WATANI International
13 December 2009
Al-Shahed (The Witness); Ekhlas Atalla; The General Authority of Cultural Places, Cairo; May 1997
Among the best books I recently read is a collection of short stories entitled Al Shahed (The Witness) by Ekhlas Atalla. It includes 14 very concise short stories, all with abrupt beginnings with the tales starting in the middle of the action.
The world depicted in the stories escapes the limits of the materialistic world in an attempt at elevation to a spiritual world. In her attempt, Attala raises the dead, the crippled are healed and events take on irrational dimensions mingled with suspense. In Helm leilet Eid (Dream of the Eve of the Feast), the protagonist loses his gifts the moment he remembers worldly things. The author makes use of repetition in statements that act as duplicates. For instance, the narrator repeats, “Come and dress in the clothes of the feast” although the protagonist realises that he is dreaming, which allows the story to transcend the boundaries of reality and creates more vivid horizons in the subconscious.
Morbid fantasy
The Witness is a story with religious implications. The action takes place over seven days, akin to the seven days of creation. The story is about a child whose ambition is to kill every puppy and kitten until the species are annihilated. On the dawn of the seventh day, the child evokes the bones and skins of his victims to come back to life. The story is symbolic. The puppies and kittens symbolise the marginalised who have no place on this earth. The story sheds light on autocratic totalitarian and fascist dogmas. The story’s setting is the theatre, which intensifies the fact that we are witnessing the big picture of the outside world with all its injustices and absurd connotations.
The twin feelings of fear and fright are highlighted in the two-page story Ana wa Hum we Habbat al-Mattar (Me, Them and Raindrops), where the protagonist penetrates the wall in her escape from the similar faces of children who haunt her and chase her in the bedroom, the bathroom and everywhere. She also listens to the sound of the radio calling for her body to be cut to pieces. It is the rain pouring down in July that comes to her rescue, and at that moment she finds herself in the desert where she hangs onto an aeroplane and is carried above the ground.
The circus
The use of symbols is obvious in Muthakiraat Laieb Sirk (Diary of a Circus Performer), in which the idea of rebirth discussed as is meant in Christian belief—the physical and spiritual birth by means of baptism. The story tells of a child born with all the trappings of wealth and might. He possesses power and the sword, and he attains logic and light. The child wears black glasses to detach himself from the world, and when he grows up he becomes a circus performer. When he sees the fierce creatures in the circus he changes into a wicked person. Paradoxically, the circus performer snatches the lion’s heart and the latter is transformed into a domestic creature. In the process the human being degenerates, while the animal is elevated.
This book might be quite difficult for a novice reader because of the symbolism and the absurdly illogical sequence of events. However, the challenge is in the re-reading and in trying to make sense of the unsolved underlying mystery.
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