Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 00:41:00 -0500 (EST) From: Orpheus <cwduff-AT-alcor.concordia.ca> Subject: Genet/Dost.... Gary you were also asking about whether Jean Genet had written about the Russian writer Dostoievski. He wrote one short piece which can be found in L'Enemie Declare. White discusses this piece briefly in his English bio. of Genet. Other remarks about Sartre and Genet: Mohamed Choukri - Genet in Tangie -tr. Paul Bowles/intor by WS Burroughs,The Ecco Press New York 1973/74/ English.The book was first printed in French and I wld. imagine Arabic. Choukri remained a friend of Genet's for many years. Another very small limited edition came out in French just a few years ago, and its very interesting to see Choukri meeting Genet again. Genet is much older and he congratulates Choukri on his book Pain Nu I think it is called. Wait, its not another edition, but another book completely and can fit in your hand almost; its about 12 uncut pages small tiny press French style edition. Published after the death of Genet.----- In the book written in Tangier, Genet tells Choukri that "Without hesitating he replied:Naturally I agree. Sartre read me the first hundred pages aloud, and then asked me if I thought it was alright as it was, and if he should go on or not." p. 9. There are other remarks as well. But I will let you find them for yourself -- There is also Bernard Moraly who wrote a french biography of Genet which predates White's book by about 7 years. I also believe that the last interview that Genet was to an Arabic playright- Saadalah Wannous ;it was printed in AL Karmil, in 1986 in Arabic the year in which Genet died.It was then translated back into French which I think was appropriate given Genet's stance towards France and the French language which is not superior to other languages and not more important or sacred no matter what anyone says. Genet is buried in Morroco outside of French territory This was as he wished. --Arbaud Malgan wrote a book Jean Genet Qui etes vous -- LA Manufacture INA of France issued this text in 1988. You can read this inter-view with Genet in it if you wish. He speaks about his last bk. Prisoner of Love in this interview. Its a very canny intereview. There are others which might have interest to you as well. Lastly, there is Genet A Chatila - Textes Reunis Par Jerome Hankins - Edition Solin 1992. In it there is a truly movng interview with Leila Shahid, Genet's lady friend of his last years. She was there in Beirut with him in 1982. She is naturally Palestinian. I suggest this interview as I would offer a piece of jewlery to a lover or friend. I dont think one can find one Genet but many. To paraphrase a chapter in Milles Pla teau -- One or Many Genets Genet is inescapable. There are also some fine interviews with Angela Davis dating back to the 70's. Very Fine intereviews. There is David Hilliard's second volume of memoirs coming out I believe in the spring -- his account of Genet's time among the Black Panthers. And by the way, do read the first one to grasp the reality of the Black Panthers as narrated 30 years later. I am disturbed by White's contexting of Genet in Beirut; he quotes Thomas Friedman's account of Sabra and Shatila; why? I don't know, But I will ask him if we ever meet. Why did he not use Robert Fisk's account of the massacres and in this way the readers would have had a much better idea of where exactly Genet was and why and what happened. Friedman is much to much of an apologist for the State of Israle to give a true account of the massacre and I think White was unfair to the memory of those who died there[and those who still live there], as well as showing insensitivity to Genet's politics. Perhaps White had to deal with a publisher who was worried about things... I think White had an enormous task when he undertook to write about Jean Genet. I am thankful that he did what he did do even though I am critical of this aspect of it. Portraying an artist is never easy, and to portray Genet at all was a very courageous one. It is interesting because White says that Genet would not have liked White; after says White, I am a middle class man and Genet hated the middle class, I am academic and Genet was not.- I think that White's book was an act of love, and acts of love are never perfect. Read Moraly's book - an Israeli by the way and comnbine with Saint Genet and White and all the other interviews and portraits and texts and the era becomes more clear itself, and Genet one man among many. Oh, yes, Genet was angry at Sartre in later years, but that was because Sartre did not have the same love affair with the Palestinians. It's interesting that White does not discuss Genet's feelings about Sartre's death, or his visiting the grave of Sartre; One lovely remark White made in the introduction the first English edition of Prisoner of Love - and subsequently dropped in the second one is that Deleuze in a lecture compared the book to the Bible, and Genet of course invokes Homer many times, and had made reference to Homer as far back as 76 in a long interview. and I already told you that Derrida told a friend of mine at a conference in the summer of 2000 at Cerisy France that he was hurt by the book. That is interesting. Genet never ends, he is Genet Genesis. More another day --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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