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The master of literary reportage reflects on the West's encounters with the non-European throughout the ages.
Ryszard Kapuscinski witnessed and reported major wars, coups and revolutions as they happened throughout the developing world and global South. In this distillation of his reflections accumulated from a lifetime of travel, he takes a fresh look at the Western idea of the Other: the non-European or non-American. Looking at this concept through the lens of his own encounters in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and considering its formative significance for his own work, Kapuscinski traces how the West has understood the Other from classical times to colonialism, from the age of enlightenment to the postmodern global village. He observes how today we continue to treat the non-European as an alien and a threat, an object of study that has not yet become a partner in sharing responsibility for the fate of the world. In our globalised but increasingly polarised post-9/11 age, Kapuscinski shows how the Other remains one of the most compelling ideas of our times.
Ryszard Kapuscinski witnessed and reported major wars, coups and revolutions as they happened throughout the developing world and global South. In this distillation of his reflections accumulated from a lifetime of travel, he takes a fresh look at the Western idea of the Other: the non-European or non-American. Looking at this concept through the lens of his own encounters in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and considering its formative significance for his own work, Kapuscinski traces how the West has understood the Other from classical times to colonialism, from the age of enlightenment to the postmodern global village. He observes how today we continue to treat the non-European as an alien and a threat, an object of study that has not yet become a partner in sharing responsibility for the fate of the world. In our globalised but increasingly polarised post-9/11 age, Kapuscinski shows how the Other remains one of the most compelling ideas of our times.
115 pages
First published June 8, 2006
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1619 people want to read
About the author
Ryszard Kapuściński
88 books1,947 followersRyszard Kapuściński debuted as a poet in Dziś i jutro at the age of 17 and has been a journalist, writer, and publicist. In 1964 he was appointed to the Polish Press Agency and began traveling around the developing world and reporting on wars, coups and revolutions in Asia, the Americas, and Europe; he lived through twenty-seven revolutions and coups, was jailed forty times, and survived four death sentences. During some of this time he also worked for the Polish Secret Service, although little is known of his role.
See also Ryszard Kapuściński Prize
See also Ryszard Kapuściński Prize
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 172 reviews
April 4, 2018
People thus had three choices when they encountered the Other: They could choose war, they could build a wall around themselves, or they could enter into dialogue.
There are many cases in which someone – taking advantage of a renowned name – just grabs a couple of unrelated essays and makes a book. However, the idea of the Other is perfectly developed by some conferences given by Ryszard Kapuściński (1932-2007) between 1990 and 2005 that were reunited in this book, where a lack of cohesion is not something I would use to describe it. Nevertheless, one may put the focus on the repetition of few notions, but giving their significance and our own difficulty to comprehend them, I can’t find any fault in it...
Kapuściński, Polish journalist, photographer, poet and author.
This work starts from the premise that throughout history, humans have had a tendency to mistrust and/or conquer the Other. In relation to the writing, Kapuściński’s words are a pleasure to read. With great eloquence, he discusses the relationship between us and the Other (quoting philosophers and at times, self-referentially) and how it is affected by the concepts of race, nationality and religion, thus providing much insight into the complexities of human nature. These conferences also speak volumes about the writer, whose warmth and consideration made me feel rather small, especially when he mentioned how humans resort to isolation to avoid the Other. (Note: after I finished this review, I found an article on some biography of his. Naturally, not every word correlates with every action.) I have to admit that I loved that feeling prompted by his cogent arguments, since it brought me back to a stage of introspection, ready to re-evaluate behaviors and life choices and start to think that, perhaps, there is a way to fulfill a desire for self-improvement in order to connect with others.
As for the quote that starts this digression, war would never be a real option. But the wall has always been a problem. It secures distance, a ridiculous sense of safety. Simultaneously, it isolates one from society; an attitude tinged with egoism, tedium and probably narcissism – yes, we’re a treat. Truth be told, I tend to disbelieve when I see some sort of pride in someone’s isolation, as if they actually enjoy being unable to let people approach them and get to know them and then they announce it as a cool quirk (are we still saying “cool” nowadays?), because of course, they let everybody know all about it. I don’t find much joy in such impediment, and since supposedly (sorry, that word always reminds me of the deep soliloquy by the end) we’re not beasts and we’re definitely not gods, I see it as pretended nonchalance, a juvenile pose that needs to be broadcast for some reason (the irony is that one of those reasons relates to the yearning for sharing a moment with another person). In other words, if you’re not a hermit writing poetry on some mountain…
A myriad of ambivalent feelings elicits different responses. Sometimes the wall is necessary. A quick and daily example. A couple of weeks ago, in class, I was pushed to talk to someone who happened to be a sociologist. The long-winded speech I was subjected to... I felt my soul was about to die of exhaustion. Pompous verbosity is another challenge for my attention span. An insufferable, arrogant academic? A vicious liar? You’re getting a wall astronauts will truly see from the moon. It’s no longer a matter of fear for the unknown or selfishness, but the basic instinct of self-preservation. (I’m fully aware that that statement could have probably appalled the author and is at odds with the book’s ideals. We’re working on it but no promises will be made.)
