Textual Trimmings

  This is the second in the series of unpublished pieces that I wrote throughout this year. The first could be found here. This year I wrote, in Arabic and in English , about the Kyle Rittenhouse case. A paper I submitted over a year ago to Radical Philosophy discusses the hierarchization of fire in Western thought, and opens by discussing the shooting scene in Kenosha, wherein Rittenhouse shot three people, killing two and seriously injuring the third. The editors suggested I focus the paper more on the Kyle Rittenhouse case, which was still recent then. I reformulated the paper to centre the argument that the impunity with which Rittenhouse carried out the shooting is rooted in a Western epistemology that entrusts the white man with the advanced forms of fire (the fuller argument can be found in the Radical Philosophy paper , and hopefully in a forthcoming paper on incendiarism and hysteria- perhaps parts of a future book project on fire). About two weeks before the paper’s publi

Since this blog started as a concession to the hegemony of the Gregorian New Year,  and as 2021 is drawing to an end, I will be publishing pieces that I wrote throughout the year but did not publish. The first of the series is this article which reflects on the memory of the Paris Commune and how it intersects with the memories of the Arab Uprising and the more recent memory of this year's Palestinian insurrection. I originally wrote it in May to mark the 150th anniversary of the Commune. I am posting it here with minor modifications.  The Paris Commune, Unknown Artist, Getty Images French Police suppress pro-Palestine demonstrators, EuroNews Dislocating Paris, Locating Versailles This year, we commemorated the 150 th anniversary of the Paris Commune in a world dominated by the forces of imperialism, colonialism, counterrevolution, and reaction. The Mairie of Paris officially celebrated this memory while the French authorities banned and brutally suppress ed demonstrations of so