When Free Speech Turns Into an Orwellian Nightmare or PC Culture in Academia…

I have had both first-hand and second-hand experiences of this phenomenon. There are well-meaning yet completely mis-guided individuals who find everything offensive. They attempt to silence those who disagree with them, failing to see the great irony of using censorship tactics to quiet the voices of those with different thoughts. I have witnessed moral crusaders smear the names of people whose only flaw was having a dark sense of humor. They also use concepts like “safe space” and “trigger warning” to get those they dislike fired. Petty dictatorships are established over the most trivial matters that are blown out of proportion…

“The Human Stain” could be a real story. In fact, I understand that a very similar case actually occurred around the time Roth published this novel. And because it was so close to something I had seen happen right before my own disbelieving and flabbergasted eyes, it made me cringe a great deal.

Don't misunderstand me. I loved this book. But it was a painful reminder of the strange and broken system of academia that I once held in such high esteem. It is also interesting to note that this novel doesn't take place that long ago: 1998 is still less than 20 years ago, and evangelistic political correctness has only become more hardline since then.

Moving on to the actual book.

Coleman Silk, the highly respected dean of faculty at Athena College, resigns in disgrace after allegations of racism are raised against him by two black students who were offended by a remark he made when they were absent from his class. To cope with this humiliating experience and the death of his wife, he embarks on an affair with an almost illiterate woman half his age. He befriends a writer in his neighborhood, and this new friend will soon discover a secret that Silk has been hiding for almost his entire life, making the accusations against him even more absurd and devastating than they initially seemed.

Spoilers from this point on.

I must admit that I am very late to the party: this is my first Philip Roth novel, and I am completely amazed by his sophisticated characterization. There are people I have known for a long time, but I don't know them half as well as I now know Coleman Silk. And it's not just the main character who is portrayed with such detail and humanity. The deeply damaged Les Farley and the incredibly self-important Delphine Roux are also brought to life vividly. The prose is powerful and captivating: yes, he uses big words, but that's not a problem for me at all. I love big words! The carefully constructed non-linear narrative structure reveals these people, and what you think you know about them dissipates as you explore their roots and motivations. These characters feel so real and will stay in my thoughts for a long time.

This book compels the reader to think not only about race but also about identity, how our actions shape that identity, and whether or not how others perceive us ultimately defines us. We learn relatively early that Coleman Silk is a black man who has been passing as white for almost his entire life. Only a few people know; most of the world doesn't see the secret hidden in plain sight, and he has fabricated a Jewish background for himself that people accept without question. The already absurd accusations of racism against him would be even more absurd if people knew the truth about him, but how can he come out now, after a career, marriage, family – an entire life where it was always assumed that he was white?

Coleman's nemesis, Delphine, is a much more complex and fascinating creation than I had anticipated. And as much as I can't stand her, I loved reading about her. Roth painted such a painfully realistic picture of a specific group: the highly sheltered intellectual elite who have never lived outside of an academic setting and are ill-equipped to handle the “outside” world.

And of course, there are the Farleys: Lester, whose PTSD from his two tours in Viet-Nam is so severe that he can no longer distinguish between reality and delusion, and Faunia – the woman life has decided to mistreat… Abuse, bad luck, and then more abuse are what this woman has had to endure, making her hard and callous. She has seen and lived through things that no one should ever have to experience. Coleman is probably initially attracted to her because of her damage, but the ultimate revelation that Faunia isn't fooled is very touching. Deep down, don't we all want the world to see us for who we truly are? And she sees him.

I will be thinking about this book for a long time and will probably re-read it. It is a very impressive book that I recommend to everyone.

I can't precisely recall when I read this; let's just say it was around 2004.

Certain parts of it were rather underwhelming. Maybe it was the part that detailed the protagonist's affair with the younger woman. However, some parts were truly excruciating. The part about what the protagonist had to endure to "pass" and what he would have sacrificed had he not chosen that path. These were intolerable choices! Remembering that particular aspect, I'll upgrade my rating to four stars.

