On Arabic Literature...

...the London Bookfair just passed last month and a number of interesting comments were made by attending Arab writers on what's up with Arabic literature these days. Although I don't fully appreciate the prominence given to Alaa al-Aswany, especially amongst the few translated into English and other European languages, just because he is suave, well-dressed and speaks English, French and Spanish. While I do agree with his point that a lot of modern Arabic literature has to be written in a way that is more accessible to the wider public (read "the masses") in the Arab world, which is not reading literature much in the past few years - I liked the quote of his where he said "Too many [Arabic] novels that start with lines like ‘I came home to find my wife having sex with a cockroach" - I think there are other examples of litterateurs who have done it better than him. Nizar Qabbani comes across as a prime example, as are Najuib Mahfouz's novels from his realist/bildungsroman phase (Cairo Trilogy, etc.). Umm Kalthoum is a great example of a cultural icon that is claimed as both "high" and "popular" culture at the same time. It's just annoying that the West has obsessed with "Muslims" and "Arabs" for so long now without ever appreciating the depth and variety of literary production in the modern period alone.