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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 -10 February 1999 Issue No. 415 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 -10 February 1999 Issue No. 415
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Book Fair Economy Opinion Culture Features Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A critic of beauty
By Naguib Mahfouz
Ali El-Ra'i was a magnificent critic. I do not remember him ever hurting a writer by a vicious assault on his work. His mission was to detect beauty and bring it to the public's attention. A work which was void of beauty was a nonentity for El-Ra'i; he simply ignored it. Art was necessarily beautiful; ugliness is inconsistent with art and hence unworthy of consideration. His critique of the Trilogy contains some of the most beautiful lines ever written about this work. His critical perception was clear and penetrating, and his style attractive. He was the first to state with assurance that the Trilogy would allow Arabic literature to attain universal recognition, several decades before I received the Nobel.
I admired El-Ra'i for encouraging young writers. He often devoted considerable space to introducing and critiquing an unknown writer's work as though he was dealing with a writer firmly established in the literary world. He judged a work on its own merits, regardless of the author's repute. Countless other critics base their evaluation of literary works on the names of writers rather than the value of the work itself. Such an attitude is certainly harmful to young writers, for whom being ignored, or sensing a lack of encouragement or interest, added to the hardships of being published, may be disheartening. What Ali El-Ra'i did for young writers can never be overstated. His opinions were a stimulus to excel, while other critics succeeded in destroying any desire to write.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
