تاريخ النشر: 12/07/2016
الناشر: دار النهار للنشر
نبذة الناشر:In this collection of essays, written over the span of 40 years, efforts are made to suspend the imposing strictures of my scientific and scholarly discipline which often call upon us to be rigorous and dispassionate in our exploration of societal problems. By freeing myself from such exacting demands, I ...could write more engagingly and, hence, in more vivid and graphic prose. Though the collection is discursive, it is, hopefully, more intuitive and readable. At the least, it is less taxing to the sensibilities of the ordinary reader.
The problems and issues explored are wide-ranging in topics and scope. They do though lend themselves to such discursive treatment. They can also be placed within meaningful categories:
The demoralizing effects of the civil war as seen in protracted and displaced hostility. Traumatized and dislocated groups ended up, in effects, killing not those they wanted to kill but those they could kill. An effort is also made to demonstrate how roots, evident in the resilience of kinship, communal and confessional loyalties could become routes for socio-economic, political and cultural mobilization.
The interplay between space, place and well-being and their impact on the emergence of vibrant of public spheres such as the “bourj” in downtown Beirut and the “corniche”.
The nature of public culture in troubled times, in particular the role of artists and the cinema of forms of public entertainment.
The legacy of the American University of Beirut and the idyllic twinship of the University and Ras Beirut as a plural, open and middle-class neighborhood. Neither could have survived without the other.
Personal reflections on the passing of four dear departed friends: Ghassan Tueni, Edward Said, Pierre El Khoury, and Nadim my twin brother.
The encounters of my two sons (George and Ramzi) as they grapple with the anguish of displacement. Becoming an American in the case of George and Ramzi’s re-entry into Lebanon.
Finally, an exploration of the seamy side of Lebanon, as seen in the commodification of sexual outlets, features of Janus-like Lebanon, anomie, being adrift and the predicament of seeking without fulfillment. إقرأ المزيد