Odd and uncalled anecdote aside, the conflict between the silence of solitude and the sound of the Other (which often involves an entirely different set of experiences and values that we unjustly regard as noise) is timeless, as Kapuściński lucidly explains, in addition to the difficulty in internalizing tolerance when in reality, that sort of acceptance is a previous step, as empathy is the final destination. Nevertheless, I wonder whether we really want to live in an airport. The airport is a recurring metaphor for the magic of reunions, when family and friends gather after a period of separation. The author draws an analogy from a different perspective, offering the other side of our perennial duality, as he depicts society as an anonymous crowd at a major airport, a crowd of people rushing along in haste, mutually indifferent and ignorant. I can’t stop thinking about it now while walking through the streets of this city, which brim over with people in such a hurry that don’t even have time to respect a traffic light. By means of a brisk walk – try a stroll at your own peril – we might conclude that we're beyond the acknowledgement of nationality and religion as the only factors to keep our distance. Oblivious to the existence of other human beings but ourselves, we keep walking with phones in our pupils.
We will constantly be encountering the new Other, who will slowly emerge from the chaos and tumult of the present. It is possible that this new Other will arise from the meeting of two contradictory currents that shape the culture of the contemporary world — the current of the globalization of our reality and the current of the conservation of our diversity, our differences, our uniqueness. The Other may be the offspring and the heir of these two currents.
We should seek dialogue and understanding with the new Other. The experience of spending years among remote Others has taught me that kindness toward another being is the only attitude that can strike a chord of humanity in the Other.
March 25, 18
* Also on my blog.
** Photo credit: Kapuściński via wyborcza.pl
November 16, 2015
A distinctly underwhelming book, encapsulated far more succinctly and memorably as “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”
Kapucinski expounds at length over 79 pages; WITHOUT at any point SIMPLIFYING his thesis to conclude that essentially our species is hard-wired to breed, whatever the cost, and to promote its own individual successes and economic advantages: i.e. that of our own family, and maybe also that of our own tribe, over all other comers.
That’s it. Nothing costly, except to pride, nothing complicated. Absolutely no real vital need whatsoever to misappropriate Mother Earth’s natural resources to publish and distribute seventy-nine pages on the subject; this is a book that comprehensively fails to justify gracing physical space in my library.
Instead, simply spread by mouth eleven powerful words wider: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Much wider, and even wider than that. Talk with your friends about what those eleven words mean: to you, to them, and how we, each and all, can actually DO something with our words. Beat misery, ACT.
Kapucinski expounds at length over 79 pages; WITHOUT at any point SIMPLIFYING his thesis to conclude that essentially our species is hard-wired to breed, whatever the cost, and to promote its own individual successes and economic advantages: i.e. that of our own family, and maybe also that of our own tribe, over all other comers.
That’s it. Nothing costly, except to pride, nothing complicated. Absolutely no real vital need whatsoever to misappropriate Mother Earth’s natural resources to publish and distribute seventy-nine pages on the subject; this is a book that comprehensively fails to justify gracing physical space in my library.
Instead, simply spread by mouth eleven powerful words wider: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Much wider, and even wider than that. Talk with your friends about what those eleven words mean: to you, to them, and how we, each and all, can actually DO something with our words. Beat misery, ACT.
June 7, 2009
Speeches reduced to paper often make mediocre books. This book is a collection of Kapuscinski's material that was intended to be delivered in person before an audience. There is barely enough content to stretch between two covers, and much of it is repetitive -- suggesting a ploy by the Verso editors to milk a few bucks from Kapuscinski's recent passing. There are a few interesting concepts (e.g., a brief argument that literature dropped the ball along with journalism in addressing the upheavals of the last decade; a note attributing the origins of hospitality to early tendencies to suspect strangers of being anthropomorphized gods). It's a shame, because The Emperor is one of the twenty best books I've ever read, and this simply isn't a good selection of his work. Neal Ascherson's intro is the most engaging part of this book. As an aside, it also seemed terribly unfitting that in a text devoted to strategies for engaging with "the Other", he ends with a quote from Joseph Conrad of all people, and in particular from The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'.
January 20, 2012
I took this book as a companion on my journey through Italy and loved every bit of it. As a matter of fact, I often found myself inclined to stay in my hostel room reading this as opposed to going out. Kapiscinski's reflections on the third world hit really close to home and made me enthusiastic about the world *I* live in and have yet to discover in the fashion he has.
