Men’s Folly/Women’s Madness

Français Dans


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The novel be gins with the tra di tional in voc a tion to God: "In the name of Allah the Be ne fi cent, the Mer ci ful" (p. 1) who is re peatedly deemed "the Wise and Mighty" (p. 62,p. 225).Au thor ity and wis dom are there fore closely linked to gether.In the novel, prob lems arise from a dis so ci ation of the two.Fath ers, hus bands, broth ers are sup posed to hold au thor ity and power over their daugh ters, wives, sis ters.But when they do not show wis dom in the ex er cise of this power, it becomes il le git im ate and is there fore rightly op posed by those who have to bear un just rules and rul ings.From the be gin ning, the novel shows a cer tain am bi gu ity as the Storyteller, who is sup posed to be the voice of power, voices an un der ly ing trend which un der mines the le git im acy of au thor ity: "Eve, made out of our father Adam's crooked rib, was cast out of heaven."(p.2).At the be gin ning was per ver sion: woman stems from some thing already per ver ted, so how could she be blamed for a fault which is not ori gin ally her fault.
The novel presents sev eral male fig ures in their ex er cise of au thor ity.
Maha's father, Sheikh Nimer, was a wise, re spec ted man ("Sheikh Nimer of Qasim, the tiger feared by the hawk ish Hufour tribe", p. 183) be fore the death of his be loved wife, Ma liha, which weak ens him (p.31), both phys ic ally and in tel lec tu ally.His mourn ing for his lost wife leads him to self-pity and one wit nesses a dis place ment and reversal of roles in the house hold: "He was get ting weaker while I was get ting stronger" (p.31).The father be comes like a child who needs to be looked after.Fear of the father is re placed by pity ("I pit ied the old man […].I used to be afraid of him.",p. 31); "I used to fear him when I was young, now my heart reached out to hold him."(p.77).As a consequence, whereas Maha still shows signs of re spect for the old man ("I kissed his hand", p. 77) be cause she can still see his up right ness ("[he] glowed like a pearl among fake beads", p. 22), Daf fash, her brother, be comes "the dis obedi ent son who had never listened to his father" (p.174).

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The weak en ing of the father's au thor ity is partly the con sequence of his feel ings pre vail ing over his reason, which some will deem folly, but which ac tu ally verges on proper in san ity when he mis takes his daugh ter for his wife (p.172).But it is most cer tainly due to his wavering between what he thinks is right and what is tra di tional male solid ar ity.The two often clash, caus ing and/or be cause of his wavering between wis dom and folly.See ing Maha's hard work as op posed to her brother's lazi ness, the father tries to make up for his in ab il ity to run his es tate ("I al ways wanted to be strong and pro tect you, but Allah wrote some thing else.", p. 180) and in his wis dom, he re cog nizes that Maha's work de serves to be re war ded: "You are bet ter than that scoun drel brother of yours.I wish you were a man be cause the land must go to its plough man."(p.173-174) and he even tu ally be queaths the land to her: "The land must go to its plough man.No, plough woman.The land is yours, Maha.This is my will.I have said it in front of the imam and Raai.Daf fash does not de serve one span of it."(p.180).
But this is not without some de gree of am bi gu ity.If he de parts from tra di tion by in scrib ing his chil dren in a fe male lin eage ("Wel come, daugh ter of Ma liha.",p. 77), and by mak ing his daugh ter, rather than his son, the heir ess, he non ethe less adds: "It be longs to your son after you." (p.180), re vert ing to a male lin eage.Moreover, when Daf fash in a fit of anger leaves his father's house to go to the Pasha's, the old man begs him to stay (p.174), giv ing him full powers over his sis ter, thus going back on his prom ise: "You are the mas ter of the house." (p. 174).Yet at the same time, he re fuses to "stay in the room of the dis obedient son who had never listened to his father."(p.174).More than his ac tual weak ness of body or mind, it is this waver ing, this in ab il ity to stand for or against tra di tion, which opens space for dis obedi ence.It is this con stant am bi gu ity which un der mines his sym bol ical au thor ity and which makes a fool of him whom no one will re spect in life or in death (p.201).
Daf fash, the dis obedi ent son, takes ad vant age of the flaws in his father's au thor ity, to im pose his power.He has no re spect what so ever for his father ("daugh ter of the dog", p. 217).As the male in the fam ily, since his father has re lin quished au thor ity, he as sumes the right to rule over the house hold in a tyr an nical way.His au thor ity has no legit im acy be cause of his folly.Like his father, he wavers between tyranny and (some) guilt: after pick ing quar rels with his sis ter and abus ing her, he "would apo lo gize and give [her] a packet of for eign chocol ates."(p.21).Al though he plays the tyr ant in his tribe, he is a slave to the Pasha and his mas ters, the Eng lish ("Our mas ters, the Eng lish.",p. 161); "Slave to the Eng lish."(p.164); "He is sleep ing in the lap of the Eng lish and of their ser vants."(p.173).In a co lo nial con text, serving the oc cu pi ers amounts to being a col lab or ator or a traitor to his coun try.This finds an exact par al lel in his total un con cern for the fam ily es tate.He cares so little for the land that he not only never works on it, but he also lets the for eign ers des troy his sis ter's planted plots and is ready to sell it to these for eign ers (p. 7).If his de sire for mod ern ity is not to be blamed in it self, he proves a fool when he sells the tra di tional fur niture to buy arm chairs in stead (p.72).Daf fash's folly lies partly in his fas cin a tion for the city; he is "a city-worshipper" (p.21), lured by the city and its ways without an aware ness of when or how they can or can not be ad ap ted to their rural way of life.He wastes the fam ily heir loom to look/act like a city dweller (p.78) because the city, the space of the for eign ers, means power and he lusts for power.