I also vividly remember how the protagonist decided to marry a Jewish woman with wild hair. His reasoning was that if his children didn't inherit his own smooth hair, it would seem as though those traits - or perhaps I should say those tresses - originated from his wife. His love for her wasn't as deep as it could have been, which is understandable considering the criterion he used to select her.

All of this is memorable to me because of my own hair, of course.

Here's an amusing article that Roth wrote in The New Yorker - not that he was actually amused. I'll provide the link since it's been such a long time since I read the book that I'm unable to write a detailed review. Wikipedia's entry on the novel wrongly asserted that the protagonist was based on a specific real person - and then refused to grant Roth the authority to correct the entry on his own novel! http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs...

Camus said that 'The absurd does not liberate: it binds'. Well, it seems to me that a constant in Roth's books is to conduct an experiment. Take a moderately satisfied man and throw him into the Absurd, into the inexplicable and cruel mechanism of life. We would expect, on Coleman's part, a fierce opposition to the yoke of'reputation'; a freedom of action as solid as that of thought. And yet, this charismatic man, successful in studies as in sports, turns out to be as unfree as we can imagine. First of all, he is a Homo Novus who, in order to be FREE (free to BE without constraints, to act, to succeed), casts off his origins in passing. Only to later discover that he has put himself in a cage on his own. Bound to a stain that will always make him feel hesitant, on edge, on the verge of being unmasked. The truth is that we are our History. The more we try to renounce it, the more we chain ourselves to it. So, when his fragile equilibrium collapses because of a word, -Spook-, Coleman begins his descent into the Paradox. Or, rather, accelerates it. He starts a relationship with a woman with a burdensome past, whose ignorance is the mirror image of his refined classical knowledge. He is granted the gift of a last passion. He should be able to live it fully. And yet, he feels, painfully, the weight of the disapproval of the 'others'. Stain is added to stain, without the true one, -the dark secret that torments him-, being discovered. He dies in the car, next to Faunia. Not, as one would expect, as a result of a dignified illness. The last of the paradoxes, and the only coherence in the incoherence of his life. 4 stars because American Pastoral is too vast.

It makes one think deeply about the nature of freedom, identity, and the consequences of our actions. The characters are complex and well-developed, and the story unfolds in a way that keeps the reader engaged from beginning to end. Roth's writing is masterful, and he manages to create a world that is both realistic and充满了象征意义. This is a book that will stay with you long after you have finished reading it.

Pata umanã or the need of some (completely incomprehensible to normal, mediocre people like me) to get out of themselves and deliberately put themselves in alert situations in order to be able to endure the monotonous, everyday life. Only in this way could Coleman, a man with above-average intellectual and sporting abilities, be other than what was presumed he was. And the last outburst, that of falling in love with a much younger woman, a destroyed woman, a woman made as if for hidden distractions from the view of others, this was the destructive and repulsive cherry that brought public rejection and eternal death.



I don't think I liked Coleman, although I like shrewd individuals. Nor do I think I understood him completely. But he is a credible character, built piece by piece and who reveals himself slowly until you believe there is nothing more to reveal. False, he shows himself exactly as much as he wanted to show! The book is a virile tour de force, a bold whirlwind that completely absorbs you, a dizzying turmoil of emotions and delicate subjects such as racism, social acceptance and hypocrisy as an art form.

OEDIP: What is the rite of purification? How is it fulfilled?
CREON: Through exile is the atonement, or through the washing of blood with blood...

This story of Coleman is a complex and captivating one. It delves into the depths of human nature and the choices we make. His actions, driven by an unquenchable thirst for something more, lead him down a path of destruction. The way the author builds Coleman's character is masterful, making us question our own understanding of people. We are drawn into his world, experiencing his emotions and dilemmas. The themes explored in the book are not only relevant but also thought-provoking. Racism, social acceptance, and hypocrisy are issues that still plague our society today. The book forces us to confront these issues and think about how we can make a difference. Overall, it is a powerful and engaging read that leaves a lasting impression.