October 21, 2014
Anagrama tiene la costumbre de estirar las referencias de sus autores publicando cualquier cosa que haya salido de su pluma. Lo hace con Auster y, desde que se le concedió el Príncipe de Asturias y falleció, lo está haciendo con Kapúscinski. Este libro recoge varias conferencias del periodista que, en su mayoría, datan de los años noventa. Todas ellas se centran en el modo el que las personas engloban a sus semejantes en categorías que los distinguen basándose en nacionalidades, razas y credos. Como los textos no están concebidos para ser publicados juntos, muchas de las ideas se repiten con mayor frecuencia de la deseable. Aún así, las valiosas ideas centrales del libro quedan claras y subrayadas. El texto remarca que todas las culturas son igualmente dignas y que, aunque la tolerancia es un paso, la empatía debe ser el objetivo cuando el ser humano se topa con sus iguales. Me gusta, pero vería con mejores ojos que la editorial se decidiera de una vez por todas a aglutinar en un solo tomo todas las referencias dispersas del autor.
May 31, 2014
"He paid a high price for breaking away from his own culture. That is why is so important to have one's own, distinct identity, a sense of its strenght, value and maturity. Only then can a man boldly confront another culture. Otherwise he will lurk in his hiding place, fearfully isolating himself from others. All the more since the Other is a looking glass in which I see myself and in which I am observed-it's a mirror that unmasks and exposes me, something we would prefer to avoid."
March 19, 2018
Reflections from an seasoned foreign correspondent about how we view each other, specifically white European’s and ‘other people’. If you’re into anthropology, psychology or sociology, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this short musings by an excellent writer and super intelligent guy.
November 14, 2021
Collated from four lectures delivered by the universally acclaimed Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński, “The Other”, is an eloquent, impassioned and civilised plea for recognising humanity for what it is: diverse, heterogenous and unamenable for stereotyping. Kapuściński urges his readers to shed entrenched dogmas that come with the baggage of Eurocentrism, and to develop a broader outlook and perception when encountering and dealing with myriad cultures and civilization. Daniel Bonilla Maldonado, a pioneering researcher on Modern Comparative Law and Associate Professor in a Columbian Law School, defines decolonization as “the historical process by which European empires collapsed and former colonies became new independent states during classical and late modernity”. Kapuściński’’s thinking predates even this splendid definition. He lived the later years of his life, dedicated to understanding the distinct and different “Other”. His most widely read and quoted book, “Travels With Herodotus” is an unashamed and unabashed homage to the personal and professional sojourns of the “Other”.
The colonizer, in more ways than one, seeks to elide and eviscerate the very indigenous identity and Ontology of the colonised. This he does, by diplomatically and deviously – at times even brutally – superimposing the culture of the colonized by the colonizer’s own ways of life. Thus, the insidious impact of this superimposition being, even in a decolonised setting, the newly liberated colony, or a free state rather, is left to grapple with its traditions and ethnography by solely relying on the works left behind by the once marauding colonizer. Kapuściński bemoans such a crude and cruel two-dimensional overlay and calls for preserving the roots and original ethos of the “Other”. This is the only definition of pure and untainted egalitarianism.
Kapuściński claims that the “Other” embodies within his/her persona, two different and distinct personalities. “One of these beings is a person like the rest of us: he has his joys and sorrows, good and bad days, he is glad of his successes and does not like to be hungry, and does not like it when he is cold…The other being who is overlapped and interwoven with the first, is a person, as bearer of racial features, and as a bearer of culture, belief and convictions.” This bearer of belief, cultures and convictions was the persona whom Europe tried to obliterate when donning the mantle of conquistadors, whether colonizing Africa, brutalizing South America, or demonizing India.
The beliefs, cultures and convictions of the “Other” is deracinated as medieval, derogated as pagan or heathen and finally demolished by the employ of brute force, force here referring to both physical assault as well as mental and spiritual ‘reeducation’. Not for a moment the colonizer/European stop to ponder about a most critical and necessary quandary. The colonizer is as much an “Other” to the colonized as the colonised is a mystery to his new and self-proclaimed usurpers of freedom. In this regard reference may be made to Neal Ascherson’s poignant recollection of a language employed by an Evangelical Church poster in Berlin that was addressed to Du und der Du neben Dir – “You and the You Next to You”.
Kapuściński relies liberally on the philosophy espoused by Emmanuel Lévinas, the Jewish-French philosopher. Lévinas, courageously and obstinately stuck to the principle that we are after all defined as individuals by our attitude to the Other. In addition to Lévinas , Kapuściński also draws on an eclectic collection of works: Swiss traveler, thinker and scientist Albrecht von Haller, Montesquieu, Jonathan Swift, Goethe, the Upanishads and Conrad are a few of the usual suspects.
