In this dialogue, the Syrian Kurdish critic and novelist Haitham Hussein opens for us a window through which we look at his creative self, getting closer to his world, which he has furnished letter by letter. was the degree of difference.
Is it possible to say that this Arab literary era is an era of novel par excellence, as this style overshadowed other types of literature, prose and poetry in terms of production?
It is true that fictional art dominates in this era over other literary genres, but this does not mean that it marks the era to be at the forefront of its arts. The matter is not related to quantity, media focus, and awards allocated only, because there is a large amount of poetry and story produced in the Arab world. And this amount, although it does not enjoy what the novel enjoys, in turn expresses movement and draws aspects of its painting, which is enriched with all arts and literature.
The writing of the novel does not follow any map or imposed standard, because this contradicts the basic condition for creativity.
It is the freedom that is the basis of every creative work, in addition to the supposed experimentation that would break out of the circle of imposition and restriction.
There are those who set a "road map" and a book of conditions for writing the novel, and criticize the new wave of novel writing.
What do you think, as a novelist first and critic second?
Knowing the rules is important in the creative process, but what is more important than it - or let us say that it is no less important than it - is the creative act itself, the process of creation and innovation that characterizes creativity and gives it privacy and aesthetics and keeps it away from the framework of restriction by conditions and methods.
Creativity draws its own line for itself, without neglecting or ignoring the literary legacy, but rather builds on it and proceeds from it in order to search for itself for a unique path of its own.
The writing of the novel does not follow any map or imposed standard, because this contradicts the basic condition for creativity.
It is the freedom that is the basis of every creative work, in addition to the supposed experimentation that would break out of the circle of imposition and restriction.
I do not think that criticizing the wave of novel writing in general is useful, because the current of the new novel is sweeping the literary scene strongly, and no one can be prevented from writing and publishing, nor can guardianship be imposed on him. Perhaps the most beautiful thing in the world of novel and literature is that openness to the absolute, to the new, to the new. Innovative, based on dreamy experiences that venture into a wide field that accommodates everyone and does not submit to any guardianship or recommendation.
Writing is a right for everyone, and time sifts experiences and separates them from one another.
Being a writer who has come a long way in both literary and critical writing: What would you advise the new generation of young novelists?
Perhaps I will not come up with anything new when I repeat the advice that I give to myself before others, which stresses the importance of reading, and not to rely on the claims of those who set themselves up as the guardians of writing and creativity and lock them up in a limited room and in a space that fits the size of their grandiose delusions.
Writing requires patience, perseverance, and perseverance, and haste does not work in the world of the novel, and whoever wants to break into this vast world should arm himself with linguistic, philosophical and literary ammunition that takes his hand and consoles him when he is overwhelmed by despair or falls into the trap of absurdity or futility.
The novel is one of man's greatest weapons of enlightenment and self-discovery, the other and the social environment in which he lives
There is another category that believes that fictional writing is useless in the first place, and that it cannot add anything to the stock of Arab knowledge.
What does the novel offer in addition to the Arab person?
There are always desperate, frustrated, nihilistic people who empty everything valuable and considered of its meaning, and have no alternative but blackness, except despair and nihilism, but we must not listen to such inhibitors that lurk for us at many turns and details in our biblical and life paths.
Throughout history, stories retain their impact and impact, and one story cannot replace the other's story.
The novel is one of the greatest weapons of man in enlightenment and the discovery of self, the other and the social environment in which he lives.
Readings and novels pulled me out of the world of loneliness, despair, anxiety, and a sense of futility more than once into a broader world, the world of hope and work, and I know many of those whom readings saved in their lives and enlightened them with new ways to go through and experiment with them, and thus they play a magical role in dismantling the ills that reside within by confronting them and exploring their mysteries. , in order to bypass it
Talking about the novel leads to talking about one of its first engines: suffering.
Can a novel heal the internal bleeding of writer and reader alike?
I agree with you that suffering is a major driving force for writing, and it gives its owner the skin to continue, express oneself in its ordeal, and not fall into its clutches. It is a motive for creativity, a tool for healing, and a means of treatment at the same time.
