young men she met at the center where she was working. As she was going through a stage of soul searching, at a very personal and family level, she thought that by ´helping´ in Syria she would be part of something bigger than her. As many other women who joined the Daesh whose testimonies I´ve read or listen to, she was promised comfort and relative luxury, a cheap life and a community of like-minded people (what exactly this means it´s a completely different subjective story). Kasiki takes her son with her telling to her husband that she is actually doing some volunteering work in Turkey. 

Once taken to Syria, her nightmare and the plan to escape is started. She will encounter there a different reality that she naively not even imagined: of abuse and extreme brutality, perpetrated by a bunch of radicalized foreigners utterly disrespectful when not openly aggressive against the local Syrians. An army of strangers took over Syrian teritory. 

As she succeeded to connect with her husband several times, he got in touch with the France anti-terror experts and despite the slow down and the bureaucratic asperities, Kasiki and her son will return to France. After some interrogation sessions and a couple of months of prison, she is free and able to share her story.

The book is an useful testimony for anyone trying to better understand the recruitment methods and the overall functioning of Daesh. It can be added as a psyhological handbook about the type of personality usually attracted to such deadly extremist adventures.

Dans la Nuit de Daech has a very simple writing, the linear kind of story from A to B, lacking any kind of serious introspection and eventually a critical evaluation of her own decisions and risks encountered. It is an useful bibliographical source - especially for the French-speaking realm - but needs a serious critical add-on.