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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
Even more than 70 years after it was first published, this book still has some important and eye-opening insights into the issue of 'Race.' Especially the fact that a) 'Race' is as much, if not more a matter of culture and language than it is of physical appearance. With the author going into detail about how colonised Africans like himself who went to study in France and thus, spoke 'Textbook' French were perceived as being 'More White/Less Black,' and thus, upon returning home, would no longer be regarded as truly 'African.' And similarly, how white medical professionals and staff would unconsciously and automatically speak pidgin French to talk down to their 'Inferior' African patients. Because b) as a society, we still hold the unconscious conceit that black people don't have a 'Real' language or culture of their own, and that therefore, their language and culture must merely be an 'Inferior Copy' of ours. Hence white English speakers around the world for example dismissing African-American Vernacular English as a 'Bastardisation' of English while not considering English itself to merely be a bastardisation of German.
'HOWEVER...' the reason why I haven't given this book 5 stars is that, as a Psychiatrist practicing in the 1950's, Fanon's work was poisoned by the profession-wide assumption at the time that Freud and Jung's pseudo-mythological psychobabble was actually scientific and had any basis in reality whatsoever. When on the contrary, just as the pop-psychology junk science of 'IQ' is merely a biased and bigoted assumption that gained traction in wider society because, on some level, it told people what they want to hear, any psychology course taken in the last 30 years either hasn't mentioned Freud or Jung at all or went out of its way to explain that their assumptions were all B.S.
As I say though, while this means that the second half of this book in particular must be taken with an entire truckload of salt, even now in the 21st century, it is still a vital insight for anyone who seeks to understand the assumptions and dynamics upon which the entire social construct of 'Race' is built.
'HOWEVER...' the reason why I haven't given this book 5 stars is that, as a Psychiatrist practicing in the 1950's, Fanon's work was poisoned by the profession-wide assumption at the time that Freud and Jung's pseudo-mythological psychobabble was actually scientific and had any basis in reality whatsoever. When on the contrary, just as the pop-psychology junk science of 'IQ' is merely a biased and bigoted assumption that gained traction in wider society because, on some level, it told people what they want to hear, any psychology course taken in the last 30 years either hasn't mentioned Freud or Jung at all or went out of its way to explain that their assumptions were all B.S.
As I say though, while this means that the second half of this book in particular must be taken with an entire truckload of salt, even now in the 21st century, it is still a vital insight for anyone who seeks to understand the assumptions and dynamics upon which the entire social construct of 'Race' is built.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Amazing analysis of racism and the impacts of colonialism on the minds of both colonized and colonizer.
Was great to read after Aimé Césaire’s Discourses on Colonialism. Fanon did a great job building upon and refining the concepts presented in Discourses.
I found some of the Dream analysis a bit more poetic than scientific but it is very beautifully poetic.
The distinction Fanon draws between race and class is interesting and I want to explore more deeply and definitely will need to reread that section.
Was great to read after Aimé Césaire’s Discourses on Colonialism. Fanon did a great job building upon and refining the concepts presented in Discourses.
I found some of the Dream analysis a bit more poetic than scientific but it is very beautifully poetic.
The distinction Fanon draws between race and class is interesting and I want to explore more deeply and definitely will need to reread that section.
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
I think about when I read this I was on a podcast with a guy who called psychoanalysis the best place to go once you fail as a poet, because it actually tries to answer the questions poetry putzes around with. Or specifically the take was psychoanalysis puts forth the scientific thesis that those miniscule thoughts and interactions that we could never explain or justify to anyone ("unconscious" not in the sense that you don't know them but that you can't grasp them socially) actually hold a huge importance in our lives while poetry puts forth the same thesis but is proudly unscientific. Whoever's saying it, I agree.
Fanon's saying and hidden embarrassing human life is the driving point of his discipline in this book, which glides between poetry and psychic schematics. This is a book about race, but Fanon is cavalier about the absurdity of the task--you either take him with all the specifics of his situation (black, French, Martinican, doctor, soldier, academic, Marxist, middle-class, male) or none (a human being, seeking the dignity and liberation of all human beings). Because he sets it up like this you can easily foil his worst takes (sexism, "there are no gay black men in Martinique" etc) with his best.
Can't recommend anything higher for someone trying to get into "theory" for the first time, this is "theory" but it's live and lucid. (I still remember picking this up sorta lackadaisically in 2021 and going ohhhh you can just write like this! You can just write normal!) Fanon jumps on so many questions I used to think I was so clever just for asking--and actually gets somewhere. Some of the most gorgeous and driving and true prose I've ever read is at the beginning and end of this book.
