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Parvin Habib

November 29, 2022

A man once said to Abu Tammam: Why don't you write poetry that is understood?

He replied: Why don't you understand what is being said?

In the supposed classic relationship: the writer is a sender and the reader is a recipient, as he is usually the influencer and his readers are affected, so he does not write “what the listeners demand.” However, the forceful intrusion of the means of communication into our intimacy, and the removal of barriers between the writer and his readers imposed new rules of engagement, as the reader began to express his opinion, suggest and object. And all of this reaches a writer at the same moment, and if many readers agree on the same opinion, the writer is often forced to adjust his course, because in the end he writes for people and not for himself, which reminds us of the saying of the American novelist Paul Auster: “It is the reader who creates the book in the end.” The end.

Some writers have acknowledged the reader’s influence on their writing choices, such as Saadia Mufreh in her article entitled “What Readers Demand,” and Amir Taj Al-Sir also complained about this interference in the creative process in one of his articles.

It is interesting what happened to Arthur Conan Doyle, after he found that he had consumed his stories that he built around the character of “Sherlock Holmes”, he killed him in his novel “The Last Problem” and something happened that was not taken into account, as his loyal readers did not like that, so he received hundreds of letters condemning and insulting at times And even thousands canceled their subscription to the "Strand" magazine in which he was publishing his stories, and Conan Doyle remained stubborn and refused to write Sherlockian stories, until he relented after 10 years and brought "Sherlock Holmes" to life in his story "The Adventure of the Empty House."

theoretically;

The writer has antennae with which he monitors the transformations around him, and his sensitivity is increased to what is happening in the soul and outside it. It is assumed that he is the one who chooses his idea and communicates it to his readers in a way that combines depth in the subtraction and ease in the style, and this is rarely achieved, but now many factors have entered this theoretical model, regression Readability and the advancement of the means of communication over the book made the writer make concessions, starting with his relationship with the publishing houses, which no longer venture into adopting an elite book or new writers, as they look for devoted writers first, and popular topics to raise the percentage of sales that are witnessing a significant decline, and this is logical, as they are mainly for-profit institutions Despite the beautiful, idealistic speech about her missionary role, the writer began to write with his eyes on the reader and his satisfaction.

I do not deny the existence of writers who refuse to be directed or shared by the reader. Rather, they follow the doctrine of Abi Tammam. The readers must follow them and make an effort to understand their ideas. Borges once wrote: “It is illogical to stop writing because some are not good at interpretation.”

And the inhabitants of the “ivory tower” of writers also exist, as long as writing is inspired by the spirit.

And the equation that combines the depth of the idea and popular popularity has troubled many writers, and academic disciplines have arisen based on monitoring the role of the “reader in the story” and the theory of reception, in the hope that it will bridge the gap between writers and their readers, if there are readers left and they did not become extinct in the “fast food” era.

theoretically;

The writer has antennae with which he monitors the transformations around him, and his sensitivity is increased to what is happening in the soul and outside it. It is assumed that he is the one who chooses his idea and communicates it to his readers in a way that combines depth in the subtraction and ease in the style, and this is rarely achieved.

@DrParweenHabib1 

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