“Thinking of them reminds me of a quote I read recently from the great Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. that says, "If youIt's about will and hope...
“Thinking of them reminds me of a quote I read recently from the great Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. that says, "If you can't fly, run; if you can't run, walk; if you can't walk, crawl." We must encourage those still struggling to keep moving forward.”
A story full of motivating messages ... I recommend it especially for people who let go of their dreams quickly and who need a morale boost to follow their efforts ...
‘’ Chaque livre possède deux poids différents: d’une part, un poids physique et, d’autre part, un poids subjectif qui se rapporte au contenu du livre ‘’ Chaque livre possède deux poids différents: d’une part, un poids physique et, d’autre part, un poids subjectif qui se rapporte au contenu du livre, voire à son importance. Combien de fois nous retrouvons-nous, en quittant un lieu, devant ces décisions difficiles: quels livres aimerions-nous ou pourrions-nous emporter?’’
Je déballe ma bibliothèque, un article publié en 1931 par Walter Benjamin, traducteur, philosophe et historien de l'art allemand. Il a réussi à traduire des oeuvres très importants de Balzac, Proust et Baudelaire.
Dans cet article, l'intérêt de Benjamin a été porté vers les collectionneurs de livre, plus précisément, les émotions éprouvées par les collectionneurs lors de l'achat des éditions et des collections d'oeuvres. Il raconte ses expériences lors de l'obtention des livres, le plaisir de s'offrir des oeuvres en visitant telle ou telle ville et l'ambiance créée par ces achats. . ’ Les collectionneurs sont des individus pourvus d’instinct tactique; d’après leur expérience, lorsqu’ils conquièrent une ville étrangère, le magasin de livres anciens le plus minuscule peut signifier un fort, la papeterie la plus éloignée une position clé. Combien de villes ne se sont)elles pas ouvertes devant moi au cours des marches avec lesquelles je partais à la conquête de livres.’’
Let’s talk first about the life of George Orwell (real name Eric Arthur Blair) who was born in 1903 in India to a father who was an official in the InLet’s talk first about the life of George Orwell (real name Eric Arthur Blair) who was born in 1903 in India to a father who was an official in the Indian administration in charge of the Opium Board. His family had always been linked to British imperialism. After years of study in England, Blair returned to India in 1922 to become a sergeant in the Imperial Police in Burma.
As demonstrated in this essay (Shooting an elephant), the relationship between the local population (the Burmese) and the colonizers was very strained. Nationalism takes an important place and manifests itself (negatively) in violent strikes and in the not-so-kind and respectful treatment of Europeans (white men).
‘’ As a police officer, I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so. When a Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter. This happened more than once. ‘’
While working as a man of authority, he was called upon to face the wrath of an elephant who has killed a man and continues to wreak havoc and destroy homes. When he found it, the elephant seemed calm, eating quietly and peacefully. However, the gazes of the inhabitants were focused on the narrator. Being a white man and a man of power (a police officer), would he be able to kill this elephant?
An essay by Orwell who tends more towards metaphor. Indeed, imperialism and authoritarianism have often been mentioned in the work of this writer ( 1984 and The Animal Farm)....more
--She has always dreamed of being a writer, and today, with so much will and effort, she influences a lot of young people and she is a source of hope--. Nahid Rachlin tells her life story and that of several women around her in her book '' Persian girls ''. She also talks about the Iranian way of life and society during the Shah's regime and its effects on her family and the Iranian people. Religion, women's rights, and freedom of speech were themes often addressed by the writer. Since cultural heritage is my field of study and research, I am interested in everything that can be related to different cultures. The description of this book was magnificent, I was able to experience all the emotion with the writer. The traditions and customs, including clothing, gastronomy, and wedding parties, were discussed in a detailed and fascinating way. I was able to discover several aspects of Iranian culture thanks to this author. Young people in Iran and in several other countries feel lost between traditions, religion, and the authority of family and society; and modernity, freedom of speech, and hope as felt and wanted by through globalization. Rachlin also brought up a theme, so sensitive at that time, women's rights. It is true that the writer remains neutral in most chapters. However, we can feel how much the woman does not have freedom for doing a lot of things, like being an actress, traveling without the permission of her father or her husband,... Far from it, she must wait for their permissions to do any task. The Shah had promised equality between women and men, however, his promises remained for a long time only words.
