undercurrent has translated and posted this interview Mehdi Belhaj Kacem. It is some awesome work by undercurrent and the interview is an interesting insight into a slice of contemporary French intellectual culture and the impact that Alain Badiou has had on French philosophy.
It seems that Kacem is, to put it nicely, an interesting character. I am not sure if something is lost or gained in translation, but he comes across as something of a twat. This is perhaps explained by the fact he is a writer and movie star as well as alleged philosopher. Maybe you need to be easily seduced by the second-hand-car-salesman charisma that poulates his machismo movie star disposition?
undercurrent has mentioned he might have a go at translating Kacem’s Evénement et répétition (Event and Repetition) which would be totally excellent, at least then there would be a proper philosophical text to engage with. Interestingly, another book of Kacem’s is L’affect… I think publisher’s should pay attention to the work that undercurrent is doing (not that they will be reading my blog!). Badiou is going to be huge in the anglo-phone world, if he isn’t already. From what I can figure out, which isn’t much, Kacem appears to be something like one of Badiou’s lieutenants.