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Al-Ahram Weekly 3 - 9 February 2000 Issue No. 467 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 3 - 9 February 2000 Issue No. 467
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Worth witnessing
By Youssef Rakha and Khalid Abdalla
Arriving at the Cairo International Book Fair is like walking into an immense bazaar; everything is as randomly placed as it is randomly found. Many covertly describe it as a market yet writers and publishers generally refuse to be quoted on the issue, sensing perhaps that after so many years negative commentary is pointless. Shihata El-Eryan is one notable exception. "There is one annual demand that we make each year," he pleads, "and that is to know which buildings are selling which books. It is a very simple matter requiring very little effort. All we need is a little map on the reverse side of our tickets providing just a few pointers to where things are. This," he adds, "is a demand we have been making for 31 years."
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Special Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Millennial as it may be the 32nd round is no pioneer. The logic with which the sideline events are organised is baffling. The culture cafés and creative tents which host the bulk of the fair's discussions and readings just remain open while people walk in and out indifferent to the subjects under scrutiny. Insensitive cameramen invade the proceedings, playing with lights and talking at whim. No seminar seems to start less than half an hour late and not even speakers can predict when they will be on. Interminable rotas of anonymous poets read to anonymous audiences and one wonders why, let alone for whom, many of the events are organised. Overall there is an enduring sense that people are trying very hard to look serious.
An hour after the scheduled time, a sombre looking Gamal El-Ghitani walked into the culture café in which, under the chairmanship of writer Shaban Youssef, critics Said Tawfiq and Mona Tolba delivered extended eulogies on his latest book Hikayat Al-Mo'asassa (Stories of the Institution), a self-consciously Third World take on Kafka, imbued with El-Ghitani's trademark familiarity with the classical heritage.
Tawfiq described El-Ghitani's recent line of development as a shift from writing the self to writing the nation, the metaphor of the institution being his guiding principle. Tolba, on the other hand, spoke of the complexity of the relationship between the characters, pointing out how they develop into mythic symbols reflecting the dynamics of Egyptian society since the 70s.
But what of it? The size of the audiences, whether big or small, seemed no touchstone for the degree of popular interest. By way of example, the seminar on Gamal Hassan's novel Lil Haqiqa Alf Wajh (Truth has many Faces) concluded dismally after a respectable opening. From a discussion on her novel, the psychological nature of women's writing and the characteristics of Arabic novels written in the West we descended into a commonplace argument between audience and speakers discussing the values of the West vis-à-vis those of the East. None of the audience had read the book, most came in half way and so few could take on board what had been said.
Nonetheless there was a sense that things were happening. On Monday evening, while in the calm of the café writers like Mohammed El-Bosati, Bahaa Taher, Youssef Abou Rayya and critic Farouk Abdel-Ader got together sipping drinks, in the foreboding 6th October Hall, under the chairmanship of Samir Sarhan, head of the General Egyptian Book Organisation, a number of ageing intellectuals, Minister of Youth Alai Eddin Hilal, publisher Ibrahim El-Mo'alim and writers Osama Saraya and Ragab El-Banna discussed Egypt's youth.
They concentrated on communicating the exact role of the Ministry of Youth and determining what difference Hilal can make while important youth issues like sports management, education and culture are in the hands of other ministries. Saraya, in particular, praised Hilal's involvement in developing provincial youth centres despite the executive shortcomings of his post. But, as always, the discussion involved no direct exchange between panelists and audience. Though parts of the discussion were potentially stimulating one could not help but notice, as the youth being discussed periodically blessed the hall with their presence then absence, that the seminar was operating in an intellectual vacuum, isolated from the young writers and critics who might have expressed their predicament more usefully.
As for the books on sale behind the seminar tents, they seemed to have nothing to do with anything else. They really had come straight out of a bazaar. The organiser's bookselling tent closed two hours early and looking into its desultory spread of books all over the place was not inspiring.
People come to this book fair because it is an 'event'. The respected names participating and the promising titles for discussion give it the credibility it needs to maintain that status. But the fact remains that, through no fault of their own, few of those who attend can involve themselves.
It is a well known fact that Egypt is the Arab world's second largest book publisher. This display did little to sustain or merit that position. But then again, as one participating art student commented: "Of course each year the activities are the same but then again they can be worth witnessing."
