{"id":1431,"date":"2019-11-14T09:33:56","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T09:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nasdahab.com\/?p=1431"},"modified":"2019-11-14T10:20:36","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T10:20:36","slug":"does-this-privileged-genre-obscure-other-forms-of-creative-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nasdahab.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/14\/does-this-privileged-genre-obscure-other-forms-of-creative-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"From The National Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Damn the Novel’: Does this privileged genre obscure other forms of creative writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sudanese author Amr Muneer Dahab’s book argues that the novel is crushing all other forms of writing<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

(From The National Newspaper – By Rupert Hawksley)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Oct 13, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The title of Amr Muneer Dahab\u2019s latest book, Damn the Novel, is certainly confrontational. Criticising the novel \u2013 grudgingly described by Dahab as \u201cthe most superior genre\u201d \u2013 is a sure-fire way to get people\u2019s backs up. Which is, of course, exactly the point.<\/p>\n

Our response to the hostile title of this collection of essays \u2013 surprise, perhaps, or even anger \u2013 confirms Dahab\u2019s central argument: that the novel\u2019s elevation above all other literary forms has been immensely damaging. We coddle the novel, while neglecting everything else. It is hard, frankly, to imagine a book called Damn the Essay or Damn the Short Story having a similar impact.<\/p>\n

Dahab, a Sudanese poet and essayist who now lives in Al Ain, knows he is being provocative. He laughs when I ask him whether there has been much of a reaction from other authors to the publication of Damn the Novel, the first of his books to be translated into English. \u201cYes,\u201d he says \u2013 and leaves it diplomatically at that. Later, he adds: \u201cEverybody is taking it personally, they are offended, but if they read the book carefully, it is a very objective view.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right. Damn the Novel, which focuses largely on Arabic literature but features a wide range of voices, including novelist Ann Patchett and journalist Sebastian Junger, is far more nuanced than the title suggests. It is not so much about dismissing the novel. It is simply a passionate call for the preservation of other literary forms, which are slowly being eroded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis book might be received as an ungrounded, vociferous cry against the novel per se, but it is not,\u201d writes Dahab in the introduction. \u201cIt is simply against perpetuating the delusion that the novel is inevitably the most dominating and influential literary genre of the time.\u201d We have become trapped in a circle: the more popular the novel becomes, the more novels publishers churn out, and so it continues.<\/p>\n

There are, Dahab argues, a number of reasons for the prevalence of the novel, particularly in Arabic literature. Chief among these is the different standards applied to novelists and poets by publishers. Bad poetry, writes Dahab, is \u201cautomatically condemned by everyone to the extent that no publisher would look at it\u201d. On the other hand, \u201cweak novels, as long as they are spiced with excitement, can easily be welcomed by publishers\u201d. The quickest glance over the bestseller lists confirms this (although I would point out that there is also plenty of bad poetry published every year).<\/p>\n

Damn the Novel often reads like a criticism of the power of the market, which drives consumer choices. Our tastes are being tailored for profit. \u201cWhat happened is that, after decades of stumbling attempts by the other narrative genres, the markets of literature have submissively been taken over by the novel,\u201d writes Dahab. \u201cPublishers couldn\u2019t believe that, at last, \u2018something\u2019 written has brought back glamour to the book market, so they could not resist blessing it regardless of its genre.\u201d Dahab is brave (but absolutely correct) to draw our attention to this worrying intersection of art and profit.<\/p>\n

Critics, too, are given a rough ride by Dahab, who suggests that \u201cthe discovery of novelistic talents has become one of the critics\u2019 favourite missions\u201d. This is fuelled, not by a genuine desire to discover the next star novelist, but because writing about the \u201cprevailing literary genre\u201d has \u201cthe highest potential to guarantee prominence\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is fiery stuff from Dahab and he doesn\u2019t let up throughout Damn the Novel. There are chapters titled \u201cNot Every Interesting Book is Necessarily a Novel\u201d and \u201cNovelists are Cowards!\u201d, in which he claims that when it comes to \u201cdaring in expression\u201d, the gulf between Arab lyric poets and novelists \u201creaches the extreme\u201d. Dahab\u2019s argument falters a little here. He is on shaky ground when he suggests that novelists hide \u201cbehind an invented story to express his\/her opinion\u201d. The plot, surely, is a device used by the novelist, not to obfuscate an opinion, but to project it.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Dahab is onto something interesting in Damn the Novel. The aggregation of literary forms by publishers and critics \u2013 and by extension, readers \u2013 is unhelpful, no matter whether it is poetry, the short story, the essay or the novel dominating the landscape. Money is funnelled in the wrong direction when publishers both feed and then gorge on the popularity of one literary form, while creative freedom is stymied.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is time,\u201d writes Dahab, \u201cfor Arabic literature to start anew by giving all genres the same chance to flourish in total freedom without any secret or manifest \u2018patronage\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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