See, I was already an enormous fan of the Tony Hopkins/Nicky Kidman film. However, incredibly, that adaptation was merely the tip of an iceberg that is so rich, complex, and incredible, namely Philip Roth's masterpiece "The Human Stain." The film fails oh-so-miserably to fulfill at least 40% of the emotional clout, which is significant and HEAVVVY, famously attributed to this, a gargantuan beauty of a book.

It seems that this late in the year, the magic wand waved by Literature is constantly and repeatedly still dabbing this dreary moment of living history with its good work. I've read at least four sure MASTERPIECES this year. 2010: not so bad after all.

Roth meshes history with modern tragedy, paralleling that with the goings on of a disgraced college professor. The torrid love affair is placed in the backdrop, and the national consciousness is the Theme, as is the sadness in people living or pretending to live in modern times. I fell in LOVE with this book, which is difficult, academic, and witty, for its dimension and its crisp flavor. All characters are worthy of at least a few tears as Roth has so faithfully captured how the country fucks people over and over and over again and how the price of freedom means the loss of something perhaps equally important.

If the film is above average, then the novel, a modern Bovary-esque tale with so much personality and imbedded tragedy in it to make it worthy of a faithful readership for the decades to come, is quite simply FLAW-LESS. It is so modern and CLASSIC!

*The Clinton/Lewinski scandal - all but forgotten. And perhaps it's important to notice, too, that that disgrace, though not quite so far long ago, has been already buried under so many others...

La Tache, The Human Stain (2000) in its original version is, in my eyes, an excellent novel by Philip Roth that I took great pleasure in discovering.

Nathan Zuckerman, a 65-year-old solitary author, forms a friendship (a furtive one, yet intense and fascinating) with Coleman Silk, a 71-year-old former academic with an impeccable record but accused two years earlier of making racist remarks towards two African-American students.

In addition to this accusation, which is based on an unfortunate choice of words, Coleman is also looked at very unfavorably for his relationship with Faunia, a 34-year-old cleaning woman! All against the backdrop of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal between 1998 and 1999.

Attention, spoilers ahead! Coleman is almost completely white-skinned, but he is of black ancestry, and being accused of racism is all the more difficult for him to swallow. This secret about his origins, he has kept it all his life.

The novel offers a poignant and very profound reflection on the weight of slander and false accusation, which grows and can lead to the worst. Roth seems to be telling us that some people take a malicious pleasure in destroying a life that was judged to be too perfect until then.

It is also a novel that questions, that challenges, and that is powerfully explored by the notion of identity. To give himself a better chance of success in life, Coleman has abandoned his mother, brother, and sister and denied the memory of his father, passing himself off as 100 percent white. The story is thus also that of the invention, or rather the reinvention of oneself, of the past that one leaves behind. Or that one tries to leave behind.

It is also a passionate plea for a better recognition of Vietnam veterans, especially through the character of Lester Farley, Faunia's violent ex-husband, who shares a drama with her and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. This gives rise to striking scenes where Les is on the verge of post-traumatic madness and tries to control himself.

In addition to this, at the heart of the work, there is a scathing but still subtle and intelligent indictment of the American "elites," locked in their self-sufficiency, with academics and politicians at the top.

The Clinton affair shows, according to Roth, all the virtuous indignation of a country quick to judge and condemn but that often would give everything or almost to be able to behave in a reprehensible way. This is true of the sensual and too intense story in the eyes of people between Coleman and Faunia. The author seems to be telling us that reputations are soiled and sometimes lives are destroyed with words, by the interpretation of words, and by the bitter judgment of each on all.

