Ahmed the Philosopher: Thirty-Four Short Plays for Children and Everyone Else

by Alain Badiou, Joseph Litvak (Translator)

English-speaking readers might be surprised to learn that Alain Badiou writes fiction and plays along with his philosophical works and that they are just as important to understanding his larger intellectual project. In Ahmed the Philosopher, Badiou's most entertaining and accessible play, translated into English here for the first time, readers are introduced to Badiou's philosophy through a theatrical tour de force that has met with much success in France.

Ahmed the Philosopher presents its comic hero, the "treacherous servant" Ahmed, as a seductively trenchant philosopher even as it casts philosophy itself as a comic performance. The comedy unfolds as a series of lessons, with each "short play" or sketch illuminating a different Badiousian concept. Yet Ahmed does more than illustrate philosophical abstractions; he embodies and vivifies the theatrical and performative aspects of philosophy, mobilizing a comic energy that exposes the emptiness and pomp of the world. Through his example, the audience is moved to a living engagement with philosophy, discovering in it the power to break through the limits of everyday life.

Genres: Theatre, Literature, Contemporary, Philosophy

216 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2013

About the author

Alain Badiou, Ph.D., born in Rabat, Morocco in 1937, holds the Rene Descartes Chair at the European Graduate School EGS. Alain Badiou was a student at the École Normale Supérieure in the 1950s. He taught at the University of Paris VIII (Vincennes-Saint Denis) from 1969 until 1999, when he returned to ENS as the Chair of the philosophy department. He continues to teach a popular seminar at the Collège International de Philosophie, on topics ranging from the great 'antiphilosophers' (Saint-Paul, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Lacan) to the major conceptual innovations of the twentieth century. Much of Badiou's life has been shaped by his dedication to the consequences of the May 1968 revolt in Paris. Long a leading member of Union des jeunesses communistes de France (marxistes-léninistes), he remains with Sylvain Lazarus and Natacha Michel at the center of L'Organisation Politique, a post-party organization concerned with direct popular intervention in a wide range of issues (including immigration, labor, and housing). He is the author of several successful novels and plays as well as more than a dozen philosophical works.

Trained as a mathematician, Alain Badiou is one of the most original French philosophers today. Influenced by Plato, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Jacques Lacan and Gilles Deleuze, he is an outspoken critic of both the analytic as well as the postmodern schools of thoughts. His philosophy seeks to expose and make sense of the potential of radical innovation (revolution, invention, transfiguration) in every situation.

Reviews

[Steven Felicelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

probably the translation, but Badiou trying to be funny is a bit awkward

[Anders · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Ahmed: (returning as if he were half-dead from fatigue) Exactly, Mother. I'm not natural, I'm supernatural. Because language is supernatural."
~~
"Ahmed: Memory is a beautiful thing...
Fatima: It's like a whole country whose map you have hanging on the wall of your head."
~~

I found this book by chance at a bookstore in Minneapolis called Boneshaker Books. Cool place if you're in the area. I couldn't resist the opportunity to continue my series of reading Badiou, but not his heavier philosophical stuff. I had no idea that he even wrote a collection of plays! Although, to clarify, the improvisational nature and the maximum length of 4-5 pages of each made me want to refer to these as skits more than once. Before I get into the details, I'll just say that I loved this collection a lot. The translator's introduction is very clear and informative, explaining the genesis of the plays as a project, the characters, and Badiou's particular philosophical technicalities (which are really not that difficult to grasp in order to enjoy the plays). The plays themselves are excellent and I often found myself giggling out loud (in public!).

So let's begin. First off, a quick overview. The skits herein are a mixture of three main elements: French sociopolitical satire, slapstick/improv, and wordplay based on philosophical concepts. Each play is named for such a philosophical concept, e.g. time, chance, difference, etc. The characters are, for the most part, caricatures of French sociopolitical groups, Ahmed himself being a French-born Algerian of the working class who goes about on the town philosophizing, i.e. pestering people about the beliefs that hide behind their actions not unlike Plato's Socrates. Ahmed is a more comic figure, but then again Socrates (P) has a wicked (!) comic streak. At any rate, a host of other characters enliven the stage including Moustache, the native-born Frenchmen who hates immigrants, Fenda, Ahmed's on and off again girlfriend, another Algerian but not interested in philosophy and less of a caricature, and Rhubarb a simpering union organizer overly concerned with total inclusivity, etc.

There are a few other things worth mentioning from the translator's introduction. First, that the political atmosphere is post-Mitterand France. Second, that Ahmed's pursuit of philosophy (philosophy in others) is very genuine, albeit conducted and concluded in humorous ways. And another thing is better excerpted:
"Ahmed, we have seen, has said that the goal of philosophy is to find, in ourselves, "the active point that separates us from our fatigue and our private monotony," and he has figured this joyful separation as the rising of the dead. But here, it seems, the Ahmed plays, while prescribing and exemplifying a separation from fatigue, also cause fatigue--not, to be sure, a fatigue of misery but rather a fatigue of joy or a joy of fatigue. In this philosophical theater, thinking gives us joy by making us tired. It is as though we could escape from our fatigue not in a split second but only by working through it, with all the embeddedness that the term implies--as though a light and pure theater, a comic theater of cloud-splitting radiance, could arise only by taking on the very heaviness and impurity that it seeks to overcome, or as though, in order to be a clearing, an elucidation, an incitement, the theater had first to catch, to catch hold of, the stagnant, frantic, and muddled world that it would not be caught dead merely mirroring."

This is a brilliant explanation of the meaningfulness at the heart of Ahmed, but the skits themselves are more emphatically comic than thought-provoking. It's there, but you have to think.

