Fanon's 'Black Skin White Masks' (1): Book as explosion

We begin our close reading of the introduction to Black Skin White Masks by considering the epigraph by Aimé Césaire, the appeal to the temporality of change ("The explosion will not happen today"), the multiple references to alienation, and by stressing Fanon's opening questions ("What does a man want? What does a black man want?"). These, as Richards notes, are essentially questions of desire. And, of course, without asking these questions about desire, the purpose of the book - disalienation - cannot be attained. Significant also is Fanon's reference to being assailed by "dozens and hundreds of pages", which calls to mind his later critique of school inspectors and government functionaries in the colonies and his related appeal to "the end of the world". Note: Cesaire's book is entitled 'Discourse ON Colonialism' - NOT 'Discourse of Colonialism'. That's my mistake (Derek). Image credit: Tate Hudson's 'Static' (portrait of Fanon, as used in thumbnail) is used with kind permission of the artist, see the following website for more of Tate's work: https://www.tatehudsonart.com/