Fetish Systems is a critically acclaimed work written by Raafat Majzoub, one of Lebanon's most promising young authors. It is now available (to read or to buy) through the author's brand new web site at http://www.236m3.com/literature.html
The book is also available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other retailers.
Free Preview Available via Google Books. Click here.
Also check out Raafat Majzoub's Blog (Playplace) titled leitmotif(s):
http://leit-mo-tif.blogspot.com
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Fetish Systems is an autobiographical love letter of impotence. it is the pompous imaginary grace after a hysterical loss of of everything;the stepping out of self to look at it from a third person perspective, only to step back in, and narrate a processed first person dysjunct epiphany. the narrator refuses a present tense, hence starts nowhere to end nowhere, in avoidance to admit, in search of an alternative to the optical reception of the real; shies back into itself, into words - not language - to weave a non-place, where everything comes to go.
يروى الكتاب على لسان راوي يحدث نفسه وعشاقه في ماضيه، حاضره ومستقبله وهو ينسج شيئاً فشيئاً سيرته الذاتية عبر قصصه وأحاديثه مازجاً حقيقته وخياله. لا يقدم الكتاب رواية لها تسلسل زمني واضح، ولا بداية، حبكة أو نهاية، بل يمهد في توزيع فقراته حالة الراوي الفكرية والعاطفية بالخطاب المباشر مع القارئ الذي بدوره تتبدل شخصيته في القصة مع تبدل الفقرات. للكتاب أيضاً منحى صوري، بحيث يتم توزيع الفقرات والكلمات على صفحاته بطريقة غير تسلسلية مصمماً على إضافة بعد حسي على المحتوى الفكري المطروح.
(Arabic Summary and Description of the book by its author; taken from his blog entry. Click here to see original entry).
_______________________________________________________________
This book is not only daring and courageous; it is also beautifully written, powerful, and difficult to categorize within established literary genres. It is also impossible to forget.
The work seems to function as an autobiographical account that reminds the reader of a love letter, written without regard to time, space, chronology or traditional (expected?) plot development. The result could have easily been chaotic and alienating (and it is, but in an empowering way), yet Majzoub's style of writing keeps the reader interested, curious, often uneasy, but always fully involved in the 'narrative.' We often feel courted by the lyrical quality of the work and the questions that arise--centering on narrating the self, on questioning the alleged impotence that seems to define the work as a whole--ultimately leads the reader to turn inward in an attempt to recuperate the validity of one's own "fetish system."
I absolutely recommend this book and its author, Raafat Majzoub, seems destined for greatness. The only cautionary remark I would make is to toss your inhibitions and pre-expectations aside and to approach this book, perhaps like its jilted lover, in a manner that will enable you to go on a journey that begins nowhere, and ends nowhere. This voyage to and from nowhere is worthwhile, to say the least, and the work as a whole--written by one of Lebanon's most promising young authors--will leave you deliberately uneasy, cleansed, transfixed and transformed.
Ramzi Salti, Ph.D.
Stanford University
Check out Raafat Majzoub's blog (which he aptly describes as his 'playspace') at http://leit-mo-tif.blogspot.com for musings and creative commentary by this thoughtful/thought provoking writer.
EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK, P. 82:
pg. 82 | Fetish Systems
I want to take my camera and leave here for a while,
I want to accidentally drop my phone and step on it, then
instinctively, elephant stampedes – wild horny elephants –
run towards me, their tusks penetrate the air around me,
fertilize it into wind – elephant stampedes, grey flat feet
munch pieces of the ground, plunge in resonance with this
frequency of self – to step on my phone, for I do not want
to talk to people, and other things – including you. I need
to – now – get lost, with my camera, where we would only
talk of clutches with ticks, I would press its hulk, sweat on
it, then wipe the lens blur with my shorts – shorts I would
take off – alone with my camera – and whatever we do,
stays within my focal, its focal, whatever we do, is mine and
its own – whatever is almost nothing, in my inside, where
nothing synonyms everything.
يروى الكتاب على لسان راوي يحدث نفسه وعشاقه في ماضيه، حاضره ومستقبله وهو ينسج شيئاً فشيئاً سيرته الذاتية عبر قصصه وأحاديثه مازجاً حقيقته وخياله. لا يقدم الكتاب رواية لها تسلسل زمني واضح، ولا بداية، حبكة أو نهاية، بل يمهد في توزيع فقراته حالة الراوي الفكرية والعاطفية بالخطاب المباشر مع القارئ الذي بدوره تتبدل شخصيته في القصة مع تبدل الفقرات. للكتاب أيضاً منحى صوري، بحيث يتم توزيع الفقرات والكلمات على صفحاته بطريقة غير تسلسلية مصمماً على إضافة بعد حسي على المحتوى الفكري المطروح.
(Arabic Summary and Description of the book by its author; taken from his blog entry. Click here to see original entry).
_______________________________________________________________
This book is not only daring and courageous; it is also beautifully written, powerful, and difficult to categorize within established literary genres. It is also impossible to forget.
The work seems to function as an autobiographical account that reminds the reader of a love letter, written without regard to time, space, chronology or traditional (expected?) plot development. The result could have easily been chaotic and alienating (and it is, but in an empowering way), yet Majzoub's style of writing keeps the reader interested, curious, often uneasy, but always fully involved in the 'narrative.' We often feel courted by the lyrical quality of the work and the questions that arise--centering on narrating the self, on questioning the alleged impotence that seems to define the work as a whole--ultimately leads the reader to turn inward in an attempt to recuperate the validity of one's own "fetish system."
I absolutely recommend this book and its author, Raafat Majzoub, seems destined for greatness. The only cautionary remark I would make is to toss your inhibitions and pre-expectations aside and to approach this book, perhaps like its jilted lover, in a manner that will enable you to go on a journey that begins nowhere, and ends nowhere. This voyage to and from nowhere is worthwhile, to say the least, and the work as a whole--written by one of Lebanon's most promising young authors--will leave you deliberately uneasy, cleansed, transfixed and transformed.
Ramzi Salti, Ph.D.
Stanford University
Check out Raafat Majzoub's blog (which he aptly describes as his 'playspace') at http://leit-mo-tif.blogspot.com for musings and creative commentary by this thoughtful/thought provoking writer.
EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK, P. 82:
pg. 82 | Fetish Systems
I want to take my camera and leave here for a while,
I want to accidentally drop my phone and step on it, then
instinctively, elephant stampedes – wild horny elephants –
run towards me, their tusks penetrate the air around me,
fertilize it into wind – elephant stampedes, grey flat feet
munch pieces of the ground, plunge in resonance with this
frequency of self – to step on my phone, for I do not want
to talk to people, and other things – including you. I need
to – now – get lost, with my camera, where we would only
talk of clutches with ticks, I would press its hulk, sweat on
it, then wipe the lens blur with my shorts – shorts I would
take off – alone with my camera – and whatever we do,
stays within my focal, its focal, whatever we do, is mine and
its own – whatever is almost nothing, in my inside, where
nothing synonyms everything.
You can also listen to audio samples/reading from this great work at https://soundcloud.com/236
Here is one sample reading by Hamed Sinno, the lead singer for Mashrou' Leila:
Here is one sample reading by Hamed Sinno, the lead singer for Mashrou' Leila:
You can listen to more audio samples/reading from this great work at https://soundcloud.com/236
Check out teh author's dynamic new web site at http://www.236m3.com/literature.html
Check out teh author's dynamic new web site at http://www.236m3.com/literature.html
