Music, mirrors and modernity

Mulhidun Muhdithun wa Mu'asarun (Atheists, Modern and Contemporary), Ramsis Awad. Cairo: Sina, 1998

Atheism, like faith, is a human phenomenon and hence must be studied neutrally and objectively if we wish to understand the world in which we live -- this is the main thesis of Ramsis Awad's most recent book. The author writes in the introduction that the impetus behind the book was his conviction that real faith requires that we learn to live with ideas to which we do not subscribe and to do so without losing confidence in our own.

The book is divided into two parts. The first deals with modern atheist thinkers and intellectuals, including Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Marx, Sartre and Dewey; the second, with contemporary atheist thinkers.

Imra'a fi Al-Thalathin (A Woman in her Thirties), trans Alaa' El-Dib. Cairo: Cultural Palaces Organisation, 1998

When this collection of literary texts, selected and translated by Alaa' El-Dib, first appeared, they met with immediate critical acclaim. Republished 30 years later, they retain their freshness and charm. The translation is at once precise and elegant. Hungarian Imre Sarkadi's A Woman in her Thirties, a novella, is by far the longest text in the collection. The others, by Ingmar Bergman, Henry Miller, Peter Weiss, Truman Capote and Joseph Heller, though considerably shorter, do serve the purpose of introducing the reader to the respective worlds of a number of creative men.

'Alam Al-Mousiqa (The World of Music), Zein Nassar. Cairo: General Book Organisation, 1998

This book is a mini-encyclopedia. Taxonomic, it discusses all the musical instruments of a symphony orchestra one by one, family by family and includes chapters devoted to the human voice and various genres of musical composition. The book also provides plot summaries of operas and ballets. An entire section is devoted to Arabic music: the modes of its songs (the muwashah, qasida, taqtouqa, dor... etc) and its musical modes (taqasim, longa ... etc)

Al-Khawf Ya'kul Al-Ruh (Fear Eats at the Spirit), Mustafa Zikri. Cairo: Sharqiyat Press, 1998

Published last year, the first novel by Zikri, a scenarist and assistant film director, was well-received by critics. Continuing in the spirit of his first novel, Al-Khawf Ya'kul Al-Ruh portrays a world of gratuitous cruelty and violence. Lines from the novel:

"Her eyes are deep, wide, dark, terrifying... She is Madame Nana who, after long practice, aquired subtle, supernatural qualities. She does not appear in the mirror with anyone else. She strolls through shops to buy clothes, she goes to the movies -- and, everywhere, Madame Nana eludes the mirror. The mirror reflects everything -- except Madame Nana.."

Sayid Al-Tuyur: Majmou'a Qassasiya (Master of the Birds: Short Stories). Beirut: Dar Al-Jadid, 1998

"Nightmares that will not Arrive," "Wanderings to an Approaching City" and "Houses I See Moving Further Away": the three parts into which Saudi writer Abdallah Al-Tughri has divided his latest collection of short stories, written between 1994 and 1995.

Al-Amali li Abi Ali Hassan Walid Khali (What Has Been Dictated by Ali Hassan, My Maternal Cousin), Khairi Shalabi. Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organisation, 1998

Shalabi's trilogy What Has Been Dictated has been reissued in GEBO's "Complete Works Series". Autobiographical in form, with a first person narrator, the trilogy tells the tale of an Upper Egyptian who emigrates to the capital and rises from destitution to wealth and power, eventually becoming one of the country's decision-makers. Each part of the trilogy takes its title from the lexicon of playing cards: "Our First, a Jack", "Our Second, Diamonds" and "Our Third, The Deck of Cards".

Naqd Al-Hadatha (Critique de la Modernité), Alain Touraine, tr Anwar Mughith. Cairo: Supreme Council of Culture, 1998

The concept of "modernity" -- a term denoting the developments in Western societies since the Renaissance, including economic rationalisation, political democracy and rationality in social organisation -- is a central intellectual concern in our contemporary world. Touraine examines the issue of modernity from a sociological angle, one that is informed by a broad historical perspective. As the translator indicates in his introduction, Touraine's approach to modernity does not confine itself to one dimension but, rather, deals with a variety of its aspects: philosophy, economics, sociology, political philosophy, philosophy of history and psychology. Nor does Touraine's discussion of the development of modernity make any one-sided value judgements as is indicated by the titles of the first two parts of the book, namely, "Victorious Modernity" and "Modernity in Crisis". The third part is titled "The Birth of the Self"; the fourth "The Point of Arrival".

Tarwid Al-Nass (Taming the Text), Hatem Saqr. Cairo: General Book Organisation, 1998

The author, an Iraqi critic, has published numerous books in the field of literary criticism. In this, his latest book, he surveys the different methodological approaches of textual analysis adopted by Arab critics-- be them philological, syntactical, or semiological. In his analysis of Arabic literary criticism, Saqr tries to apply Terry Eagleton's notion of "taming the text". A critic who aims to tame a text is like a lion tamer. The text/lion is, by definition, more powerful than its critic/tamer; the completion of the game of taming/analysing, however, requires that the lion/text remain ignorant of this fact.