Kapuściński lays down three barometers, taking recourse to which he claims that the “Otherness” is judged in this world. The first marker is the colour of one’s skin. If sharing the same skin colour is not used to bringing drawing people together, this failure denotes that there may be greater underlying distinctions in determining otherness. The second characteristic by which Otherness is judged is that of nationalism. In Kapuściński ‘s own words, “Nationalism, like racism, is a tool for identifying and classifying that is used by my Other at any opportunity. It is a crude, primitive tool that oversimplifies and trivialises one ‟s image of the Other, because for the nationalist the person of the Other has just one single feature – national affiliation”. The final characteristic by which Otherness is judged is perhaps the most impactful and controversial one, religion. Here it would be crucial to make a distinction between individual religious belief and institutionalized religious communities. The initial face to face interaction will determine one’s stance spiritually and with concerns of their personal morality, This needs to be weighted against the consensus and contradictions (as may be appropriate) from the perspective of the religious institution to which the Other is seemingly affiliated.
The colonizer by labeling the colonized as heathen, soul-less and of a deprecating stock, completely fails to comprehend the faith system and culture that is the prerogative of the colonised’ A key failing of the colonizer is to totally disregard the land-ontology or the pristine and almost sacred relationship that exists between the native and her land. A relationship based on a symbiotic reciprocity. The normative Western mindset, incapable of both deciphering and respecting such relationship proceeds to mercilessly pillage the land and enslave the native.In “The Spiritual Legacy of the American Indian”, Joseph Epes Brown, writes, “their relationship with the earth was one of ‘reciprocal appropriation’, that is to give and receive, ‘in which humans participated in the landscape while at the same time they incorporated the landscape and its inhabitants into the most fundamental human experience and understanding’. The invaders, nursing a Judeo Christian OET that places man at the pinnacle of animate and inanimate existence, not just dehumanized humanity but also objectified nature. This, in addition to a forced displacement of the indigenous education systems, also resulted in a top down imposition of Christianity, and in some cases, even a subtle and covert ‘Christianising’ of the native faith.
Kapuściński leaves last words to one of his inspirations, Joseph Conrad's: "the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts".
The colonizer, in more ways than one, seeks to elide and eviscerate the very indigenous identity and Ontology of the colonised. This he does, by diplomatically and deviously – at times even brutally – superimposing the culture of the colonized by the colonizer’s own ways of life. Thus, the insidious impact of this superimposition being, even in a decolonised setting, the newly liberated colony, or a free state rather, is left to grapple with its traditions and ethnography by solely relying on the works left behind by the once marauding colonizer. Kapuściński bemoans such a crude and cruel two-dimensional overlay and calls for preserving the roots and original ethos of the “Other”. This is the only definition of pure and untainted egalitarianism.
Kapuściński claims that the “Other” embodies within his/her persona, two different and distinct personalities. “One of these beings is a person like the rest of us: he has his joys and sorrows, good and bad days, he is glad of his successes and does not like to be hungry, and does not like it when he is cold…The other being who is overlapped and interwoven with the first, is a person, as bearer of racial features, and as a bearer of culture, belief and convictions.” This bearer of belief, cultures and convictions was the persona whom Europe tried to obliterate when donning the mantle of conquistadors, whether colonizing Africa, brutalizing South America, or demonizing India.
The beliefs, cultures and convictions of the “Other” is deracinated as medieval, derogated as pagan or heathen and finally demolished by the employ of brute force, force here referring to both physical assault as well as mental and spiritual ‘reeducation’. Not for a moment the colonizer/European stop to ponder about a most critical and necessary quandary. The colonizer is as much an “Other” to the colonized as the colonised is a mystery to his new and self-proclaimed usurpers of freedom. In this regard reference may be made to Neal Ascherson’s poignant recollection of a language employed by an Evangelical Church poster in Berlin that was addressed to Du und der Du neben Dir – “You and the You Next to You”.
Kapuściński relies liberally on the philosophy espoused by Emmanuel Lévinas, the Jewish-French philosopher. Lévinas, courageously and obstinately stuck to the principle that we are after all defined as individuals by our attitude to the Other. In addition to Lévinas , Kapuściński also draws on an eclectic collection of works: Swiss traveler, thinker and scientist Albrecht von Haller, Montesquieu, Jonathan Swift, Goethe, the Upanishads and Conrad are a few of the usual suspects.