In the political dimension, Iran was going through a period turned upside down by the new mode of governance established by the Shah who wanted to follow in the footsteps of modernity while putting in place a system of control to everything that can upset the opinion of his people in relation to his decisions. Books, films, and any other means that allows contact with the outside world should be controlled. "The White Revolution" as put forward by the Shah has been a source of dictatorship wrapped in democracy and equality. Al Khomeini, even during his exile, led political protests against the Shah, he wanted to establish a conservative Islamic country and face the Americanization of culture. Extremism reigns, chaos is spreading until asking the Americans and the British to leave the country. Iran is lost between extreme Islamism and the "modern" dictatorship.
Her dream of going to live in the United States was, in my opinion, a dream of having the freedom to become a writer and flee to a society that judges without taking into consideration the will or freedom of people. Nahid was able to face his father and an entire "conservative" society. In the second part of her book, she talked about her identity, she felt neither Iranian nor American. A sense of belonging lost. This chapter reminded me of the book by the Franco-Lebanese writer Amine Maalouf "In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong" where he spoke in particular of this "double identity". What makes us say that we belong to this or that culture? “What makes me myself rather than anyone else is the very fact that I am poised between two countries, two or three languages, and several cultural traditions. It is precisely this that defines my identity. Would I exist more authentically if I cut off a part of myself?
Personally, I consider this cultural diversity the strong point and the richness of Nahid to go further and be tolerant towards people without taking into consideration their nationality or their religion. What is also fascinating throughout the reading is that the author evokes the greatest Persian poets and writers. I had read The Divan Al Hafez, and his poems often came to my mind while reading this memoir. This is not a simple story, it is a rebirth for Pari and for anyone who finds himself in the world of Nahid.
Selected by Christopher Merrill, the Director of Iowa International Writing Program as one of the best four books of the year. "If you want to know what it was like to grow up in Iran this is the book to read. Rachlin, the author of five previous works of fiction, including the much-acclaimed Foreigner, begins her story at the age of nine when she was taken away from the only mother she had ever known—her aunt, as it happens—and returned to a family in which the prospects of her becoming a writer were, at best, dim. But her portrait of the artist in an Islamic country on the verge of dramatic change is filled with light."
«Un hombre puede ser buen padre y buen marido, ciudadano escrupuloso, amante de las letras, filántropo y además antisemita. Puede ser aficionado a la «Un hombre puede ser buen padre y buen marido, ciudadano escrupuloso, amante de las letras, filántropo y además antisemita. Puede ser aficionado a la pesca y a los placeres del amor, tolerante en materia religiosa, lleno de ideas generosas sobre la condición de los indígenas del Africa central, y además, aborrecer a los judíos. No los quiere- suele decirse- porque su experiencia le ha revelado que eran malos, porque las estadísticas le informaron que eran peligrosos, porque ciertos factores históricos han influido en sus juicio».
Este libro fue escrito en 1944 y publicado en 1946, justo después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, un período en el que la cuestión judía fue fuertemente planteada. Sartre enfatiza el derecho de expresión, porque ser antisemita no puede ser tolerado y protegido bajo la sombra de los derechos de expresión. De su libro, notamos que el escritor tenía mucha experiencia con personas que hablaban libremente sobre el hecho de que odiaba a los judíos con sus disculpas.
Una lectura interesante dirigida a identificar los fundamentos del antisemitismo y destacar las diferentes "causas" de este tipo de racismo. Lo que podemos entender claramente es que no hay causas para ser antisemita, sino pretextos.
