A selection of writings by Renaud Camus titled The Deep Murmur is a very slim volume that is perfect for those who might be short on time but interested in finding out what makes Camus so controversial. The book offers an introduction to some of the crucial concepts that organize the philosopher’s thinking. It is also filled with observations regarding the rhetorical tricks deployed by the guardians of the Left’s ideological preeminence. To give an example, how often have we heard that neither biological sex nor race have any substance to them? And that they are only a social construct invented for nefarious purposes? Camus mocks this particular brand of intellectual dishonesty with the perfectly French elegance that is a hallmark of his very recognizable writing style:
One will have spotted the hackneyed and always extremely effective argument known as the argument from imprecise borders, according to which things, concepts, categories do not exist because they interpenetrate one another, their borders are porous and fuzzy, it is impossible to rigorously separate them. With this way of reasoning, and above all of preventing others from reasoning, and of speaking (because that is what is at issue), it is easy to establish the non-existence of anything and everything: colors, civilizations, artistic schools and movements, peoples, historical phenomena. Who would dare claim the color red exists when it very imperceptibly verges on yellow, on the one hand, and blue, on the other, passing through orangeness on this flank, mauve and purple on the other?
Renaud Camus, The Deep Murmur
In one of the essays in the volume, Camus bravely takes on the reasons why the concept of race has been rendered so explosive that we all prefer to pretend that it simply doesn’t exist. Until, of course, it needs to be summoned back to life in order to be used as a cudgel with the letters BLM branded into it. If you think you know what caused this extreme discomfort with the idea of race, you might find out that you are mistaken. Camus tells the story with a flair and a sense of humor but also with great urgency because our terror of this part of our shared story is causing us to hurt ourselves in truly strange ways.
The Great Replacement we are experiencing, says Camus, comes at the heels of the Little Replacement which taught us to see being well-read and having refined sensibilities as manifestations of the most despicable kind of snobbery:
I was roughly at this time, 1975, that culture no doubt irreversibly transitioned… from culture as patrimony, heritage, the voice of the dead to culture as leisure activity, entertainment, hobby, a way of passing the time, a way of killing it.
We accepted that reading the classics was unnecessary and decided to scrub Latin and Greek from the curricula to spare the vanity of those unable to learn them. Is it so surprising that further acts of self-immolation became unavoidable? The bastardization of the idea of culture was a prelude to worse things.
Not everything is equal to everything else. Some products of culture are better, more valuable, more refined than others. So are some cultures. It is urgently necessary to speak of that but in order to do so we need to become familiar with the best things our culture creates.
It takes a special brand of courage to publish Camus, a philosopher who is being silenced and persecuted like few others. He’s not an author who will make a publisher rich because high culture is always of interest only to the tiniest of minorities. This is why it’s remarkable how much work Camus’ American publisher, Vauban Books, puts into translating and annotating the philosopher’s writings. It is a labor of love and not only for Camus but for truth and freedom themselves.
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“Some products of culture are better, more valuable, more refined than others. So are some cultures. It is urgently necessary to speak of that but in order to do so we need to become familiar with the best things our culture creates.”
I fundamentally agree with what you’re saying, that some cultures are better than others, but what is the conversation you want “us” to be having?
In my (ex-soviet american) family/community, no one shied away from discussing how some cultures and cultural products are better than others, but this discussion usually led to equating cultural talent with moral value/worth and led me to feel like my parents didn’t value me because I’m not artistically or musically talented. So I have some sympathy for the “let’s not be snobs” take because at least it doesn’t *openly* dispose of people, and it somehow feels less bad to join in on flushing our whole civilization down the toilet than to be singled out for disposal by one’s direct family members. I suspect that I’m not the only reasonably-high-achieving American who grew up with these issues in the family, and I would probably have to work through those personal issues in order to be able to tolerate a broader public conversation about culture and which ones are superiority.
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I understand and, believe me, I’ve been there, too. I still almost never listen to music of my own free will due to how my relationship with music was perverted in my childhood. So yes, I get it.
But it is quite weird when people act so shocked that I pronounce judgment on what is literature, what is entertainment, and what is talentless garbage. “How can you possibly know?” they ask. How does a dentist know which tooth has a cavity and which is healthy? It is quite literally my job to know. I’ve dedicated my life to developing a literary sensibility in myself. I have every possible degree and I still work on it daily. This is not subjective.
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I guess I’m saying that while I agree people *should* acknowledge you have better taste in literature than the median person due to it being your life’s calling, expecting people to behave as they should in this way is delusional. I hope I’m wrong here. Are there historical examples of refined sensibilities being cultivated in a population? The best answer I can think of is “build awesome churches” but I’m not sure what the modern-day equivalent of that would be or if it’s even possible when people have comfort in their own home.
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High culture is always the purview of a tiny minority. And that’s fine. Just like most people don’t have the brains to be neurosurgeons or microbiologists, the majority doesn’t quite physically have what it takes to understand and enjoy high culture.
I don’t suggest that we make them. Not at all! What I want is that we simply abandon false egalitarianism and accept that these inequalities of intellect and sensibility exist, that they are ineradicable, and that this is a good and normal situation.
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“High culture is always the purview of a tiny minority”
True but what makes the grade is often not clear at the time and what speaks to the tiny minority also changes.
One problem is there’s not much in the way of criteria beyond “I know it when I see it” that I’m aware of…
I’ve thought about it a little but have trouble establishing much.
One criteria for distinguishing some higher art (at least verbally based) is translatability. In russian literature, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy still reach people in translation while their beloved Pushkin…. doesn’t.
The Polish national poet, Mickiewicz is similar. I’ve looked at English translations and they’re all dull as dishwater (to be fair, I’m not crazy about him in Polish either….).
For music (which I know a bit more about) one criteria is: Can it withstand a poor performance and still move an audience?
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It’s like this:
https://x.com/iamyesyouareno/status/1939255952114352585?t=eR5Z0GL2vejdYgJGlaagwQ&s=19
Some people love it while others honestly think it’s ludicrous. We can remove the sticks so that they don’t feel inferior. Or we can refuse to pander.
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Former probation officer here: most people do not appreciate high culture because they have not been exposed to it, they have to do with they trash they have around them all day long. I took some of my charges (guys with spider tattoos on their neck) to the Wigmore Hall and they cried when they heard a particularly fine rendition of “Death and The Maiden”.
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Good point. When I taught kids from chaotic immigrant families, everybody told me they wouldn’t appreciate Baroque poetry but the class went great. I took them to museums and to a nice real restaurant with white tablecloths. They really appreciated it.
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// If you think you know what caused this extreme discomfort with the idea of race, you might find out that you are mistaken.
May you share the reason, please?
I searched his books online but The Deep Murmur isn’t among them, so cannot read this essay.
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People think it’s the Holocaust but Camus shows very clearly that it’s not. Anti-racism in its current firm appears in the late 1970s. It is the child of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism wants to create what Camus calls “an undifferentiated human mass.” An undifferentiated, intellectually depressed, culturally barren and very undemanding populace that has no historical memory and is not attached to any territory. Anti-racism is the road to that state of affairs.
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The people in the border region often have the strongest sense of identity.
I always felt that Mandela and Terre’Blanche had a resemblance, neither being pure black or white, but both appearing to have khoisan ancestry.
Malema’s tribe on the other hand are often mistaken for Zimbabweans as is his Mugabeist attitude.
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