Kapuściński lays down three barometers, taking recourse to which he claims that the “Otherness” is judged in this world. The first marker is the colour of one’s skin. If sharing the same skin colour is not used to bringing drawing people together, this failure denotes that there may be greater underlying distinctions in determining otherness. The second characteristic by which Otherness is judged is that of nationalism. In Kapuściński ‘s own words, “Nationalism, like racism, is a tool for identifying and classifying that is used by my Other at any opportunity. It is a crude, primitive tool that oversimplifies and trivialises one ‟s image of the Other, because for the nationalist the person of the Other has just one single feature – national affiliation”. The final characteristic by which Otherness is judged is perhaps the most impactful and controversial one, religion. Here it would be crucial to make a distinction between individual religious belief and institutionalized religious communities. The initial face to face interaction will determine one’s stance spiritually and with concerns of their personal morality, This needs to be weighted against the consensus and contradictions (as may be appropriate) from the perspective of the religious institution to which the Other is seemingly affiliated.
The colonizer by labeling the colonized as heathen, soul-less and of a deprecating stock, completely fails to comprehend the faith system and culture that is the prerogative of the colonised’ A key failing of the colonizer is to totally disregard the land-ontology or the pristine and almost sacred relationship that exists between the native and her land. A relationship based on a symbiotic reciprocity. The normative Western mindset, incapable of both deciphering and respecting such relationship proceeds to mercilessly pillage the land and enslave the native.In “The Spiritual Legacy of the American Indian”, Joseph Epes Brown, writes, “their relationship with the earth was one of ‘reciprocal appropriation’, that is to give and receive, ‘in which humans participated in the landscape while at the same time they incorporated the landscape and its inhabitants into the most fundamental human experience and understanding’. The invaders, nursing a Judeo Christian OET that places man at the pinnacle of animate and inanimate existence, not just dehumanized humanity but also objectified nature. This, in addition to a forced displacement of the indigenous education systems, also resulted in a top down imposition of Christianity, and in some cases, even a subtle and covert ‘Christianising’ of the native faith.
Kapuściński leaves last words to one of his inspirations, Joseph Conrad's: "the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts".
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December 28, 2021I can say, without compunction, that this is the weakest of Kapuscinski's works translated into English, and this completes (I think) my reading of them. It's a fairly OK engagement with the idea of the other, leaning heavily onto the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. And maybe it's the fact that I find Levinas to be unconvincing that gave me serious qualms as to The Other as a text. Whatever -- it's like 80 pages, so read it if you want, but feel free to skip it.
July 14, 2021
No sé cómo este libro ha llegado a mi lista de pendientes y es que hace ya tiempo que entró (2016 nada más y nada menos que hace 5 años) y cuando me animé no sé cómo leí la contraportada y pensaba que era una serie de entrevistas y nada más lejos de la realidad.
Se trata de un ensayo fruto de esas conversaciones, pero hay algo que no acaba de encajar bajo mi punto de vista. Dejando a un lado la retórica por momentos exageradamente recargada y el tono condescendiente que envuelve casi todo el libro, en el fondo hay algo mucho más dramático: los textos, en general, carecen de pulpa, de sustancia.
Se repite demasiado; tras quince años de reflexión entre la primera y la última conferencia, sigue diciendo prácticamente lo mismo; mismas referencias, mismas conclusiones: el futuro es una gran incertidumbre.
Muchos interrogantes permanecen en el aire y se peca, por lo tanto, de navegar en la superficie. El resultado: un puzzle que tu mismo te vas haciendo con los planteamientos destacables que lentamente vas encontrando. La realidad es que se me ha quedado un poco flojo.
Se trata de un ensayo fruto de esas conversaciones, pero hay algo que no acaba de encajar bajo mi punto de vista. Dejando a un lado la retórica por momentos exageradamente recargada y el tono condescendiente que envuelve casi todo el libro, en el fondo hay algo mucho más dramático: los textos, en general, carecen de pulpa, de sustancia.
Se repite demasiado; tras quince años de reflexión entre la primera y la última conferencia, sigue diciendo prácticamente lo mismo; mismas referencias, mismas conclusiones: el futuro es una gran incertidumbre.
Muchos interrogantes permanecen en el aire y se peca, por lo tanto, de navegar en la superficie. El resultado: un puzzle que tu mismo te vas haciendo con los planteamientos destacables que lentamente vas encontrando. La realidad es que se me ha quedado un poco flojo.
September 14, 2022
Qué ganas de ser antropólogo pero qué flojera el discurso europeo.
August 22, 2017
Ryszard Kapuściński is in may ways the writer's journalist – a Polish foreign correspondent who worked in the 'third world' as an agency writer while also giving us some of the great books of political journalism and observation – his Shah of Shahs about the 1979 Iranian revolution, and The Soccer War about armed conflict between Guatemala and Honduras, are some of the most compelling things I have read (years ago in both cases). In this very short book – 92 A5 pages – we get a series of lectures that explore the contemporary issue of 'othering', and of our responsibility to 'others' (including our social selves as others' others). One of the really good things about the lecture format in the hands of someone as versed and well travelled and as word-smith-like as Kapuściński is that they wrap up in themselves some extremely complex and sophisticated ideas, in clear and transparent language. Kapuściński's major influences are three-fold: the Lithuanian philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas – the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust, Jozef Tischner – a Polish cleric influenced by Lévinas and exponent of his philosophy of ethical responsibility to the other, and Bronislaw Malinowski – the Polish anthropologist who invented for the discipline the practice of living with the other.
