The Viral Book “Nancy Is Not Karl Marx”: Explained

Remember that book with Nancy Ajram and Karl Marx on the cover that went viral? Though it’s actually been around for some time, it pops up on people’s social media platforms every once in a while to remind everyone that it exists.

We never cracked the code on what that book is about, mostly because no one could find it anywhere. Until today. We’re going to explain why this bizarre book is relating Queen of Arab pop Nancy Ajram to Father of Communism Karl Marx.

Lebanese writer and journalist Hazem Saghieh wrote this book over ten years ago, originally published by Dar El-Saqi in 2010. The comparison was confusing and shocking…but mostly confusing. Lebanese pop star Nancy Ajram was born 100 years and 2 months after Karl Marx’s death, so what’s the correlation?

This book, which is over 370 pages, is actually a collection of articles and critiques on a number of issues. The overarching theme is Arab pop culture and consumerism. It was inspired by someone that once wrote: “Nancy Ajram’s butt is more important than the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun”.

Spoiler alert: the book doesn’t actually draw a direct comparison between Nancy and Marx. Kind of a bummer, honestly. That would’ve been an interesting take.

With that hot pink cover, unusual title, and poor collage of the two…this counts as clickbait. Bookbait? Whatever.

Anyway, this collection discusses the evolution of pop culture in the Arab world, starting with Nancy Ajram as its most recent product. Saghieh, in a very satirical manner, is appalled by the fact that Nancy Ajram’s butt, or other similar butts for that matter (his words, not ours), could ever be more important than the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldoun, described as the first work dealing with sociology, or even the introduction of Karl Marx’s critique on capitalist systems in Das Kapital.

He moves on to other figures in the Arab world, like Fairuz, Sabah, Abdel Halim Hafiz, and Amr Diab. He then discusses things that transformed into money-making schemes capitalizing on young, clueless consumers. Like football transforming from a “poor man’s sport” to a profitable industry. Among the many tangents he goes on include popular Western movies, music, McDonald’s, Hillary Clinton (yeah, we were also confused), and other matters related to pop culture. Yes, the book concludes with a rant about Karl Marx.

The point of Saghieh’s book is kind of clear. The Father of Communism doesn’t interest the Arab youth. Instead, they’re obsessed with celebrities. This cultural shift underscores how the focus on celebrities and pop culture has obscured their appreciation for intellectual and historical figures who have significantly shaped our understanding of society and economics.

As someone hilariously quipped in the comments, sadly no, the book is NOT about the fair and equal distribution of ah w noss. Sorry to disappoint you.

Anyway, let’s just say Saghieh is lucky he didn’t publish this book now. Isn’t he capitalizing on a woman’s body to sell a book? Unless he’s giving it out for free, but that still sounds like exploiting sensationalism to us. We have a section dedicated to celebrities if you want to check that out here.

_{Main image source from Flickr.}

Did we talk you out of seeking out the viral book about Nancy and Karl Marx? Here are some other reads that might be more…useful: 14 Must-Read Books About Lebanon.