...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.
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(right to left anticlockwise) - "I'm not going to give you any guarantees, other than that the police doesn't have time for us. Everyone is tied up with the safety and security of one person only, and any surprise will run right by them"
"But Shihab Basha, this time we could go to jail..."
"Mustafa, prison in this country is for the poor, and you are going to get rich...Yalla?"
"Mustafa, do you remember the trap we have got all these people into...the trap is open. We are the ones just sitting inside it because no one has ever tried to get out of it..."
After two weeks, in Mohammed Naguib Metro Station...
No guarantees...No difficulties either...
Metro
by Magdy al-Shafi'i
the First Graphic Novel in Arabic
Published by Dar Malameh (Features)
I am really excited about this. Many will say that this is yet another step towards the "Westernization" of Arabic literature, but I seriously think that popular literature in Arabic, especially in Egypt, where due to the poor education system, relatively few people are reading seriously, needs to be given a fillip. I will try to find a copy of this when I am not reading Abbasid poetry about liquor and and wine-bearing girls dressed like smooth beautiful boys.
(tarboush tip: Taken from the blog of contemporary Egyptian novelist Mohammad `Alaa el-Din.)
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