Suffering is moving, moving from one side to the other, leading the soul through its corridors in search of light, and thus playing the role of healing wounds and calming souls and souls.
And the writer conveys his suffering, writes about it, and also depicts the suffering of others, and the proverb applies to him that says “He who heals is for whom he loves”, as his writing comes as a wise doctor based on his personal experience, to convey it to others and contribute in his own way to calming the anxiety that ravages their souls.
On a personal level, readings and novels pulled me from the world of loneliness, despair, anxiety, and a sense of futility more than once to a broader world, the world of hope and work, and I know many of those whom readings saved in their lives and enlightened them with new ways to go through and experiment with them, and thus they play a magical role in dismantling the ills that reside within. By confronting it and exploring its mysteries, in order to overcome it.
I cannot imagine a life without reading, and it is enough for me that it is one of the most beautiful things that beautify my life, and I believe that there are many readers who live this renewed pleasure that gives their lives charming meanings every time.
Cover of the book "Why Should You Be a Novelist?"
(Al Jazeera)
In your book, Why You Should Be a Novelist, you try to answer a number of questions that surround and besiege the novel.
Let me ask you the question in another way: Why does Haitham Hussein write?
What messages does he want to deliver to the reader?
And most importantly, what messages does he want to convey to himself?
I write because I have to write, because writing alone saved me and moved me from one world to another, and it was my tool, my means, and my weapon to overcome my reality, which was oppressive in all its details.
I write because if I did not write, I would have lost myself in the wilderness, listening to my screams echoing around, and my soul would have shattered from the severity of oppression.
I write because I cannot imagine myself not writing, and because writing is my breath and my breath in my life.
There are many messages that are passed in writing to reach others, and there are absolute messages in the void of writing that may find their recipient by some coincidence, and the most important message is that a person must not abandon his humanity, no matter how severe the grievances are, and no matter how many tragedies accumulate on him, and that he must triumph over values humanity and not to be led by the cries of racists and their miserable struggles.
I am in a constant and renewed confrontation with myself, I remind myself that I came back from a death experience - I had a burning accident when I was in my twenties and almost lost my life as a result - to live a life worthy of a human being, a life that deserves its name away from grudges and hatred, and that there is always hope for Next, life is not straight without hope.
Do you find yourself closer to some of the heroes of your novels?
Or to books without the other of what I wrote?
I feel close to all my fictional characters, for each fictional hero has his story, his world and his differences, and each novel has its own story, worlds and peculiarities, and one cannot replace or replace another, but you see them transform into beings that accompany me in my life journey, so I encounter readers talking about a novel and its characters and heroes As if they open a window in my heart and soul through which they penetrate into my depths, so I am happy with those coincidences and visits and I enjoy the complex conversations that they open.
There are some fictional characters I got attached to and led me to think about the extent of the novelist's attachment to his characters, and the possibilities of him recovering from them one day.
This is what happened to me after I finished my novel "Hostages of Sin", which has been translated so far into English, Czech and Kurdish, because the main character, the protagonist of the novel, Khatuna, was an elderly woman who passed away at the end of the novel with an unfortunate accident, and I could not get rid of the feelings of sadness for her that haunted me for a period of time. Time, and those feelings and thoughts led me to think about my book "The Novelist Personality, A Probe of Revelation and Release", which was a study in the novelist's personality and how novelists build the characters of their heroes, and about the relationship that binds them to each other.
Our history is overcast with clouds of rivalry. What if we try to eliminate our differences and search for our commonalities that far outweigh our differences? Then we will be able to reconcile with ourselves and with all others.
Being an Arab and Kurdish writer, what helped you in - what we can call - "identity harmony"... where multiple identities reconcile within you, in a world full of political and ideological polarization and a fragmented and tragic Syrian reality?
In fact, identity occupies a remarkable place in my fictional and literary writings, and it is an issue that I keep thinking about and trying to clarify and understand its various aspects.