«Lo que todos tienen en común no es una naturaleza sino una condición, es decir un conjunto de límites y sujeciones: la necesidad de morir, de trabajar para vivir, de existir en un mundo habitado ya por otros hombres»...more
The five chapters of this essay include the following topics: I. NATURE AND MAN; II. THE GOOD LIFE; III. MORAL RULES; IV. SALVATION: INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIALThe five chapters of this essay include the following topics: I. NATURE AND MAN; II. THE GOOD LIFE; III. MORAL RULES; IV. SALVATION: INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL; V. SCIENCE AND HAPPINESS In these five sections, Russell highlights many subjects such as the man-nature relationship, religion, morals, science, among others. The clarity of ideas and the way in which this philosopher deals with the most delicate subjects impress me. As in many of his books, religion is often criticized by Russell for being a limit for human development. In his essay "Why I am not a Christian?", the author evokes the fact that fear is the foundation of religion. ‘’Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear’’. This idea is always present in this book. The part when he was talking about the meaning of a good life was very impressive. This is where he quoted one of his most remarkable sentences. ‘’The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Knowledge and love are both indefinitely extensible; therefore, however good a life may be, a better life can be imagined. Neither love without knowledge, nor knowledge without love can produce a good life. ‘’ ...more
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Bertrand Russel demonstrates the positive and negative impact of science on society. The first chapter was relevant in the sense that it i
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Bertrand Russel demonstrates the positive and negative impact of science on society. The first chapter was relevant in the sense that it introduces the vision of peoples towards science. The epidemics and deadly diseases which attacked humanity were among the great enemies of human beings in parallel with natural disasters, the majority of people explained these phenomena by divine punishment or supernatural punishment. Despite the power of science that has been demonstrated in many areas, it was very difficult to change social thinking regarding their common knowledge based on religious beliefs. ‘’The diminution of human suffering owing to the advances in medicine is beyond all calculation. ‘’ This is what is happening right now, the world is facing this virus which has killed thousands of people and some religious still think that it is divine punishment. ‘’We were told that faith could remove mountains, but no one believed it; we are now told that the atomic bomb can remove mountains, and everyone believes it. ‘’ Bertrand Russel, the agnostic moralist has always fought religious beliefs by saying that they represented only a form of fear against the unknown. However, Russell also fought certain ideologies such as communism which he believed to have the same results as religion: crimes against humanity and wars. In other chapters of the book, he explained that science could be a way to reduce human suffering. However, to achieve these objectives several conditions must be taken into consideration such as the improvement of human behavior, establishing peace; among others....more
Esclave pendant 12 ans ( Twelve years a slave ) est une autobiographie de Solomon Northup, paru en 1853. C'est l'histoire d'un violoniste, charpentierEsclave pendant 12 ans ( Twelve years a slave ) est une autobiographie de Solomon Northup, paru en 1853. C'est l'histoire d'un violoniste, charpentier noir très doué, né libre à New York qui par la suite est devenu esclave pendant 12 ans. Solomon n'a jamais révélé sa vrai histoire, il a vécu sous la sauvagerie et la cruauté; une souffrance physique avec le fouet- d'innombrables coups sans raison.
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Cependant, le pire c'était la souffrance morale qui se manifestait avec les insultes et l'humiliation. ''Je suis né libre. Pendant plus de trente ans, j'ai goûté aux joies de cette liberté dans un Etat libre. J'ai ensuite été enlevé et vendu comme esclave, demeurant dans cette condition d’asservissement jusqu'à ce que l'on vienne me secourir en janvier 1853, après douze ans de captivité. On m'a alors suggéré de faire le récit de ma vie et de ses aléas, qui ne devraient pas laisser le public indifférent.''
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Ce témoignage nous ouvre les yeux sur la souffrance de l'humanité dans une période où on jugeait les personnes selon leur couleur, religion ou nationalité. Comment l'être humain peut devenir si cruel et sauvage? Est-ce que nous nous pouvons pas apprivoiser cette bette inhumaine qui ne fait que diffuser la haine? “No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them” ― Elie Wiesel...more
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