The lectures consider the meaning of difference, there is a beautifully reflexive meditation on Kapuściński's others and his role as other to others, and our relations with and responsibilities to others in an increasingly globalising world. The stamp of Lévinas is powerful in but submerged by the lecture form, and the lectures themselves short but will be revisited time and again. This book is a treat to have stumbled upon.
The lectures consider the meaning of difference, there is a beautifully reflexive meditation on Kapuściński's others and his role as other to others, and our relations with and responsibilities to others in an increasingly globalising world. The stamp of Lévinas is powerful in but submerged by the lecture form, and the lectures themselves short but will be revisited time and again. This book is a treat to have stumbled upon.
June 11, 2017
Some extracts from the book:
1) As his contemporary, the great Swiss traveller, scientist and philosopher Albrecht von Haller, would write in the mid-eighteenth century:
Nothing is better able to dispel prejudices than familiarity with many peoples of disparate customs, laws and opinions - an otherness that for the price of a minor effort teaches us to cast off what makes people different, and to regard as the voice of nature the things on which all peoples agree: because the first laws of nature are the same for all peoples. ...Not to offend anyone, to grant each man his due.
2) one of the greatest dramas of modern world, a drama particularly acute for America, was the Iranian revolution, the overthrow of the Shah, the fate of the hostages and so on. To my amazement, in the course of the dozen or more months when these events were happening I didn't meet a single American writer in Iran, nor in fact a single writer from Europe. How can it be possible, I wondered in TeherN, for such a great historical shock, such an unusual clash of civilisations, not to stir any interest among the world's writers? Of course it is not that they should immediately rush off en masse to the latest trouble spot, to the Persian Gulf- but the fact that literature can completely ignore a world drama being played out before our very eyes, leaving it entirely up to the television cameras and sound operators to tell the story of major incidents, is to me a symptom of a deep crisis on the front line between history and literature, a symptom of literatyre's helplessness in the face of modern world events.
1) As his contemporary, the great Swiss traveller, scientist and philosopher Albrecht von Haller, would write in the mid-eighteenth century:
Nothing is better able to dispel prejudices than familiarity with many peoples of disparate customs, laws and opinions - an otherness that for the price of a minor effort teaches us to cast off what makes people different, and to regard as the voice of nature the things on which all peoples agree: because the first laws of nature are the same for all peoples. ...Not to offend anyone, to grant each man his due.
2) one of the greatest dramas of modern world, a drama particularly acute for America, was the Iranian revolution, the overthrow of the Shah, the fate of the hostages and so on. To my amazement, in the course of the dozen or more months when these events were happening I didn't meet a single American writer in Iran, nor in fact a single writer from Europe. How can it be possible, I wondered in TeherN, for such a great historical shock, such an unusual clash of civilisations, not to stir any interest among the world's writers? Of course it is not that they should immediately rush off en masse to the latest trouble spot, to the Persian Gulf- but the fact that literature can completely ignore a world drama being played out before our very eyes, leaving it entirely up to the television cameras and sound operators to tell the story of major incidents, is to me a symptom of a deep crisis on the front line between history and literature, a symptom of literatyre's helplessness in the face of modern world events.
December 26, 2020
In four different texts included in this book, Kapuscinski briefly summarizes the philosophies of Lévinas and Malinowski. Four times. Again and again. Without adding much new. His insight itself is interesting but it suffices to read it in but one of those essays. And even then there is nothing much new included in his reflections for a modern reader: Be open to the Other and make sure to realize that non-Europeans are also human beings (surprise!) and that they regard us as the Others.
May 13, 2018
Es un libro interesante, habla sobre cómo podríamos entender las diferentes maneras en que convivimos los seres humanos, situación que puede resultar muy difícil teniendo en cuenta que somos seres diversos y complejos.