The novel is moving, profound in its themes and in the pent-up anger that one feels in it. The character of Coleman Silk is a fantastic literary creation. Yes, because the story is also a plunge, through Roth's pen, into the creation of a literary character, with all that it implies of revelation, but also of secrets and unsaid things. Coleman is an enigmatic character.

It is a very great novel that poses questions of almost unfathomable depth about identity, dignity, the loss of control by the individual over his own life due to others and their malice.

Roth simultaneously paints the portrait of a man who has done everything to be the master of his destiny but who has failed to extricate himself from the quagmire of human resentments (Coleman), of an author who discovers in Coleman a "literary object," but more than that an obsession and a friend (Nathan Zuckerman), of a woman scorned and wounded by life and men (Faunia), of a Vietnam veteran in great distress (Les Farley), and finally of a country and a humanity prey to the sad passions of slander, jealousy, the pleasure of killing with words and of soiling, of staining a human being.

The character of Faunia is the most beautiful in the novel. She has scenes that are beautiful to the point of making one cry.

To go further:

Listen to La Mauvaise Réputation (1952) by Georges Brassens / Everything is Broken (1989) by Bob Dylan.

Read The Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

This is a truly remarkable book that delves deep into the human condition. It is written by a great writer who is clearly at the peak of his abilities.

The author offers a telling analysis of various aspects of life, including death, race, religion, war, and so much more. What makes this book even more engaging is the vein of humour that runs throughout it.

The use of humour helps to lighten the mood and makes the often heavy and complex topics more accessible to the reader. It allows the author to present his ideas in a way that is both thought-provoking and entertaining.

This book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in understanding the human experience. It offers valuable insights and perspectives that will stay with you long after you have finished reading it.

Whether you are a lover of literature or simply someone who is curious about the world around you, this book is sure to captivate and inspire you.

I was indecisive between 4 and 5 stars. But after thinking about the other books I read this year, I opted for five, although this story didn't please me in the same way throughout the entire reading.

For example, I found the frequent references to Bill Clinton's extramarital affair excessive. I understand the function of one or another reference to characterize the temporal context in which the story takes place, but more than that seemed pointless to me. But this is a detail.

The book, as a whole, I thought it was very good. The criticism of the academic environment, of political correctness, the issue of racism, aging, and even a bit of "thriller", all in a very well-told story.

During much of the book, several times another book that I read last year - Stoner, by John Williams - came to my mind. Written almost three decades earlier, and although very different, it also has as its protagonist a solitary American literature professor who is the victim of envy and meanness in the academic environment. The similarities are not many more, except for the way it is so well written and the pity it gives when you see the last pages coming to an end...

- It is the result of having been created among us - said Faunia. - It is the result of spending a whole life with people like us. The human stain - she added, but without repulsion, contempt or condemnation. Not even with sadness. "Things are as they are" - in her dry and concise way, that was all she was saying to the girl who was feeding the snake: we leave a stain, we leave a trail, we leave our mark. Impurity, cruelty, mistreatment, error, excrement, semen. There is no other way of being here. It has nothing to do with disobedience. Nor with grace, or salvation, or redemption. It is in everyone. Inner breath. Inherent. Determinant. The stain that exists before a mark. Without any sign that it is there. The stain that is so intrinsic that it does not need a mark. The stain that "precedes" disobedience, that "encompasses" disobedience and confounds any and all explanation and understanding. That is why all purification is an anecdote. And a barbaric anecdote, at that. The fantasy of purity is terrifying. It is demented. What is the desire to purify if not "impurity"? Everything she was saying about the stain was that it is inescapable.

L'unico punteggio possibile. This simple phrase holds a certain mystery and significance. It implies that there is only one score that can be achieved, perhaps in a game, a test, or a competition. It makes us wonder what that score is and why it is the only possible one.

Maybe it is a perfect score, a goal that everyone strives for but few can attain. Or perhaps it is a score that represents a specific standard or benchmark, something that must be met in order to succeed. Whatever the case may be, the idea of the unico punteggio possibile creates a sense of challenge and excitement.

