Truffaut's Day for Night, Egypt unbuttoning
example · film: Day for Night (Truffaut) ·
retold in 3 talks
In Truffaut's 'Day for Night,' a man badgers a woman to sleep with him; when she finally starts to unbutton, he panics. Žižek uses this to describe Western liberal anxiety at Egypt's secular democracy: we kept asking Arabs to democratize but when they did it simply, we were shocked.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“Egypt was unbuttoning and this was our relation, no? Like, 'But how can you do my god, simply secular democracy?'”
“the guy says okay but how do you mean my God just like that... we were a little bit like that officially we wanted secular democracy”
“the Egyptians said okay i put down my trousers here you have your stupid secular democracy and you cannot get it just like that”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
Its cast and sources
populated by
François Truffaut3Rudolf Elmer1Judith Miller1Bill Keller1Daniel Ellsberg1Trofim Lysenko1Luiz Henrique da Costa (Newton da Costa)1Utsa Patnaik1
alongside works
Every retelling 3
In Truffaut's 'Day for Night,' a man badgers a woman to sleep with him; when she finally starts to unbutton, he panics. Žižek uses this to describe Western liberal anxiety at Egypt's secular democracy: we kept asking Arabs to democratize but when they did it simply, we were shocked., illustrating Western liberal ideology,Egypt and Arab Spring,you got what you wanted but didn't want it
4:35 WikiLeaks' Julian Assange & Philosopher Slavoj Zizek In Conversation With Amy Goodman 9 of 92011-07-02 · 09:24
Žižek compares the West's reaction to the Egyptian uprising to a scene in Truffaut's Day for Night: a man wants to sleep with a woman, they are alone, she unbuttons her trousers, and he is shocked that it's happening 'just like that.' The West wanted 'secular democracy' but was shocked when Egyptians delivered it directly without the expected fundamentalist drama., illustrating spontaneous racist attitude,hypocrisy
In Truffaut's Day for Night a man spends a long time trying to seduce a woman; alone with her at last, when she agrees and begins undressing, he freezes, 'just like that?' The West demanded secular democracy from Arab countries, then when Egypt delivered it, reacted with the same paralysis., illustrating Western hypocrisy,ideology of the Arab Spring,Egypt's secular uprising