December 28, 2022
quick primer on the slow dawning in europe of the idea that other people exist and their personhood matters. also philosophical thought re: white europeans sorting out the relationship between self and others, and the shortcomings of that because they hadn't quite extended the idea of "others" to non-europeans until anthropologists set out to learn for themselves, though that study was still very white gaze. good amount of handwringing about how the realization of selfhood and otherhood might play out as formerly subjugated people continue to define their own relationality to others in an increasingly interconnected world cuz i guess the worry is what if they overcorrect in a retaliatory way? also handwringing about the fact that despite really fascinating stories and ideas coming out of nonwhite countries, white countries are still a bottleneck for idea dissemination and we can't get the disseminators to authentically connect or care. "despite an entirely new map of the world, researching, fathoming, interpreting and describing the philosophies and existence, the thinking and way of life of three-quarters of the world's population still remains - as in the nineteenth century -- in the hands of a narrow group of specialists: anthropologists, ethnographers, travellers and journalists." good points were made that a strong sense of identity is harder to grasp as things homogenize globally so often toxic nationalism and racism is the life raft people reach for?? also liked being introduced to the idea that hospitality arose from people anthropomorphizing god, cuz what if the next person you run into is actually god? and guys like emmanuel lévinas saying that to know another and take responsibility for them is to get closer to god and the only way to know yourself? beautiful shit.
November 29, 2020
L’onestà e l’umanità di Kapuściński in questo breve saggio è in alcuni passaggi molto toccante, commovente.
Il suo linguaggio è chiaro e semplice, proprio perché l’intento è rendere i pensieri che riguardano la questione de “l’altro”, il più accessibile a tutti.
È il presupposto necessario per comunicare con chi è disposto a tendere l’orecchio.
Consigliato a chi vuole rimanere umano e a chi vuole imparare ad esserlo.
(Di Kapuściński consiglio anche ‘In viaggio con Erodoto’, probabilmente adatto per chi ha una infarinatura di studi classici, o a chi bazzica nel campo per piacere intellettuale e culturale; indipendentemente da questo, io lo consiglio a tutti, proprio per le lezioni di umanità che questo grandissimo reporter ci ha regalato nel corso della sua lunga carriera)
Il suo linguaggio è chiaro e semplice, proprio perché l’intento è rendere i pensieri che riguardano la questione de “l’altro”, il più accessibile a tutti.
È il presupposto necessario per comunicare con chi è disposto a tendere l’orecchio.
Consigliato a chi vuole rimanere umano e a chi vuole imparare ad esserlo.
(Di Kapuściński consiglio anche ‘In viaggio con Erodoto’, probabilmente adatto per chi ha una infarinatura di studi classici, o a chi bazzica nel campo per piacere intellettuale e culturale; indipendentemente da questo, io lo consiglio a tutti, proprio per le lezioni di umanità che questo grandissimo reporter ci ha regalato nel corso della sua lunga carriera)
June 15, 2021
I love Kapuscinski and there was a woman in chador on the cover of the verso edition I bought (likely the most visible "other" for Europeans), so I was quite surprised at the shocking degree of incuriosity this otherwise rather broad-minded book betrays about the middle east, particularly of Arab antecedents of what he regards as the unique achievements of the enlightenment. I obviously also do not agree with his tarring of communism and fascism alike as totalitarian threats to curiosity about "the other". Worth the price of admission, however, for his thoughts on the division of the self into a personality of basic human drives and a bearer of culture constructed through confrontation with the other
April 30, 2020
De manera muy ligera, Kapuscinski usa su experiencia personal como reportero en África, acompañada de pequeñas anotaciones académicas, para explicar la "otredad". Los textos recopilados son discursos que el autor dio en conferencias y entregas de premios, por lo que no profundiza en exceso, pero sirve como introducir al tema.
Eso sí, un gatito ha muerto cada vez que he leído que China (era innecesario que hablara de China) fue una sociedad aislada justificándose en la construcción de la gran muralla.
Eso sí, un gatito ha muerto cada vez que he leído que China (era innecesario que hablara de China) fue una sociedad aislada justificándose en la construcción de la gran muralla.
September 15, 2019
I’ve read a fair bit of Kapuscinski and I always find something worthwhile and rewarding in his writing. This on the other hand, reeks of cynical publishing cash in. Kapuscinski makes some interesting points in these lectures, but nothing too profound and nothing too compelling. This is really nothing more than a strange, disappointing and puzzling publication, which is far from essential reading. Instead get a hold of one of his many other fine books like “The Shadow of The Sun”.
February 24, 2019
The book is an eloquent lecture series on interacting with ‘the other’ in a multicultural global world, published posthumously. The other refers to non-White, non-Christian, non-Europeans but is widely generalisable. While it is too simplistic, I hope it is a good introduction to the author.
October 7, 2018
Genialne.
July 29, 2020
an interesting read, that helped enlighten me to the European perspective of other, and what the other means to many.
October 16, 2024
Mam wrażenie, że autor ma tendencję do generalizowania
Update: po zajęciach z etnologii stwierdziłam, że muszę zmienić ocenę z 2⭐ na 1⭐
Update: po zajęciach z etnologii stwierdziłam, że muszę zmienić ocenę z 2⭐ na 1⭐
January 24, 2024
this feels quite out of date (he is dead tbf), maybe if it was a bit updated it might get The Other 3 stars
June 4, 2015
Kapuscinski is one of Poland greatest writers,and obviously influenced by the ideas and philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas , provides sensible reflections into human relationship , that really illuminates the topic in some aspects and tells quite a lot of his long-standing experience of correspondence in Africa , Asia and Latin america.
