Meeting Rawi Hage - The Story

Stendhal wrote in Red and Black "Familiarity breeds contempt”. Not always Mr. Stendhal, not always. Meeting Rawi Hage definitely proved it wrong. I am not claiming that I now am familiar with this author, but I did get to know him better when he expressed his opinions on different matters during an interview organized by the "Maison Internationale des Écrivains de Beyrouth".  Here are some of the highlights of the event with focus on the main points which made me appreciate this author even more.

 

There's nothing better than a group photo with your friends and one of your favorite authors

1- He thinks that scientists are the best readers. It's true after all, dare to say the opposite? hehehehe

2- He gave me probably the best dedication ever and one of the most thought ones.
"To Isabelle, thank you for giving books a home and a friend."

3- He saw the state in which my book was and I explained that I treat my books as my friends, I eat with them, drink with them, sleep with them etc. and he actually complimented me on that. Gotta respect such people.

4- He considers literature as a good/great substitute to religion. According to him, Lebanon is hijacked by religious leaders who partner with politicians to keep the people divided. This coalition is dooming the country because Lebanese have nothing to hold on to, or fight for. But there is one thing worth fighting for according to Rawi: culture (arts, literature etc.). I realized how true Rawi's vision is after he told us an anecdote about Winston Churchill (who by the way was a passionate painter). In the story, it is said that a minister came up to Churchill asking him to cut off the budget for the ministry of arts and culture in order to limit war expenses and that Churchill refused the suggestion replying that if he does so then what are we fighting for?

4- He highlights the importance of open endings as a means to escape grand morality which is a religious structure. Also in this line, he admits proudly that his aim is to write everything in opposition to Paulo Coelho. This was probably the best part about the whole interview for you ought to know by now how much I hate Coelho's writings!

5- He knows his limits and doesn't pretend to be able to pull out something he cannot. For instance, when my friend pointed asked him whether he is capable of writing from the point of view of a female protagonist (all his previously published books protagonists were men), he humbly admitted that he doesn't have the confidence to do so. Thank you! I mean I have hated many books written by male authors because they really couldn't grasp what women were about and never convinced me once that the protagonist thoughts, words or acts could have been those of a woman.

Other than that, the interview allowed me to discover how Rawi Hage became an author. He wasn't a good student at school but he has always been a secret reader. And then he was encouraged to write but he was mainly trying to write short stories and then ended up with his first book. In addition, many had comments about the fact that he is Lebanese writing in English i.e. not his mother tongue and questioned him about how he sees himself from an identity point of view. To this he answered that English may have helped him find his writer's voice and that he considers himself as a Lebanese Canadian author writing in English who is a little bit of the two types of writers that exist:
- The Socrates ones, the ones that rely on the inside, their lived experiences mostly. "I cannot get away of myself" he joked.

- The ones that rely on the exterior using their research to build a story. He admits that he enjoys this part a lot and overall he simply loves the cathartic process of writing.

Finally, I noticed that Rawi constantly mentions Lebanon and the Lebanese in his talk and his books. Sometimes he does it from an observer point of view, others from a critic point of view like when he claims that education in Lebanon unfortunately focuses mostly on financial success. After all an intellectual is someone who mostly criticizes his own community explains Edward Said. One of the interesting observations was his envisioning of the Lebanese people as existentialist kind of people, Camus-ian in a way, and this is why he justifies the strong Camus presence in one of his books. Another example was the comparison he made between Lebanese and great Russians authors whose works he admires but cannot help to point out how they lack humor unlike Lebanese.




To sum it up, this was an unforgettable encounter, and I hope this post conveys the essence of the interview to you.


Enjoy
Cheers

The Best Thing I Read This Year

Hey, I have come across this poem and video few days ago. I can't take it off my mind. I'm sure you'll feel something similar after reading it and watching the video, especially if you're reading it today, Sunday.

This is to all the people who are now alone: How to be alone by poet/singer Tanya Davis. 

"If you are at first lonely, be patient.