Fanon's saying and hidden embarrassing human life is the driving point of his discipline in this book, which glides between poetry and psychic schematics. This is a book about race, but Fanon is cavalier about the absurdity of the task--you either take him with all the specifics of his situation (black, French, Martinican, doctor, soldier, academic, Marxist, middle-class, male) or none (a human being, seeking the dignity and liberation of all human beings). Because he sets it up like this you can easily foil his worst takes (sexism, "there are no gay black men in Martinique" etc) with his best.
Can't recommend anything higher for someone trying to get into "theory" for the first time, this is "theory" but it's live and lucid. (I still remember picking this up sorta lackadaisically in 2021 and going ohhhh you can just write like this! You can just write normal!) Fanon jumps on so many questions I used to think I was so clever just for asking--and actually gets somewhere. Some of the most gorgeous and driving and true prose I've ever read is at the beginning and end of this book.
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
THE PERIPHERIES
This year I made a serious commitment to start a reading practice. This was something I had wanted to do for the past five years, as I was a huge reader in middle and high school, but college, an overwhelming life, and intense ADHD burnout made me abandon reading altogether.
This summer, I came across a used bookstore and allowed myself to pick out three books. One of those books was The Black Power Revolt and it made me fall in love with reading again. I was feeling so frustrated with the world and feeling so much despair. I was addicted to Instagram and doomscrolling. Ironically, I saw a reel that just said something like "if you're feeling hopeless about the world, start up a reading practice". Like if that wasn't a sign to change my ways, I don't know what is lol. But anyways, in TBPR, contributor after contributor would sing Fanon's praises. It was actually to the point where it felt like required reading to delve into Frantz Fanon's (sadly short) body of work.
Before reading All About Love I wanted to read Black Skin, White Masks . Both were books I wanted to own for my own reference, but I didn't want to buy them at the same time (because I was still new to reading regularly and didn't want to overwhelm myself). I got BSWM and I read the introduction and I was like "ohhh yeah, this is the good fucking shit!". And then I read the first chapter's first sentence and I realized something.
The translation fucking sucks!!!
The first paragraph, half the page, was ONE SENTENCE. And I don't how to articulate this, but as someone who speaks French, I could just tell it was poorly translated. It was cold and hyper-intellectual in a way I could not imagine the native French sounding. So I returned the book and planned on purchasing the first edition copy of the book with the previous translation. But the book was sold out everywhere. I was so annoyed. I know I am talking a lot about how I got this book, but it was such a journey. At that point I considered just reading the ebook, downloading it off of the Internet Archive, but idk if you know this but it's like temporarily shut down (something about getting to brazen with copyright laws). Another dead end!
But one day, a solution came to me as I was clicking about on the OPL's website.
ILL: Interlibrary loans.
I requested that they find me the book with the Charles L. Markmann translation. After a few months they found me a copy from Owen Sound and I got the book.
THE REVIEW
I am so glad I went through the troubles of getting this specific translation. The translator consulted so many people to make sure he understood the proper cultural and linguistically customs of that time and region. Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon is a non-fiction novel originally written in French. The author was a French, psychiatrist born in Martinique. I don't know how to describe the tone of the novel, Fanon is both deeply scientific and exacting, but also deeply empathetic and poetic.
I think one of the best parts of BSWM is its form. Fanon uses footnotes in a way I've never seen before. He will include the footnotes, in its entirety, on the same page it's referenced. He uses the footnotes like regular footnotes, but also how people used tumblr tags back in the day. He will include his thoughts, or try to future proof some of the stuff he wrote against potential haters/critics, or sometimes he will just include whole citations which will have not 1, not 2, but THREE footnotes WITHIN the footnotes. I think the longest one was four pages, and it was great. I read every single footnote, they amused me so much. Also the footnotes, or indexes, are a great place for book recommendations (I mean, I only picked up this book because it was referenced in another book I read). I walked away from this novel knowing I need to get into Jean-Paul Sartre and Aimé Céasaire. And aside from the footnotes, Fanon uses several modes to explore the Black psyche. I also want to note that this book is kinda specific in its scope. Fanon knows what he knows and knows that there is also too much to cover if he doesn't use his personal and professional experiences as the means to explore his ideas. He writes from a colonial French point of view, as a European, as someone not born on the continent of Africa, but in the Antilles. And he acknowledges that throughout by pointing to the experiences of Black people in America, or the Senegalese soldiers in both France and the Antilles. He uses parallel analysis by Jean-Paul Sartre's work (particularly about Jewish people), or critiques the shortcomings of Maud Mannoni's work pertaining to the Malagasy people. There's a lot of exploration of where certain myths/symbols pertaining to Blackness originate from (it lowkey reminds me of the phantasm stuff Judith Butler talks about so far in Who's Afraid of Gender ) and how the mechanics of these fantasies/myths/symbols function.