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His dis obedi ence to a (once) re spec ted father and his be trayal of his coun try -as op posed to Maha's hus band, Harb, who dies while fighting the Eng lish-dis credit him as a true fig ure of au thor ity.There fore, he will ex er cise his power in a tyr an nical way over the weak (his old father) and over women.His power is based on the de base ment of those -es pe cially Maha-who do not ac know ledge his au thor ity ("Lick my boots, lick the gen eral's boots.Obey your mas ters…", p. 173), par allel to his lack of re cog ni tion by the Eng lish des pite his servile ef forts to please them.He re pro duces the ways of an il le git im ate co lo nial power.Moreover, in the same way as he is lured by the Eng lish, he is lured by their women who hu mi li ate him by treat ing him, at best, as "a loyal dog" (p.43).Be cause they ig nore him (p.60, p. 89), his frus tration turns into vi ol ence over the women of the tribe whom he rapes (p. 12, p. 65-66) or beats al most life less (p.202) when they op pose any res ist ance to his il le git im ate per verse power over them.
Al though Um Saad's hus band is not "a wo man izer" (p.21) like Daf fash, he is also lured by sexual de sire when he mar ries a second wife, younger and more phys ic ally at tract ive than Um Saad (p.178) and turns the lat ter even more into a slave than she was (p.179).Sexual ap pet ite re places reason and he can not see the sound ness of his first wife's com plaints about his lack of re spect for her as the mother of his eight chil dren and he turns vi ol ent (p.179).Vi ol ence re places reason ing as he fool ishly re lin quishes a well-run house hold for what he thinks is sexual "ful fil ment".
7 Daf fash's or Abu Saad's power has no le git im acy as it is based on threat and vi ol ence rather than on an up right and just moral stance.
Daf fash jus ti fies his vi ol ence as a means of "put[ting] some sense into those crazy women's heads." (p. 13).But what does sense mean when one is a fool? 8 "[Ma liha's] beauty ex ceeded the beauty of our mas ter the prophet Joseph and her wis dom was as fam ous as the wis dom of our mas ter Lord Luq man." (p.26).The ori gin of Maha in scribes her in a lin eage of wis dom, passed on from mother to daugh ter.

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The first step to wards wis dom is good hus bandry: "Maha's mother, Ma liha, taught her how to hold the axe, cook the best mansaf, and how to spin the wheel."(p.26).Even the Pasha has to ac cept Maha's way of doing things be cause she knows (p.155).Women's space is inside the home (p.20) but Maha ex tends her of fice to the groves as her men can not or will not work the land.The fam ily es tate is pros per ous under Maha's wise tend ing.Al though she is wary of the Eng lish and of their city ways, she is prag matic when she sees that they can help her im prove her crops (p. 133, p. 144, p. 173).Um Saad's house hold too is pros per ous as she also makes use of mod ern means to im prove her work and the well-being of her house hold.Open-mindedness within the frame work of tra di tional val ues is the basis of Maha's wis dom.
Whereas Daf fash is al ways look ing for con front a tion, she tries to estab lish peace and har mony through "steady bal ance" (p.14).Steady bal ance means a fra gile equi lib rium between con flict ing ten sions which needs foresight to reach.When Daf fash is the slave of his imme di ate needs and re acts im puls ively, Maha sees bey ond ap pearances.That is why she does not react an grily when ab used by Um Saad on their first met ing at the mad house (p. 6) be cause she sees the lat ter's des pair bey ond her ag gress ive ness.
Maha uses her own body with the same wis dom as her es tate.Although madly in love with Harb, she knows bet ter than to be lured by him be fore they are mar ried."Are you mad?For a girl to be out at night is a crime of hon our.[…] Stu pid idi ots who risked honor for love.Did Harb think that Maha, too, the daugh ter of Ma liha, was a fool?" (p.10) Yield ing to her de sire would be folly and she knows how folly has led to the dis place ment of her friend Nasra to the mar gins of the tribe ("She was noth ing now.[…] Ab so lutely noth ing.A piece of flesh.A cheap whore."(p.11)).Fool ishly risk ing an eye on a boy leads Um Saad still a child to be mar ried off to an old man by her father.
Wis dom teaches them to keep con trol over their de sire.