I feel the reconciliation between the Arab and Kurdish identities within me, and it is a reconciliation that I did not impose on myself as much as I found it budding and entrenched in my being, consciousness, behavior, and thoughts.
None of us can separate from any of his internal components or isolate any of the factors that establish his personality and build his thought and his being, so there is no room for the struggle of identities in me, because the awareness of identity is expressive to reconcile it with its different colors that may seem for a moment to be transcendental, but they are in reality Harmonious and crystallizing our personalities that draw from different human springs and are enriched with diversity.
Sometimes, closeness turns into a barrier that obscures vision, and prevents the other from getting to know you closely, because he sees in him the enemy who is lurking behind him, and he looks at you from the barrel of his gun, and he sees nothing but a target in you that he can defeat, and this is what prevents him from seeing the aesthetics of diversity and difference, and forces To search for formulas for coexistence away from endless conflicts, bloodshed and strife.
Our history is overcast with clouds of rivalry. What if we try to eliminate our differences and search for our commonalities that far outweigh our differences? Then we will be able to reconcile with ourselves and with all others.
The secret lies in recognizing that others also deserve to live their lives like you, and that they are human beings who have their own choices in their reality and future, and that you do not have the right to chart their destinies or impose a way of living on them.
I have no doubt that accepting the difference of visions paves the way for the reconciliation of identities and their coexistence in every place and time.
Some of the works of critic and novelist Haitham Hussein (Al-Jazeera)
The novel is also famous for being the most controversial literary art if it involves what shocks a group of people in their thoughts and beliefs.
Novelists confronted their societies by writing, but societies or those who direct opinion in them confronted novelists with judiciary or fatwas.
In the midst of controversy and trial of novelists' writings (judicial or religious), the most important question is absent: How should we read the novel?
As an open book to the writer's most intimate thoughts and convictions?
Or is it a display of ideas and visions that people whisper or speak out loud about, and the novelist does nothing but capture them with his lens?
Confronting the novelist with violence, criminalization, and prohibition is a historical disaster and a crime against both literature and reality.
The novelist presents his visions and ideas in his works and proposes one of the formulas that he sees to build his fictional world, a formula that is not binding on anyone, but rather an aesthetic proposal for existence, and a literary proposal for the world.
It is very important to read the novel in its literary and historical context, away from considering it an accusation, a danger, or a bomb that is about to explode in the face of safe and reassuring societies. It is not permissible to deal with societies with the logic of guardianship, as if the novelist would offend their modesty and injure their innocence with his proposals and ideas.
It is necessary to trust oneself and the other in writing and reading, and not to set ourselves up as guards of virtue in the face of infiltrators who are abbreviated and defined in novelists and thinkers outside the circle of the tribe or group.
Curiosity is what drives the Western reader in his reading, as he accepts to work with the eye of an explorer looking for new details that help him understand our reality, which is drowned in wars and tragedies, and which grinds us into its furnace, and this curiosity is what makes him focus on reading scrutinizing, looking beyond the stories and between the lines.
Some of your works have been translated into European languages and you have participated in a number of academic seminars. Do you see a difference between the reader in Arabic and the reader in other European languages?
How does a foreigner receive your novels?
I believe that curiosity is what drives the Western reader in his reading, as he accepts work with the eye of an explorer looking for new details that help him understand our reality, which is mired in wars and tragedies, and which grinds us into its furnace, and it is this curiosity that makes him focus on reading scrutiny, looking beyond the stories and what is behind them. between lines.
There are readers in the West who deal with the logic of the superior colonialist with the translated works and look at them with suspicion and suspicion and that they will not add anything to them as the product of a world described to him as backward.
This view does not correspond to the logic of modern times.
I met readers who admitted to me that reading my work helped them develop a better and more aware understanding of our world and the problems we approach, and they said it changed their view of us.
I believe that this is one of the most important roles of writing and translation, especially seeking to bridge the gaps between us and others and dispel some of the stereotypes and prejudices that restrict our relations together.