I think Fanon is a great poet. One of my favourite passages reads as follows:
WOW! That's really good writing.
And last thing! People who say shit like this:
Shut up, like please oh my god? Such a brainless abstraction. I think there's a difference between exploring WHY something exists and saying something is a fact, or their personal theory. The novel delves into the projection of hyper-sexuality onto Black men and how some people at the time were proposing different theories as to why. And something that is discussed is how rape fantasies (fantasy not to be confused with desire, or want) use Blackness as a proxy or symbol for these larger themes in the private and social spheres. As for homophobic, I would say Fanon is homophobic in the sense that he probably saw it as a pathology. But I think that's also a stupid, virtue signal ass take. Fanon's anti-capitalist, pan-africanist, anti-imperial, marxist beliefs are good for all marginalized people. My advice is to be a critical reader and be a good sport. Engage with the ideas, for god's sake! Open your mind to being uncomfortable, or like, at least don't view everything with so much cynicism. I found that Fanon displayed real empathy and humanity to both men and women. He argues and agrees and examines with his full attention the ideas presented both by men and women. I'm not saying that makes him king feminist, but it does show that the author is open and engaged too. But maybe I'm just too heated because I read a white man's mid review.
Anyways, this was insanely long, but I needed to get this off my chest. Also today is the 63 year anniversary of his death. Crazy.
Ok bye <3
This year I made a serious commitment to start a reading practice. This was something I had wanted to do for the past five years, as I was a huge reader in middle and high school, but college, an overwhelming life, and intense ADHD burnout made me abandon reading altogether.
This summer, I came across a used bookstore and allowed myself to pick out three books. One of those books was The Black Power Revolt and it made me fall in love with reading again. I was feeling so frustrated with the world and feeling so much despair. I was addicted to Instagram and doomscrolling. Ironically, I saw a reel that just said something like "if you're feeling hopeless about the world, start up a reading practice". Like if that wasn't a sign to change my ways, I don't know what is lol. But anyways, in TBPR, contributor after contributor would sing Fanon's praises. It was actually to the point where it felt like required reading to delve into Frantz Fanon's (sadly short) body of work.
Before reading All About Love I wanted to read Black Skin, White Masks . Both were books I wanted to own for my own reference, but I didn't want to buy them at the same time (because I was still new to reading regularly and didn't want to overwhelm myself). I got BSWM and I read the introduction and I was like "ohhh yeah, this is the good fucking shit!". And then I read the first chapter's first sentence and I realized something.
The translation fucking sucks!!!
The first paragraph, half the page, was ONE SENTENCE. And I don't how to articulate this, but as someone who speaks French, I could just tell it was poorly translated. It was cold and hyper-intellectual in a way I could not imagine the native French sounding. So I returned the book and planned on purchasing the first edition copy of the book with the previous translation. But the book was sold out everywhere. I was so annoyed. I know I am talking a lot about how I got this book, but it was such a journey. At that point I considered just reading the ebook, downloading it off of the Internet Archive, but idk if you know this but it's like temporarily shut down (something about getting to brazen with copyright laws). Another dead end!
But one day, a solution came to me as I was clicking about on the OPL's website.
ILL: Interlibrary loans.
I requested that they find me the book with the Charles L. Markmann translation. After a few months they found me a copy from Owen Sound and I got the book.
THE REVIEW
I am so glad I went through the troubles of getting this specific translation. The translator consulted so many people to make sure he understood the proper cultural and linguistically customs of that time and region. Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon is a non-fiction novel originally written in French. The author was a French, psychiatrist born in Martinique. I don't know how to describe the tone of the novel, Fanon is both deeply scientific and exacting, but also deeply empathetic and poetic.
I think one of the best parts of BSWM is its form. Fanon uses footnotes in a way I've never seen before. He will include the footnotes, in its entirety, on the same page it's referenced. He uses the footnotes like regular footnotes, but also how people used tumblr tags back in the day. He will include his thoughts, or try to future proof some of the stuff he wrote against potential haters/critics, or sometimes he will just include whole citations which will have not 1, not 2, but THREE footnotes WITHIN the footnotes. I think the longest one was four pages, and it was great. I read every single footnote, they amused me so much. Also the footnotes, or indexes, are a great place for book recommendations (I mean, I only picked up this book because it was referenced in another book I read). I walked away from this novel knowing I need to get into Jean-Paul Sartre and Aimé Céasaire. And aside from the footnotes, Fanon uses several modes to explore the Black psyche. I also want to note that this book is kinda specific in its scope. Fanon knows what he knows and knows that there is also too much to cover if he doesn't use his personal and professional experiences as the means to explore his ideas. He writes from a colonial French point of view, as a European, as someone not born on the continent of Africa, but in the Antilles. And he acknowledges that throughout by pointing to the experiences of Black people in America, or the Senegalese soldiers in both France and the Antilles. He uses parallel analysis by Jean-Paul Sartre's work (particularly about Jewish people), or critiques the shortcomings of Maud Mannoni's work pertaining to the Malagasy people. There's a lot of exploration of where certain myths/symbols pertaining to Blackness originate from (it lowkey reminds me of the phantasm stuff Judith Butler talks about so far in Who's Afraid of Gender ) and how the mechanics of these fantasies/myths/symbols function.