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Wis dom is a con stant ne go ti ation within the in di vidual between the im me di ate ful fil ment of needs (sexual, emo tional…) and the postponed ex pect a tion of de sire.This ne go ti ation is ex pressed in Maha's wis dom drawn from both a fe male and a male lin eage, from women like Ma liha or Scheherazade -Um Saad refers con stantly to the Ar abian Nights (p.18)-as well as from the wise men of God, So lomon, Joseph and Luq man.She con stantly refers to this double -male and fe male-des cent: "Daf fash, my brother, the son of my mother, Ma liha, my father Sheikh Nimer, and the grand son of my grand mother Sabha" (p.215).Through this double lin eage, her wis dom gives her a sym bolical au thor ity that oth er wise would be denied her.Through her hard work and up right be ha viour, Maha gains a de-facto au thor ity over the es tate and house hold.This dis place ment of au thor ity from the father to the daugh ter, leav ing the son out, would not be re sen ted vi ol ently by Daf fash if her au thor ity did not enjoy a sym bol ical status through her double in scrip tion.This dis place ment of au thor ity is not ac cep ted by Daf fash and the likes of him be cause Maha's wis dom high lights his/their faults.Her father's weak ness is en hanced by her own com pet ence and her brother's lazi ness by her hard work.But her fool ish father sees how ef fi cient she is, which is evid ence that he re mains a wise man at heart, which, in turn, ac counts for the re spect that Maha shows him.Maha's wis dom and un com prom ising up right ness puts her between Daf fash and his evil schemes, for in stance when he tries to se duce a woman whom Maha saves from dis hon our.Again, she has an au thority which her father does not have be cause, in some cases, though con demning his son's be ha viour, he still sup ports the idea that women's folly is re spons ible for his fool ish ness ("You [Nasra] should not have temp ted him.",p. 13), again waver ing between what is right and what is pat ri archal tra di tion.
13 Against women's wis dom, there is little ar gu ment that in com pet ent male tyr ants can come up with.Ac know ledging women's wis dom would mean ac know ledging their own fool ish ness and ac cept ing to re lin quish their au thor ity.It would mean ac know ledging women as sub jects, al low ing them a status as equal which is not ac cept able in a pat ri archal so ci ety.To re main in power, they there fore use the only device left them and treat women as non sub jects, deny ing them the right to speak.They treat them as an im als, de prived of speech -and Daf fash ab uses Maha with lots of an imal names-or in di vidu als deprived of brains ("I don't talk to women.No brain.",p. 217).From stu pid ("a stu pid idiot", p. 95) to crazy ("What is the use of talk ing to crazy women?", p. 217), women are denied sense.The mad house is the only al tern at ive to the chal lenge that women's wis dom rep res ents for men's folly and for their au thor ity es pe cially when women ex pose their faults pub licly: "I don't talk to rap ists.[…] I don't talk to disobedi ent sons.[…] I don't talk to ser vants of the Eng lish."(p.217).The only way to shut them up -in every sense of the word-is to re move them to a mad house: "She is mad" (p.207, p. 216).

