The depth of misunderstanding in David Wineburg's review below blows my mind.

For example: Badiou explicitly does not boil the choices available to the young down to two (burn it all down or settle down). To the contrary, he describes how the contemporary world mistakenly but compellingly tells the young that these are the only two options available for their lives. Via philosophy, or what Badiou calls the "true life," another option is nevertheless possible.

Furthermore, Badiou neither "mourns" the loss of initiation, nor does he frame the chapter on girls in terms of "boys and God." What he says is that, in the past, masculinity was framed in terms of initiation and femininity was framed in terms of motherhood. In the present, these old frames have either withered away in the face of capitalism (being replaced by pure economic self-interest), or else have been falsely resurrected as commodity identities. Against both, Badiou recommends (and commends) and calls for the creative impulse of seeking after truth, which is to say, discovering and embodying a true life in the world.

Good Lord. Learn to read.

This thin slab of plastiqué is an exemplary example of academic outreach. The kids aren't stupid; the kids are all right. Makes you think as we couldn't in American high school.

As much as I like Alain Badiou (see my review of Our Wound is Not So Recent), I found The True Life to be irresponsibly dense. It is irresponsible because it purports to be talks to adolescents in school lectures. Facing the uncertainty they do, adolescents would very much appreciate some straight talk, the keys to the kingdom if possible, and answers they can use. None of that is available in The True Life.

Badiou boils the choices down to two – go out, see the world and find yourself, or pick a career and stick with it. To bolster his position he quotes poets like Rimbaud and Beaudelaire, philosophers like Plato and Goethe, and of course, Karl Marx. This does not help.

Living in this western society, and having been an adolescent at some point too, I could not relate to the status quo Badiou describes, or what preceded it. He comes at this from some alternate reality. He mourns the loss of traditional adolescent initiations, claiming loud music and tattoos have replaced them. He says higher education is no replacement for the military, another grand tradition/initiation that all males had to undergo in France. He says it gave them maturity and Ideas, both lacking since conscription ended.

His chapter on girls is framed in terms of boys and God. I don’t think more need be said about that.

The bottom line is that today, girls are too mature, boys are too immature. Have a nice life.

David Wineberg ( )