![]() ![]() Just as I was returning to the hotel, I remembered a group of Arabs I had noticed lying in the open air on the mats of a little café. Which is the cause and the effect of the absence of great artists. One thing admirable about the Arabs: they live their art, they sing and scatter it from day to day they don’t cling to it, they don’t embalm it in works. I despise those who can acknowledge beauty only when it’s already transcribed, interpreted. This land of pleasure satisfies without calming desire indeed, every satisfaction merely exalts it. Said cites one set of observations made by Gide’s protagonist, Michel: In Homos in 1995, Leo Bersani commented: “ The Immoralist, it would not be entirely unfair to say, is the story of a man whose discovery that he is a pederast transforms him from a prematurely dried-up bookworm into a passionate lover of life.” For ”life,” it is tempting to substitute “young men, mostly Arabs.” In 1993, in Culture and Imperialism, Edward Said, discussing The Immoralist, had focused his attention on the fact that a number of events are set in North Africa. It is disturbing, upsetting even, to read. ![]() ![]() Rereading Gide’s The Immoralist (1902) recently that is indeed how I experienced the text. Someone who is disturbing, perhaps, a troublemaker. There is an oft-cited sentence in André Gide’s journal entry for March 28, 1935, in which he notes: “Belle fonction à assumer : celle d’ inquiéteur.” One might translate inquiéteur many ways. Michael Lucey University of California, Berkeley ![]()
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