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In the mad house, women are under con trol (p. 206, p. 208).Under a double con trol, pat ri archal and co lo nial as the doc tor is an Eng lish doc tor.Their bod ies -the ob ject of men's folly-are under close con -trol, hand cuff (p. 206, p. 218), straight jacket (p. 17, p. 206) In the mad house, under male for eign con trol, they still em body the spirit of res ist ance, a spirit of res ist ance rep res en ted in the nar rat ive by an elu sive char ac ter, "Hakim, the em bod i ment of Arabs' anger and res ist ance."(p.55), "Hakim, the wise old man, the spirit of Arab res istance " (p. 195).The nar rator in sists on the wis dom of the char ac ter by the re dund ancy wise/Hakim, in Eng lish and Ar abic (p. 7, p. 190).Among the char ac ter ist ics of Hakim are his ever last ing ness ("Hakim […] never stopped breath ing, would never die.",p. 55; "the ever last ing Hakim.",p. 115) and clandes tine ness ("un der ground", p. 55).Hakim is a wan derer (p.7), con stantly dis pla cing him self to avoid being taken.As a wan derer, he sets a pat tern of res ist ance through out the nar rat ive.
Maha is also a wan derer (p.7), so doubly in the wake of Hakim the res ist ance fighter.

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The novel is shaped around a dia logue between two women, in side the mad house.Their nar rat ives provide their ver sion of the events lead ing to their dis place ment into the mad house through a mis use of au thor ity by il le git im ate tyr ants.How ever, this dia logue is em bed ded in the fram ing text of the Storyteller who wanders in and out of the women's nar rat ives at the same time as he claims to provide the patri archal point of view.Does he in deed?
The Storyteller equates him self with the ul ti mate au thor ity, God himself: "Allah the Mighty King re vealed the Qur'an.[…] I, Sami al-Adjnabi […] will re veal to you the tale of Maha." (p. 1).He, as a rep res ent at ive of men, grants him self au thor ity over the nar rat ive.How ever, through dis placed sig ni fi ers, Maha is equated to the Prophet Muhammad: "Our prophet Muhammad whose soul is like the moon" (p.1); "She [Maha] was like a per fect moon" (p.4); her fe male nar rat ive has therefore the same au thor ity as the Prophet's.Then, the Storyteller del egates the nar rat ive to his "mon key May moon" (p. 2), dis pla cing the author ity back to a male voice but a male made am bigu ous by the sig nifier "moon".The Storyteller re peatedly deems him self "the yardspinner" (p.4) which iden ti fies him with Maha whose spin ning, in herited from her mother, is one of the leit mot ivs of the novel (p.26).The Storyteller is also a wan derer, like Hakim, the wise man, and Maha (p.7), a new equa tion.So from the very be gin ning of the novel, the lim its between genres are dis placed so that the au thor ity of the narrat ive which seemed to be long to pat ri archy is in the hands of women, all the more so as the Storyteller's wise (p. 2) she-ass Aziza re fuses to en dorse "the ac cursed story" (p. 2) i.e. the pat ri archal version of the story.Maha's words en dure, even when she is shut up in the mad house: "Listen, listen.I can still hear her words car ried by the breeze."(p.4) As the breeze car ries her words from within the madhouse, so does the storyteller who seems to shut them up within a pat ri archal dis course.As men tioned be fore, the nar rat ive be gins with an in voc a tion to God, im me di ately fol lowed by a quo ta tion from the Qur'an, "Con found not truth with false hood, nor know ingly con ceal the truth."(2 42), warn ing the reader not to take the nar rat ive at its face value.The warn ing will be re peated later: "[Poets] say that which they do not."(p.57).The Storyteller plays on the im pli cit and the expli cit and uses irony to un der mine the pat ri archal sys tem (p.29).The lim its of truth are con stantly dis placed: "As for poets, the erring follow them.[…] The erring fol low storytellers to the abyss of their inner souls."(p.57), a con stant dis place ment which al lows space for sub ver sion.Be cause pat ri archal au thor ity is con sidered as un just, Maha and Harb twist the rules ("We can fool them", p. 45).Sub ver sion ISNI : http://www.isni.org/0000000002960073BNF : https://data.bnf.fr/fr/14621372 , elec tric shock (p.223) and their hair is shorn (p.208, p. 223) -Sam son tak ing re venge on De li lah?Yet their speech can not be con trolled.Maha and Um Saad never stop talk ing in spite of all the at tempts to si lence them: 16 "You two never stop talk ing." "Yes," we said to gether."I will in crease the dose."I looked at Um Saad's face […].She was laugh ing.I […] star ted giggling.Um Saad sud denly roared with laughter.The doc tor […] gazed at us, baffled.(p.110)Laughter(p.188, p. 223) is one of their means of as sert ing that "we are not mad."(p.110).They still have enough au thor ity to si lence the male Eng lish doc tor: "No, you, shut your for eign mouth."(p.188)