I liked the simplicity and the flow of his ideas ,however,part of his arguments were shaky and indefensible (at least for me) :
p.18
"In this march of civilizations,Europe will be the exception,because it is the only one , right from its Greek beginnings, to show curiosity about the world and a desire not just to conquer and dominate it,but also to have knowledge of it ."
-I was shocked by how shamefully he twisted the fact by justifying conquering and dominating under the pretext for knowledge !!
p.28
"of course the slave trade and colonial expansion were still going on , but something in the thinking and morality of Europeans had started to change , and it had become necessary to consider appearances-people no longer speak of colonialism,but of the mission to civilize,conversion or bringing help to poor backward people"
-yes,truly people no longer speak about colonialism,but still there is a disguised colonialism .in other words, colonialism is still alive, but it has metamorphosed into different shape and under ambiguous titles,so that it can rebel and withstand the awakening consciousness of those people who for centuries were victims under its sway.
all in all, I benefited greatly from his sincerity and his world-shattering insights.and he supplied me with an invaluable reflections of why the poles reacts and perceive The other with fear and reluctance,an issue that concerns me,hence I currently pursue my studies in Poland.
I liked the simplicity and the flow of his ideas ,however,part of his arguments were shaky and indefensible (at least for me) :
p.18
"In this march of civilizations,Europe will be the exception,because it is the only one , right from its Greek beginnings, to show curiosity about the world and a desire not just to conquer and dominate it,but also to have knowledge of it ."
-I was shocked by how shamefully he twisted the fact by justifying conquering and dominating under the pretext for knowledge !!
p.28
"of course the slave trade and colonial expansion were still going on , but something in the thinking and morality of Europeans had started to change , and it had become necessary to consider appearances-people no longer speak of colonialism,but of the mission to civilize,conversion or bringing help to poor backward people"
-yes,truly people no longer speak about colonialism,but still there is a disguised colonialism .in other words, colonialism is still alive, but it has metamorphosed into different shape and under ambiguous titles,so that it can rebel and withstand the awakening consciousness of those people who for centuries were victims under its sway.
all in all, I benefited greatly from his sincerity and his world-shattering insights.and he supplied me with an invaluable reflections of why the poles reacts and perceive The other with fear and reluctance,an issue that concerns me,hence I currently pursue my studies in Poland.
May 6, 2021
These days we all seem to be obsessed with The Other, whether it is oppositional obsession with people who don't share our political views in our polarized society or wanting to understand how we can get past our unconsious prejudices or wanting to keep The Other out with a big wall across our southern border. So this is a good book for everyone right now. It is short, easy to understand and written in an engaging style. I liked the way that Mr. Kapuscinski sees a path of progress from early hatred, mistrust and a desire to conquer The Other, to a paternalistic desire to bring The Other up to the level of our perceived superior society, to a more mature appreciation for the differences of the The Other, to an understanding of the need to reach out to The Other, to communicate, to respect and to take responsibility for our fellow humans. I'm not so sure that the reality of the situation has been a smooth line of upward movement or that we have come nearly as far as we could or should have, but I like the optimism and share the sense of the goal. In particular, I was happy to be introduced to the thinking of Levinas, who put forward the idea that our relationship to The Other needs to be in the nature of reaching out, communicating and taking responsibilty. That's right. If we can do that even some of the time, we will have a better world.
February 12, 2017
Kapuscinski is one of the most important authors in my life. I owe him my passion, my views, my approach. He made me dream about travels, people and cultures; back in mid-2000s once I got his first book I started to draw paths that I wanted to follow, people I wanted to meet, places I wanted to discover. He was the one who made me believe in human beings and doubt them simultaneously. I will always remember those feelings I had back then - the weird combination of goosebumps, consternation, happiness and sadness. And excitement!
'The Other' is an essay that touches the very sense of our social life - the importance of The Others in our lives. It is a great read, extraordinary summary of Kapuscinski's thought.
'The Other' is an essay that touches the very sense of our social life - the importance of The Others in our lives. It is a great read, extraordinary summary of Kapuscinski's thought.
December 27, 2020
(What I read was -Encountering the Other: The Challenge for the 21st Century by Ryszard Kapuscinski- I do hope this is the correct book.) This was absolutely phenomenal to read. I loved the perspective that everyone looks down on everyone different from them, and that it's a natural human occurrence. I believe the same thing, although I wish it weren't. Overall, this truly made me think of how I see those around me and how those around me see me. I hope we all can learn from this book, I certainly recommend it!
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