It makes us think about our own abilities and limitations, and whether we have what it takes to achieve that one and only score. It also encourages us to push ourselves harder, to strive for excellence, and to not settle for anything less than the best. In a world where there are often many options and possibilities, the unico punteggio possibile stands out as a unique and powerful concept.

In this novel, Nathan Zuckerman, Roth's alter ego, also speaks. He narrates the events of Professor Coleman Silk, a teacher of classical literature at Athena University in New England. A man who has carried a secret, "a stain," within and around him for over 50 years, upon which he founds and builds his existence. Then, one day, at the peak of his academic career, with the pronunciation of a banal word, "spook," addressed to two absent-minded students of color, his world collapses, and he finds himself alone, abandoned by those who had previously proclaimed themselves his friends. Just as it happens to the Swede in "American Pastoral," in the respectable life of a bourgeois Jew, a devastating event occurs that causes the destruction and collapse of his world.

Abandoned by everyone, Professor Silk begins a relationship with Faunia Farley, a janitor thirty years younger than him, ignorant and illiterate, also "stained" in her past by violence suffered from her stepfather and the death of her two children. Two people banished from the society of the virtuous, two "pariahs" who join their paths for a while. The book deals with multiple themes, on which one could write for hours: racism, the hypocrisy and false moralism of the bigoted American society founded on appearance and the purity of the image, the consequences of the Vietnam War (in this regard, there is a scene in the book of a "therapeutic" lunch at a Chinese restaurant that Les Farley, a Vietnam veteran, is forced to attend, unforgettable!). Above all, there is the theme that gives the title to the book: "We leave a stain, we leave a trace, we leave our imprint. Impurity, cruelty, abuse, error, excrement, semen: there is no other way to be here." And the stains can be those with which we deliberately soil ourselves, or they can be those with which "they" soil us, as happens to Professor Silk and Faunia Farley. The truth that Roth presents to us is that no one "is as white as a lily," we are all dirty as human beings and we must live with our stains.

It has been a difficult and arduous journey to read this book. It has been like dragging oneself along a rough and uneven path, every five minutes you are forced to stop to catch your breath, but then, when you reach the end of the path, you realize that it has been a unique experience. If it had been written by any other writer, I would have called it a brick, but Roth's sublime writing is like a light that illuminates the reader's path, a lighthouse that prevents getting lost in the night.

[شاهکار]

What has made him fall in love with the woman is excitement. Tomorrow, cancer will take everything away, but now he has energy and excitement.

The only American language he understands - the academic American language - forcibly conforms to American. That's why they don't understand him, that's why he won't have a man, that's why this place won't become his homeland, that's why his understanding and perception of it is wrong and will always be wrong, that's why the warm, peaceful, and enlightened life he had in Paris during his university days will not be repeated here, that's why until the end of his life, he will only understand eleven percent of this country and catch zero percent of his men... He thinks that all the advantages of his enlightenment have been lost because of his silent abandonment of his homeland... He thinks that he has lost the ability to see around him. He can only see the things that pass in front of him. He can no longer see anything from the corner of his eye. The image he has of himself here is not that of a smart and delicate woman, but that of a superficial and monotonous woman with a face looking forward...

This story seems to tell us about a person's complex emotions and experiences in a foreign land. The protagonist is facing various challenges and losses, yet still holds onto a glimmer of excitement. It makes us think about the meaning of home, identity, and the sacrifices we make in life.

Perhaps we can all relate to the protagonist's feelings to some extent. We may have also experienced moments of confusion and displacement in unfamiliar environments. But it is through these experiences that we grow and learn. We should strive to find our own path and hold onto the things that truly matter to us.

In conclusion, this short passage offers a profound and thought-provoking look into the human condition. It reminds us that life is full of uncertainties, but it is also full of possibilities. We should embrace both the joys and the sorrows and continue to move forward with hope and determination.