By Wayne Koestenbaum
Wayne Koestenbaum considers the which means of humiliation during this eloquent paintings of cultural critique and private reflection.
The lives of individuals either recognized and imprecise are packed with scarlet-letter moments while their soiled laundry sees sunlight. In those moments we not just witness the reversibility of "success," of prominence, but in addition come to visceral phrases with our personal weak selves. We can't cease observing the scene of disgrace, picking out with it and soaking up its nearness, and relishing our imagined immunity from its stain, whilst we recognize the common, embarrassing obstacle of residing in our personal our bodies. With an strange, disarming mix of autobiography and cultural statement, famous poet and critic Wayne Koestenbaum takes us via a spectrum of mortifying circumstances—in heritage, literature, artwork, present occasions, song, movie, and his personal existence. His beneficiant disclosures and great observations transcend prurience to create a poetics of abasement. creative, poignant, erudite, and playful, Humiliation plunges into some of the most disquieting of human reviews, with reflections straight away emboldening and humane.
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Example text
Is he one of the notables? UNKNOWN MAN: CADI: No. you’re in charge of directing his affairs? UNKNOWN MAN: CADI: That’s so. Then he’s an employee. UNKNOWN MAN: CADI: They claim he has. They claim he has a trade but he does not make anything. UNKNOWN MAN: CADI: He makes nothing. No. Has he influence? qxd:Tawfiq_Hakim 52 4/13/08 4:12 PM Page 52 The Sultan’s Dilemma UNKNOWN MAN: Yes, CADI: on his acquaintances. Has he many acquaintances? UNKNOWN MAN: Yes—many. CADI [thinking in silence as he passes his fingers through his beard]: Yes.
WINE MERCHANT forward. qxd:Tawfiq_Hakim 4/13/08 4:12 PM Page 45 Act Two SLAVE TRADER: VIZIER: Silence! Silence! Honorable people! You are today present at a great and unique occa- sion, one of the most important in our history: a glorious Sultan asks for his freedom and has recourse to his people instead of to his sword—that sharp and mighty sword by which he was victorious in battles against the Mongols and with which he could also have been victorious in gaining his freedom and liberating himself from slavery.
Thirty! At a sum of thirty! Thirty thousand dinars! [whispering]: Thirty thousand dinars to be thrown into the sea! What a madman! [shouting at the top of his voice]: Thirty thousand dinars! SLAVE TRADER Thirty! Any better bid? No one? No one bids more than thirty thousand dinars? Is this all I’m offered as a price for our great Sultan? SULTAN VIZIER: [to the VIZIER]: So this is the height of noble, patriotic, appreciation! Your Majesty, those present bidding here are mostly the miserly mer- chants and well-to-do, those whose nature is niggardly, whose one desire is profit, and who begrudge spending money for the sake of a lofty purpose.