Another aspect I think worth mentioned is that the subtitle is "34 Short Plays for Children & Everyone Else". It was easy for me to get into the plays, having the the philosophical background that I do (not to mention carefully reading the translator's introduction, which, again, is astutely elucidating) and am an adult (27 years under the sun gives me that, right?). The introduction mentions that when these plays were performed, they had children roaring with laughter or wanting to participate themselves. I think that the slapstick and improvisational elements of the plays would be perfect for children and should garner that reaction. The philosophical elements are understandable enough; they really aren't obtuse with the exception of a few puns. The sociopolitical commentary might be over their head, but then again, isn't that common of well-done children's media? You'll have to decide for yourself.

I think my favorite play ended up being "Chance" because it features a flowerpot comically falling on top of Moustache as he and Ahmed enter the stage at different times. It reminded me of some of the Roadrunner cartoons I watched as a kid, except throughout the play, Ahmed is explaining to Moustache that according to chance, another pot can't possibly fall on his head, just as one after another inevitably does. Another of my favorites (oh it was so good, maybe this one is actually my favorite) is called "The Same and the Other" and it features Ahmed, his first understudy, and his second understudy discussing methods of properly acting like Ahmed. Ahmed very matter-of-factly explains how the understudies should act like him. The 1st understudy (the brunt of most of the humor) takes his job seriously while mocking Ahmed's instruction, but then nervously overacts and harangues the 2nd understudy. The 2nd understudy (a work of genius) obliviously follows Ahmed's every command and innocently contradicts the 1st understudy at every turn. What results is a philosophical take on acting like Ahmed (think "Who's on First?") where Ahmed emerges supreme with little effort to the delight of the audience, namely me (but also [potentially] you!). The understudies return in "Mathematics" which has a similarly hilarious "Who's on First" feel and "Repetition" which you can imagine works well with three people all trying to repeat one another perfectly. Another great play entitled, "Language", involves Ahmed persuading Rhubarb (by playing on his ideology/insecurities) that the name of his new association must be long enough to appease all members and also convey every unique nuance of its goals, resulting in the acronym AGTPSIETCETHGHCD. I could go on (trust me), but I'd rather not give away the punches of the rest of the plays to any future readers.

So if any of this sounds interesting to you, pick it up, it'll be a blast. I haven't read the French, but I found the English to be extremely competent and whatever puns were in the French, Joseph Litvak either translates them masterfully or finds comparable puns in English (often if they are complicated he has a footnote--footnotes which do not overencumber the reader). I'll also repeat my praise of the improvisational elements; although, as a reader and not an audience member I could only read "Ahmed improvises on x", I could imagine things an actor would do based on things Ahmed does in other plays and, let me tell you, in my imagination they are hilarious (but also interesting. The plays simply invite myriad interpretations and permutations).

I'll end with Ahmed's description of philosophy from "Philosophy" (upon which the above excerpt from Litvak's translator's introduction is partially based). Ahmed has a such way with words, I think it's worth putting in full:
"Ahmed: Philosophy, my dear pupils, is exactly this: a thinking whose real content is thinking itself. Or, rather, thinkings. For there are very different kinds of thinking. There's thinking in mathematics, thinking in poetry, thinking in love, thinking in politics, when politics exists, which isn't very often. And philosophy is when thinking agrees to confront all of these different thinkings. Thinking confronting the various thinkings. That's philosophy. And philosophy sees that, in thinking, there's what happens suddenly, there's what lasts, there's what needs to be worked on. There are the different finite moments of a sort of infinite construction. And in thinking there's joy, there's enthusiasm, there's happiness, there's pleasure. Which means that philosophy is also confronting and giving way to the joy of thinking. You haven't been very good in this oral comprehensive examination. And the main reason seems to me to be the following: not enough joy. Not enough confidence in the joy of thinking. Too much bickering, too much bitterness, too much resentment, too much rivalry. As detestable as the world may be, and it is detestable, there's always a point, in yourselves, a personal and obscure point, a point that's unexpected, almost astounding even to you, which is the point of departure for thinking what is. Hold onto that point! Find it and hold onto it! Philosophy has no other goal. Let everyone find his point and hold onto it! The point in you that gives you your capacity for thinking and for its joy. The point that's the point of view, the point that allows everyone to invent and not to repeat. For repetition is the path of imposture and pain. Stop repeating, stop stewing in your own juices. Be irreplaceable, not because you are yourself, but because you have found, in yourself, the active point, the point that separates us from our fatigue and our private monotony."
What a guy! <3

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frustratingly dense for a play, let alone a children's play, but filled with promise of Commedia humor and thoughtful pauses. I definitely question whether I'd show many of these to children, but perhaps French children.

[sAmAnE · Rating 3 out of 5]

به نظرم یه سبک متفاوت از نمایشنامه بود با سبک پیام‌های فلسفی که نقش اصلی آن ها را خود احمد فیلسوف بازی می‌کرد.
کتاب سرگرم کننده ای بود من این کتاب رو برای بچه‌ها خریده بودم که دیدم مطالبش یکم برای بچه ها سنگینه و موضوعاتش...

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book, though I'm not sure these plays, most of them, are really quite right for children. Though I'm tempted to go buy a few copies for my friends and siblings for Christmas, I will not be giving it to nieces or nephews.

What's great, though, is that once you get on Badiou's (extremely) whimsical wavelength, many of these short plays are funny and (I'll admit it) surprisingly effective introductions to some philosophical ideas. You needn't have read other works by Badiou, but if you have it's fun to see him explore familiar themes and predilections via theatrical means.

The plays are all between 2 or 3 and 6 pages, so it's also a great book to just have lying around in a convenient spot for when you'll have a short time to read. (Make of this what you will.)