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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Bigger or better
By Youssef Rakha
Speculation as to who will receive the coveted Book Fair Awards is by far the most exciting thing about the advent of the Cairo International Book Fair this year.
Last year the promise of a better fair materialised only in the form of a bigger one but you could not help thinking that a smaller number of more carefully thought out events, whether or not directly book related, might have been both better conceived and more effective. The innumerable seminars, readings, exhibits, performances and screenings that girdled the heaps of badly displayed books last year suffered from the usual symptoms of defective venue-time coordination, inappropriate audience-speaker setups and general disarray, forcing what is by now a well-rehearsed realisation -- sheer quantity does not logically involve any significant improvement in quality.
Not so, however, according to the press releases that have been issued this year, which triumphantly advertise "72 countries represented by 3,700 publishers" in every field of literary endeavour. The General Egyptian Book Organisation seems to be firmly set on living up to its goal of presenting an immense, world-class book exhibition, yet the system whereby it hopes to achieve this remains the same as ever, with "the challenges of the new century" -- an intellectual pivot disturbingly reminiscent of last year's -- as the main symposium topic, in which the increasingly tedious sense of millennial anxiety tinges literary and cultural debates.
Intellectual figures like Nabil Ali, Hisham El-Sherif and Ziyad Bahaaeddin will participate in a seminar entitled "Questions of the 21st Century: New Knowledge", headed by El-Sayed Yassin; while Mahmoud Amin El-Alim presides over two seminars on the culture of globalisation and the possibility of an Arab renaissance during the new millennium. Other main symposium seminars likewise revolve around Egypt, the Arabs and the Middle East in an increasingly globalised political and economic context; until it becomes very tempting to ask, what's new?
THE MASTER'S CLOAK: Friday evening sees colloquial Arabic poet and lyricist Abdel-Rahman El-Abnoudi presiding over a unique event, in which he introduces some of his more remarkable disciples. Abdel-Nasser Allam, Ahmed El-Minshawi, Hamdi Abdel-Aziz and the increasingly celebrated Tamim El-Barghouthi will read selections from their latest works -- spurred on, no doubt, by the aging Upper Egyptian whose contribution to popular culture can only be described as phenomenal, and whose wide cloak embraces both young and old, readers and listeners, harkening back to the beauty and the warmth of indigenous Egyptian life.
Non-fiction awards are expected to go to books discussed in the Katib wa Kitab (Writer and Book) seminars, as they frequently did last year. Ibrahim Nafie and Boutros Ghali were both front runners, with Nafie winning the Best Book Prize for his China: Miracle of the End of the 20th Century. But regardless of the question of awards, these seminars are ultimately more interesting if only because they operate under the more narrowly focused topics raised by the books themselves -- cloning and the internet feature side by side with 20th-century Chinese history and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Of the many other categories of discussions and debates, though, only the so-called 'Specialised Seminars' are equally focused, with topics ranging from book marketing in the US (to which Ibrahim El-Mo'alim will contribute) to the economic horizons of Egyptian exports (in which the Minister of Planning Ahmed El-Darsh, and the Minister of Transport Ibrahim El-Dimieri, will participate). In fact the topics of these seminars -- which will be held in a separate building starting on Friday morning -- can be divided into two main headings: publishing and economics. Along with Samir Sarhan, head of GEBO, representatives of the Frankfurt and the Beirut book fairs will be present to discuss their work. The involvement of the French Cultural Centre and the Goethe Institute leads one to think that debates might be more varied and well-rounded than usual, with European perspectives taken into account.
The creative aspects of reading and writing are, of course, in a class of their own. Yet the scarcity of major literary events in the Arab World during the bygone year, as well as the likelihood of confusion concerning times and venues, do not bode well for the various "tents" and "cafés" in which fiction and poetry will be discussed. The Creative Tent, which opens today, houses its usual array of lesser known authors, with a particular emphasis on work in process with a provocative discussion topic: "writing at the end of the century, writing at the beginning of the century". The Culture Café, also opening today, boasts a richer variety of authors/novels, including Mohamed El-Bosati's Wa Ya'ti Al-Qitar (The Train Comes) and Youssef Abou Rayya's Tall El-Hawa, which will be discussed alternately with the contribution of such popular Egyptian political heroes as Omar Makram and Ahmed Orabi, and interspersed with screenings of various experimental short films.
Notwithstanding the fact that Iraqi and Sudanese representation has returned to the fair after a long absence, it is the sheer magnitude of the event that is most certain. Given last year's numerous disappointments and complaints, many wonder, shouldn't the millennial round of the fair have restricted itself to a more manageable agenda?