I think Fanon is a great poet. One of my favourite passages reads as follows:
I am black: I am the incarnation of a complete fusion with the world. An intuitive understanding of the earth, and abandonment of my ego in the heart of the cosmos, and no white man, no matter how intelligent he may be, can ever understand Louis Armstrong and the music of the Congo. If I am black, it is not the result of a curse, but it is because having offered my skin, I have been able to absorb all the comics effluvia . I am truly a ray of sunlight under the earth...
WOW! That's really good writing.
And last thing! People who say shit like this:
For one, Fanon is deeply misogynist and homophobic
Shut up, like please oh my god? Such a brainless abstraction. I think there's a difference between exploring WHY something exists and saying something is a fact, or their personal theory. The novel delves into the projection of hyper-sexuality onto Black men and how some people at the time were proposing different theories as to why. And something that is discussed is how rape fantasies (fantasy not to be confused with desire, or want) use Blackness as a proxy or symbol for these larger themes in the private and social spheres. As for homophobic, I would say Fanon is homophobic in the sense that he probably saw it as a pathology. But I think that's also a stupid, virtue signal ass take. Fanon's anti-capitalist, pan-africanist, anti-imperial, marxist beliefs are good for all marginalized people. My advice is to be a critical reader and be a good sport. Engage with the ideas, for god's sake! Open your mind to being uncomfortable, or like, at least don't view everything with so much cynicism. I found that Fanon displayed real empathy and humanity to both men and women. He argues and agrees and examines with his full attention the ideas presented both by men and women. I'm not saying that makes him king feminist, but it does show that the author is open and engaged too. But maybe I'm just too heated because I read a white man's mid review.
Anyways, this was insanely long, but I needed to get this off my chest. Also today is the 63 year anniversary of his death. Crazy.
Ok bye <3
challenging
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
slow-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
It is fascinating to see how books like this are ‘ahead of their time’ (e.g. cultural imposition = more modern psychology’s: the world makes the mind) while still being hit with the ways it is a product of its time (misogyny and ableism).
Overall, while there are far more intersectional and updated views on these topics, I still enjoyed many very meaningful passages.
I liked what another reviewer mentioned in regard to how Frantz Fanon would see the world today. I believe in his central tenet that we are more than our history. I believe that if he were alive today we would be up near the front continuing to imagine a better world, especially with one of his final lines: “Superiority? Inferiority? Why not simply try to touch the other, feel the other, discover each other?”
I liked what another reviewer mentioned in regard to how Frantz Fanon would see the world today. I believe in his central tenet that we are more than our history. I believe that if he were alive today we would be up near the front continuing to imagine a better world, especially with one of his final lines: “Superiority? Inferiority? Why not simply try to touch the other, feel the other, discover each other?”
“The black man is unaware of it as long as he lives among his own people; but at the first white gaze, he feels the weight of his melanin.” (p. 128)
In this work of prose, Fanon reinforces the importance for the need to stop generalising the ‘black experience’, as the understanding of the racialised experience differs greatly depending on geographical location. Consequently, Fanon also as unintentionally reinforces why intersectionality is needed to discuss questions regarding identity and self perception.
(Keeping in mind that this book was written in 1952 and therefore should be considered in that context)
There is no denying, however, that despite the compelling argumentation regarding race, Fanon’s narrative simultaneously is quite misogynistic and homophobic. Hence I ended up giving this book 3 stars
In this work of prose, Fanon reinforces the importance for the need to stop generalising the ‘black experience’, as the understanding of the racialised experience differs greatly depending on geographical location. Consequently, Fanon also as unintentionally reinforces why intersectionality is needed to discuss questions regarding identity and self perception.
(Keeping in mind that this book was written in 1952 and therefore should be considered in that context)
There is no denying, however, that despite the compelling argumentation regarding race, Fanon’s narrative simultaneously is quite misogynistic and homophobic. Hence I ended up giving this book 3 stars