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Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Jean Raspail's The Camp of the Saints

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What Jean Raspail wrote about in 1973 is happening now as Europe is being overrun by "migrants."

Raspail out-Orwells Orwell!


One review from Amazon:
Jean Raspail was already a distinguished travel writer and novelist when he put his reputation on the line with this one - He had a lot to lose. To his credit, Raspail pulls no punches and manages to say just about everything there is to say about the threat that Third World immigration poses to Western Civilization.

I had heard about this book, but decided to read it for the first time only after boat loads of Kurds landed on France's Mediterranean beaches a couple of years ago. The sight of hundreds of ragged Kurds running through the streets of Cannes could have been a scene from the film version of this novel.

The story is about an invasion of France by boat loads of East Indians, and the small group of Frenchman who defend against them. But as Raspail notes in the Introduction, the story is a parable - A parable of the destructive Third World immigration in the West that has been going on since the latter part of the 20th Century, and the West's lack of will to resist it.

Immigration negatively impacts the environment, the economy, crime, and national security. This novel posits that it further threatens to destroy the relatively democratic, tolerant and civilized cultures of the West and the essential commonalities of the Western peoples. According to Raspail, the West "has no soul left" and "it is always the soul that wins the decisive battles."

To call the novel "racist" is unfair. Raspail includes an East Indian among the "Saints" who defend France, and portrays many White Frenchmen who welcome the invaders as their equals. The novel clearly states that being a Westerner is NOT a matter of race, but a "state of mind."

23 comments:

  1. For all their talk of sustainability, the Left sure hate lifeboat ethics...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. that is a truly fascinating analogy...wow.
      If my diamond bracelet falls out of my lifeboat and into the ocean waters, must someone go risk his life to get it out of the water?
      Signed, Tallulah

      Delete
    2. No Farmer, what the left objects to is the position that we must necessarily play a zero sum game.

      Now we probably will and there will be considerable destruction. For instance, even if the war stopped immediately, Syria will take generations to return to any order.

      Droughts have been severe in the Middle East and are affecting crops and the food supply causing destabilizing regional migration.

      But it's easy to neglect to see these people as human beings who just don't want to live in a war zone.

      As for sustainability, the Western lifestyle is become so excessive that it is having necessary repercussions while we think it can be resolved by a shallow militaristic nationalism.

      Delete
    3. Canardo, bastardo ever the haughty, disdainful, infinitely BORING faux-humanitarian, contrarian PITA.

      Lots of people in New York City don't want to live in a cold water flat on the lower East Side, a rooming house in Hells' Kitchen, or a tacky, cramped little row house in Queens. I'm sure they'd much prefer a penthouse on Park Avenue. However, just because they'd PREFER it doesn't mean they're ENTITLED to it.

      The wretched of the earth have no legitimate claim on the personal wealth of ANY American citizen.

      Joe's LIFEBOAT analogy is perfectly apt. Once you try to take "everyone" aboard the lifeboat, it soon capsizes and EVERYBODY drowns.

      Delete
    4. FT,
      The wretched of the earth have no legitimate claim on the personal wealth of ANY American citizen.

      You have concisely stated the basic premise that the Left disputes. As you know, the Left believe that wealth was built on the backs of the oppressed; therefore, those with wealth, however the word might be defined, must share on a moral basis. How much are the "wealthy" Left willing to be forced to hand over?

      As for the lifeboat analogy, it is indeed perfectly apt.

      Delete
  2. ...all the while, Big Brother is their favorite reality show.

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  3. A chilling book. More chilling is how closely real-world events are playing out as Raspail predicted over 40 years ago, complete with feckless, double-talking European bureaucrats.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SF,
      I'm finding that I have to take pauses while reading this book. Grim.

      Delete
    2. AOW, my experience exactly. I'm about a third of the way in. Strange I've never before heard of this book. I had thought I had a pretty thorough grasp of the genre. Obviously this book is one the powers that be would like to see erased and forgotten. In other words, we'll never see it on a Banned Books list.

      Delete
    3. Alec,
      Because I wonder if the book might "disappear," I bought my own hard copy.

      Some paragraphs exactly present the hate-the-West crowd in the very words we hear right now. And this book precedes Howard Zinn's A People's History of America. Amazing prophecy on Raspail's part!

      You're further along in the book than I. I've gotten bogged down in essay grading, chauffeuring Mr. AOW to stroke therapy, college recommendations, recovering from reactions to the chicken pox vaccine, etc.

      Delete
    4. PS: The Camp of the Saints is the most dystopian books of all the dystopian books I've read!

      Delete
  4. "To call the novel "racist" is unfair. Raspail includes an East Indian among the "Saints" who defend France, and portrays many White Frenchmen who welcome the invaders as their equals. The novel clearly states that being a Westerner is NOT a matter of race, but a "state of mind.""

    Imagine the leftwing terror at a book like this? Of course they call him racist....it's simply not okay for a country to protect its culture, its beauty, its Western thought....just isn't okay with the left.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Z,
      The Left will deny the reality until the very moment that they are dragged out of their homes.

      Did you notice the publication date? 1973! The book is prophetic. Look what's happening right now in Europe.

      Delete
    2. Z,
      Question for you: Have any of your stepchildren read this book?

      Delete
    3. Or we can look at the reality they're fleeing ...

      ... but I'm sure they just want free stuff.

      Really disturbing exhibit.

      Delete
  5. I browsed it and found it poorly written. Don't know if that's a translation issue or not although French is not difficult to translate.

    The idea that the "invaders" just show up and take over is absurd and does little more than indulge the idea that they all just want to take our stuff. Very short sighted.

    To call the novel (and boy is he a poor writer) racist is completely justified.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Typical proglodyte. Riffles the pages like a deck of cards and declares the book poorly written.

      Raspail has won awards for his writing. How many have you won, Ducky?

      Delete
    2. As our Ducky, the proud leftist geek, 

      Emits shriek, after shriek, after shriek
      
In tones hyper-bilious

      And so supercilious

      He comes off as as a crank and a freak!

      Delete

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