@nasdahab<\/strong>).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Title Should of Course Not Be Taken Literally!<\/strong><\/p>\nIt is good for the book to have a controversial title, but the main notion and the detailed ideas of any book should be explored patiently behind the cover. A newly published press release summarizes seamlessly the idea behind \u201cDamn the Novel<\/strong>\u201d as follows: \u201cCompelling commentary on the state of modern literature that rebuts the notion that novels and narrative fiction are the zenith of creative expression and challenges readers and writers to explore other creative forms, such as poetry, short stories and nonfiction essays\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Damn the Novel!\u00a0<\/strong>(Excerpt)<\/p>\nWhenever I propose one of my book drafts to a publisher,\u00a0believing that I am\u00a0making\u00a0an\u00a0appealing\u00a0offer, his response\u00a0always takes the same form: \u201cWe\u2019d\u00a0rather\u00a0see\u00a0a\u00a0novel!\u201d\u00a0<\/em>In a similar vein, an\u00a0esteemed\u00a0publisher\u00a0responded\u00a0jokingly, but somehow seriously,\u00a0to my perpetual expression of avoidance\u00a0of\u00a0every potential esteem or affection for\u00a0the\u00a0novel:\u00a0\u201cWhat about writing a novel against novels?\u201d<\/p>\nGaber\u00a0Asfour,<\/em>\u00a0the renowned Egyptian literary critic,\u00a0has\u00a0incessantly\u00a0articulated that\u00a0\u201cwe are living\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0novel\u2019s\u00a0era.\u201d\u00a0The\u00a0slogan, having survived for many years now, is still\u00a0spontaneously uttered\u00a0every now and then\u00a0within\u00a0literary circles.\u00a0But\u00a0Asfour\u00a0has ushered in a new\u00a0dictum\u00a0that defines the modern time according to\u00a0a literary\u00a0perspective similar to the existing\u00a0dicta,\u00a0including\u00a0the\u00a0Era of\u00a0the\u00a0Internet\u00a0and the\u00a0Era of Speed.<\/p>\nIf\u00a0the\u00a0Era of the\u00a0Novel\u00a0were not\u00a0an expression of underestimation toward\u00a0the other literary genres, I\u00a0would take the lead\u00a0in\u00a0supporting\u00a0a definition of our\u00a0time anchored in\u00a0literature. It would be\u00a0honoring\u00a0a\u00a0craft\u00a0that\u00a0has\u00a0been subject to\u00a0much unfairness.\u00a0In\u00a0fact, literature\u00a0has been\u00a0resisting\u00a0marginalization\u00a0so audaciously\u00a0that it\u00a0merits\u00a0homage\u00a0for staying alive.<\/p>\n
But\u00a0the\u00a0slogan is\u00a0designed\u00a0to tease poetry rather than the Internet or\u00a0speed.\u00a0The more the dictum\u00a0in question\u00a0is being propagated, the more\u00a0conscious\u00a0we become of the fact that poetry, in spite of topping the list of\u00a0presumed enemies,\u00a0is not the only\u00a0target.\u00a0The list also includes\u00a0the\u00a0short\u00a0story,\u00a0which\u00a0has\u00a0ultimately been designated as\u00a0the\u00a0novel\u2019s\u00a0fiercest\u00a0opponent\u00a0in the\u00a0race\u00a0to\u00a0leadership,\u00a0given that\u00a0poetry has already been\u00a0kicked\u00a0out of the game.\u00a0Short prose narrative, basically the short story, remains a potential rival\u00a0supported by a handful of writers\u2014the majority of whom would strive\u00a0to\u00a0acquire\u00a0the\u00a0prestigious title of \u201cnovelist\u201d\u00a0rather than\u00a0being referred to as,\u00a0simply, \u201cshort story writers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because the transition from short story writing to novel writing\u00a0requires\u00a0no more than\u00a0the acquisition of (some)\u00a0additional\u00a0knowledge and\u00a0little\u00a0expertise\u00a0to keep up with the rhythm\u00a0of a\u00a0longer race, it was not that tough for those prose writers who opted\u00a0to\u00a0begin the journey.\u00a0Worse\u00a0still,\u00a0many poets, said to have been custodians of the Arabic poetic tradition, have\u00a0been captivated by\u00a0the new wave\u2014that is, the novel\u2014that\u00a0has sprung from a Western background and not from any of the\u00a0forms\u00a0of\u00a0Arabic prose that have existed\u00a0since\u00a0the\u00a0<\/em>pre-Islamic\u00a0era\u00a0(Jahiliyyah<\/em>).<\/p>\nLiterature is said to be a contagious temptation leading to new shores of experimentation and\u00a0unique\u00a0expectation. Nevertheless,\u00a0mobility within literary genres seems to predominantly be\u00a0a show,\u00a0rather than an honest devotion to any sort of\u00a0wordsmithing\u00a0arts.\u00a0<\/em>There is no harm, as far as I am concerned, in the pursuit\u00a0of the craft during\u00a0a writer\u2019s\u00a0innocently na\u00efve\u00a0intellectual adolescence, nor is there any shame\u00a0voyaging across the different fields of creative writing as\u00a0an\u00a0example of the author\u2019s prowess\u00a0and to show off,\u00a0provided\u00a0it is possible to master more than one literary genre.\u00a0Accordingly, any obsession with\u00a0shifting\u00a0from one genre to another only for the sake of\u00a0being awarded\u00a0titles\u00a0(of honor)\u00a0has nothing to do with\u00a0the process of\u00a0stepping patiently across the long, bumpy\u00a0path\u00a0of writing in different genres, regardless of the success\u00a0or failure it may ultimately\u00a0reap.<\/p>\nAnd so,\u00a0there is no doubt that those who\u00a0curse\u00a0the\u00a0novel\u00a0are not always writers whom the long narrative genre has never been able to seduce. There exist many other sects of literary professionals along with numerous eager followers\u00a0who have declared a similar stand. Most poets and poetry devotees are said to show much more bitterness in this respect. In different words, they are the biggest losers in this\u00a0\u201cEra of the Novel\u201d,\u00a0because\u00a0poetry has always been, throughout the history\u00a0of Arabic literature, regarded as the most superior genre,\u00a0worthy of domination over all other genres.<\/p>\n
However, the short story is another big loser,\u00a0in the sense\u00a0that\u00a0it\u00a0was\u00a0close to being\u00a0crowned\u00a0the leading literary genre before it was bitterly disqualified from\u00a0the race to the peak.\u00a0The readers\u00a0eventually decided, in this\u00a0Era of\u00a0Speed,\u00a0to side with the\u00a0\u201clong-distance\u00a0race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Novelists, as well as\u00a0the\u00a0novel\u2019s devotees,\u00a0are to cheer their\u00a0presumed\u00a0victory\u00a0as they like,\u00a0but they should\u00a0do it without\u00a0prompting us to\u00a0share\u00a0their\u00a0\u201cinevitable\u201d\u00a0perspective\u00a0on the basis of\u00a0a deceptive\u00a0conceptualization or, as we have just seen,\u00a0on\u00a0reverse logic\u00a0(i.e., the decision to side with the long-distance race in the Era of Speed).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am\u00a0a\u00a0Sudanese essayist and poet, currently focused on writing critical essays tackling controversial cultural, literary, intellectual, and political issues in the Arab world and worldwide. I [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nasdahab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nasdahab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nasdahab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nasdahab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nasdahab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nasdahab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1319,"href":"https:\/\/nasdahab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/1319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nasdahab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nasdahab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nasdahab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nasdahab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}