A book by Adania Shibli covers the same ground Archived Message Posted by Subhi on May 7, 2020, 1:06 pm, in reply to "The next Travon Martin" "Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, translated from Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette, Fitzcarraldo Editions (2020)" Along with Frankenstein in Baghdad the Arab writers and culture are responding to latest iteration of "the nightmare of modernity" this piece titled when duty destroys "morality", I'd say humanity would be a better fit, I am not wholly sold on "morality" it seems mostly to be used to condemn others or justify the unconscionable, cabin fever making me dispepsic I don't doubt. "It begins on 9 August 1949 and the terrain, through the soldier’s eyes, is moribund: “Nothing moved except the mirage. Vast stretches of barren hills rose in layers up to the sky, trembling silently under the heft of the mirage … The only details that could be discerned were a faint winding border which aimlessly meandered across these ridges, and the slender shadows of dry, thorny burnet and stones dotting the ground.” The tone of this historic section is heavy, the pace slowed down to the trudge of a boot in sand. The routine is drab, repetitive; the details of the military day related with tedium and an unquestioning sense of obligatory actions slowed by the heat: “He took a towel from his kit bag, dipped it in the water he had poured into the bowl.” A creature bites the soldier’s thigh; the heat enervates. Covered in sweat, he methodically searches for the intruder. A slight swelling appears around two dots. Three days later, the bite wound has worsened and the soldier experiences nausea. On patrol that morning, the soldiers surprise “a band of Arabs standing motionless by the spring” who they kill, together with their camels. Only a girl and a dog survive. The soldiers take in the girl, rape and kill her too. That’s it for the first section. The description on the back of the book summarizes as much. This intense focus on a single incident of a far larger military endeavor – the minor detail – enables the reader to engage move-by-move with the choices exercised by soldiers carrying out war crimes. Shibli demonstrates the way in which a sense of military duty obliterates, or at least suspends, independent morality" https://electronicintifada.net/content/when-duty-destroys-morality/30031 Message Thread: The next Travon Martin - Raskolnikov May 7, 2020, 6:54 am Re: The next Travon Martin - Mary May 7, 2020, 9:31 am Re: The next Travon Martin - Mary May 7, 2020, 9:44 am Re: The next Travon Martin - Raskolnikov May 7, 2020, 10:00 am McMichael - Mary May 7, 2020, 11:09 am A book by Adania Shibli covers the same ground - Subhi May 7, 2020, 1:06 pm That Florida verdict in 2013 had a supporter on the New Zealand left. - Morrissey May 7, 2020, 11:13 pm Re: That Florida verdict in 2013 had a supporter on the New Zealand left. - Raskolnikov May 8, 2020, 7:10 am Update, arrest and charged with murder - Raskolnikov May 8, 2020, 7:39 am   Searching