"This is freedom. It is a winter thing that cannot be tolerated for long. In it one must constantly move, as we do now. In freedom one must dance, it is cold and beautiful. But do not fall in love with it, because this will make you very sad later. A person only exists in the areas of freedom for moments, and no more. We have crossed the limit now. Look at the wonderful path on which we are skating, how it is slowly dissolving. You can now see freedom dying. When you open your eyes, this will be a haunting scene The heart is yours many times.”
*****
Walser treats language in this novel with as much respect as one would treat a revered and close friend at the same time. Hermann Hesse
"Jacob von Gonten" involves a kind of parody of the traditional educational novel.
Christopher Middleton
The hero of the novel “The Philosopher’s Dance” is a controversial strategic thinker. He worked and still is an advisor to an Arab leader. He took up his job after leaving Palestine on the run after he was accused of dealing with the enemy during wartime, namely Hezbollah.
This thinker or philosopher practiced political dancing. He theorizes democracy and secularism while working for a non-democratic, non-secular leader who supports extremism. He also believes in Arab nationalism and does not recognize Palestinian nationalism. He engages in a sexual relationship with his Israeli colleague (Tzipora), then continues the matter and justifies his actions. He describes it as resistance. He claims his love for his wife, Layal, and at the same time he lives with a Moroccan woman of Jewish origin during his stay in Britain. This woman plays a major role in the novel as a visual artist and has the ability to listen and remain silent.
The philosopher moves to reside in Britain and discovers an attempt to assassinate him by a Druze soldier who was working in the Israeli army. Here the novel sheds light on the reality of the Druze, accusing them and trying to do justice to them at the same time. The credit for thwarting the assassination goes to a man from southern Lebanon who runs a restaurant in London.
The philosopher receives a letter from a deported Palestinian who took refuge in Lebanon, asking him at the end: How do you feel in your homeland? The message affects him greatly, and he searches for the answer whenever he has the opportunity, and there are many opportunities, but he fails to answer. The question forms a basic pillar of the novel as well.
Although the novel is realistic, it does not follow an ascending ladder of events, and what lies within it is much greater than the events mentioned. The novel, as much as it is a novel of events and actions, is an intellectual novel, and here lies the difficulty of talking about it.
يتحدث جبران في هذا الكتاب عن الحياة والموت والحب، بمنطقيةٍ فلسفية مُزْدانةً بديباجة أدبية؛ فهو يستنطق بفلسفته ألسنة الأزهار والأشجار لكي يُفصح من خلالها عمَّا في هذا الكون من أسرار
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