Rene Girard: Violence and Mimesis (Key Contemporary Thinkers) [Paperback]

There is no one Girard book that adequately lays out all of his thinking in a compelling and organized way, and when someone is interested in what I've been chewing on for several years, I've have to recommend at least two or three challenging Girard books, and then I'm still uncomfortable that Girard won't "come across" to them as new readers. Chris Fleming has written that "one book" in Rene Girard: Violence and Mimesis. This is the perfect book to introduce Girard's thought to the uninitiated.

At times while reading it I feel I am reading Girard himself (talk about mimesis), though the book is not short on directly quoted materials from all of Girard's main texts. And in many places, Fleming sums up Girard's ideas more succinctly and elegantly than Girard himself, partly (I think) because, unlike Girard, he is writing in his native English, and is thankfully not overly beholden to the now-predictable Girardian (usually translated) vocabulary, which can become opaque with repetition. Fleming enhances comprehension of Girard by re-articulating him without undo "coloration"; in other words his re-articulation alongside the "Girardian lexicon" is faithful to Girardian concepts, conceptual schemes and exemplifications. Fleming's understanding of the material is demonstrably deep, but it is also detached enough to bring new life and accessibility to the body of Girard's work by deftly re-framing and re-contextualizing difficult and (for most) new concepts as he goes. You do in fact get both: exposure to how Girard talks about a thing and other ways the same could be said, some of which are more intuitively graspable than the original.

But it is the summarizing and organization of Girard's body of ideas that is this book's true value. One can come to this relatively short book with zero understanding of what Girard is all about, and in a short time come away from it with an accurate and organized understanding of the main ideas and schemes found spread out among and within Girard's many, and often hard to find (often expensive) publications.

Although I would not want to say that Fleming is a full-on "apologist" of Girard, he definitely comes across as someone who appreciates the material with a passion, something necessary to bring it across from its own perspective, without much of a critical filter. That's a good thing if your purpose in reading this book is to gain good overview of Girard's thinking to date. It may not be a good book if you are hoping to see someone hold Girard's theoretical feet to the fire. Though Fleming is far more than a "parrot", he is just not very interested in that. Few people seem to grasp Girard well enough to hold him up to fair critical analysis, and this book addresses itself to that lack of comprehension, something that must precede any such critical analysis. Any "fanhood" detected in Fleming book, in this case, is a strength rather than a weakness; only someone who loves Girard's work and sees in it a less than fully appreciated coherence and cohesiveness could bring it out in such an energized way.

In short, this is a great synthetic introduction to Girard, whether or not one goes on to read Girard's works directly, but it also functions as a well-written, well-organized overview and re-statement of Girard even if you are already familiar with his writing. For me, it was impressive, exciting and even fun. And now I have something good to lend.

If you are looking for a book that is clearly written and well referenced on the work of Girard - this is it. Fleming makes the work of Girard easily accessable because of its well structured layout. Well worth the read.