The great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish passed away yesterday, in Houston, Texas, of all places. Read about him here and here. (Will the US media cover this story at all?!)The fact that this man never received a Nobel Prize is a cultural crime. (Arab artists can only receive Nobels if they have come out publicly and uncritically for "peace" with Israel. If they are in any way critical of Israeli policies, no chance.)
3 comments:
You are right, he should have been given the Nobel Prize. I just saw a little story about his passing in the U.S. meida (web).
It's amazing how a total hack can rise to fame if he's a "Palestinian." Look at Edward Said, whose research (we now know) would have been laughed out of the faculty lounge if his name had been Edward Saidman. Ditto with Darwish--absurdly self-important special-pleadings poet that he was.
As for Edward Said, his first book had nothing, NOTHING, to do with the Middle East. It was a very fine piece of literary criticism called "Beginnings." It was only AFTER he made his reputation as a literary critic that he published the book Orientalism. His academic reputation therefore had nothing to do with his name, and in fact, his Arab name, in those days, was a decided drawback.
As for Mahmoud Darwish, you have no poetic sensibility. And of course you read Arabic well, and so can make such refined judgments...
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