An explanation of Icarus

Two years ago, in what would have been between the sophomore and junior year at AUB, I wanted to try to create a set of pieces that reflect on the seedier, darker side of Beirut. That is Icarus.

The pieces each cover a different aspect, but follow a loosely similar protagonist. I’ll be discussing some of the prose poems, the ones that I feel should be explained, but not all.

The first piece, Foreword, it goes over the disease that is seen with Beirut through an introduction. The spillage seen comes from the use of masks, the masks though is seen again in every city, or group of people. In this sense, when administering literary works it becomes poisoned and tainted into a new form of though.

This tainting is followed through with steps, which focus on the observer. The observer himself stands apart from the rest of the world, and can only watch but not act no matter how much he or she or it desires to. This is to follow the fictional protagonist, which was based off a real child. One of the things about studying abroad for a long period of time, is that you tend to notice things that others would ignore as a part of their lives. There was this one child, who I watched grow up over a four period time, into a young man. I watched his older brother, for instance, take up smoking despite us telling him not to. To him then leaving to Syria when the conflict began and coming back jaded. You would become familiar with the children that run about, eventually the “Please” and “Thank you” that you taught them when receiving food leading on to better forms of politeness.

But that leads to the beggar. One thing that you tend to notice is about the hierarchy of beggars. You have some that sit on the side of the road, doing nothing but counting their bills and herding the children to them. You have others that will beg but get picked up by a son in a Mercedes, or drive off in a taxi to pick up drugs from a pharmacy. Same routine each day. The children would build families together, but don’t look kindly on foreigners at the same time. One time a child came up to me and asked if I saw his “brother”. It turned out that an American couple took him to the states, and then brought him back to Beirut a year later only for him to run away. And the children agreed that if they see the “kidnappers” as they put it, they will kill them.

But then there are things such as tourists coming in, and being shocked by the children walking around begging for money. It’s an organized crime, with the women walking around with two year old children that are either drugged up or drunk, begging for money as the child’s head goes limp. And if the child dies, you will see that woman walking around with a different child the next day. But where it is a culture shock for some, for the children walking around it has become a part of their daily life.

Icarus follows the fictional character as an introduction. The children are bought off their parents in different locations. The most common reason is because there are too many mouths to feed, and not enough money. This way the children would be able to help out with the family situation.

Price is based off how I perceive the sexual culture here in Lebanon. You would have married men cheating, as part of the playboy culture, and at first the anger would be directed at the woman – actions and force. Then the anger itself would be directed at the spouse, ignoring the root of the problem. And what is that root? I don’t know, nor do I want to find out.

Corroded Conscious  is a gamble to describe how the faces of the children look when you look at them in a distance, with the world passing by them on the street and how sometimes they are caught between it. No attempt to interact, but just looking lost with the society ignoring them.