History and Utopia

Author's name: Seoran Publisher: Al-Jamal Publications for Publishing and Distribution Year of publication: 2007 Literary classification: Philosophy and Thought Brief about the book: History and Utopia The title is a literal translation of the original French title of the book published in 1960, and it is the fourth in Seoran's works. This book is considered one of Seoran's most organized and coherent works in its intellectual and stylistic structure. Like "The Temptation of Existence," it follows a prose form with a clear philosophical plot in its view of existence. Most of the texts it contains were issued under specific circumstances in the author's life. The first text that opens "History and Utopia" has a special story that makes it a witness to the time period in which it was written and to Seoran's intellectual structure. Although this "letter to a distant friend" is devoid of any indication of the friend's identity, this does not reflect an intention to mislead or a suspenseful style. The author's approach to suspense is clear from the very beginning of his "letter" to his distant friend: "From that land which was ours and no longer belongs to anyone, you insist after all these years of silence that I give you some details about what occupies me, as well as about this 'wonderful' world you say I am lucky to dwell in and wander through..." Poet Ayman Hassan comments on this text in the introduction of the book, stating that understanding the underlying circle in the book "History and Utopia" first involves: 1. The temporal system of the text, which extends over a distant past similar to the friend himself, meaning that the connection between the brief past expressed by "was" and the absolute present, which is valid for all times and places, expressed by "no longer belongs to anyone," imposes a break between the writer and his homeland on one side and between the two friends on the other. This overturns the previous balance of friendship that was based on shared ideology. This language is written by Émile Seoran, who is among the authors whose texts are difficult to summarize and classify, because many of them can be read as poetic texts, while others are read as deep philosophical texts. However, in "History and Utopia," he combines the qualities of poet and philosopher and adopts a new title for both: "Historian." Contents of the book: 1- In two types of societies (Letter to a Distant Friend), 2- Russia or the Virus of Freedom, 3- In the School of Tyrants, 4- Odysseus of the Weak, 5- Utopia Mechanisms, 6- The Golden Age.