If you’ve not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren’t okay with it, then just wait. You’ll find it’s fine to be alone once you’re embracing it.

We can start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library, where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there. Where you can browse the stacks and smell the books; you’re not supposed to talk much anyway so it’s safe there.

There is also the gym, if you’re shy, you can hang out with yourself and mirrors, you can put headphones in.

Then there’s public transportation, because we all gotta go places.

And there’s prayer and mediation, no one will think less if your hanging with your breath seeking peace and salvation.

Start simple. Things you may have previously avoided based on your avoid being alone principles.

The lunch counter, where you will be surrounded by chow-downers, employees who only have an hour and their spouses work across town, and they, like you, will be alone.

Resist the urge to hang out with your cell phone.

When you are comfortable with eat lunch and run, take yourself out for dinner; a restaurant with linen and Silverware. You’re no less an intriguing a person when you are eating solo dessert and cleaning the whipped cream from the dish with your finger. In fact, some people at full tables will wish they were where you were.

Go to the movies. Where it’s dark and soothing, alone in your seat amidst a fleeting community.

And then take yourself out dancing, to a club where no one knows you, stand on the outside of the floor until the lights convince you more and more and the music shows you. Dance like no one’s watching because they’re probably not. And if they are, assume it is with best human intentions. The way bodies move genuinely to beats, is after all, gorgeous and affecting. Dance until you’re sweating. And beads of perspiration remind you of life’s best things, down your back, like a book of blessings.

Go to the woods alone, and the trees and squirrels will watch for you. Go to an unfamiliar city, roam the streets, they are always statues to talk to, and benches made for sitting gives strangers a shared existence if only for a minute, and these moments can be so uplifting and the conversation you get in by sitting alone on benches, might have never happened had you not been there by yourself.

Society is afraid of alone though. Like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements. Like people must have problems if after a while nobody is dating them.

But lonely is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless, and lonely is healing if you make it.

You can stand swathed by groups and mobs or hands with your partner, look both further and farther in the endless quest for company.

But no one is in your head. And by the time you translate your thoughts an essence of them may be lost or perhaps it is just kept. Perhaps in the interest of loving oneself, perhaps all those “sappy slogans” from pre-school over to high school groaning, we’re tokens for holding the lonely at bay.

Cause if you’re happy in your head, then solitude is blessed, and alone is okay.

It’s okay if no one believes like you, all experience is unique, no one has the same synapses, can’t think like you, for this be relieved, keeps things interesting, life’s magic things in reach, and it doesn’t mean you aren’t connected, and the community is not present, just take the perspective you get from being one person in one head and feel the effects of it.

Take silence and respect it.

If you have an art that needs a practice, stop neglecting it, if your family doesn’t get you or a religious sect is not meant for you, don’t obsess about it.

You could be in an instant surrounded if you need it.

If your heart is bleeding, make the best of it.

There is heat in freezing, be a testament."

Bookish Halloween Costume

If you know me by now, you would know I am crazy passionate about author Amélie Nothomb. When I was invited to the Halloween party organized by my friends from the Lebanon Book Club around the themes of books, I knew I finally had a chance to walk her walk and talk her talk. In addition, I enjoyed designing the most important accessory in Amélie Nothomb's clothing; her hat.

Now Halloween themed costume parties are in my opinion the most successful ones. Combine that with books and you get one hell of a night! Thanks Simon and Katia for organizing this.

Check out the result and let me know what you think. My friends tend to think that I am starting to look like her in real life because I am that crazy about her. This is by far the best compliment I ever heard.
Other than that, here are some of the costumes that were worn on that night, hope this will inspire you for your next Halloween party.
Schehrezade, The last of the Mohicans, Samurai, The general from Anna Karenina, little red riding hood, a dress code in red and black in reference to "Le Rouge et le Noir" by Stendhal, The rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, Jane Austen or a Victorian Woman, A reader (no costume) etc.

Happy Halloween!


Cheers

 

With a reader, signing his book

 

With the latest Novel, Pétronille 

 

Just another one of those "Pause for the Camera moments"