Abdullah Hamed - Cairo
The late famous novelist Naguib Mahfouz was inspired by the characters of his novels from cafes, and the events of his stories derive from his contact with people and observing the natures of their behavior, and so did other creators, where the love of writing - on an experience - brought them to the limit of experiencing the experiences of their imaginative heroes born on leaves.
But the forced isolation that imposed itself on a wide segment of Egyptians, including the creators, as a result of the spread of the Corona virus pandemic; It had mixed results on the flow of creativity, some of them saw it as an opportunity for further production, and some of them considered the virus to have managed their lungs and stifled them.
Creators spoke to Al Jazeera Net, wrote on their personal pages, and shouted in press statements that their creativity was suffocating slowly.
Everyone seemed to be upset with the longevity of the virus, with a few exceptions that escaped creative strangulation, because some are accustomed to isolation, of course, such as Al-Sinaawi storyteller Abdullah Al-Salaymeh, who has lived like thousands of Sinai children in compulsory isolation for many years, due to the growing tension in his area .
Al-Salaymeh adapts to the security situation, like the people of his semi-isolated region, after his difficulty in the beginning, and he produced two creative works, and for this reason, the order of Corona's isolation has recently passed normally, with little impact on his creativity.
The "Digitization" initiative
As for the poet and critic Taha Saifullah, since the beginning of the crisis, he felt that it would be more severe. He sought to "digitize" his paper books, in order to facilitate their acquisition by readers through the Ibn Al Nile Foundation that he administers.
Saifullah expected from the beginning of the imposition of isolation that it would be an opportunity for creators to communicate their written creativity to the largest possible number of readers, who will undoubtedly dictate all the traditional means of entertainment that have consumed their ages long before and kept them from reading books.
Saifullah saw that the current conditions of the ban, and people staying at home, have its advantages as consuming a greater amount of paper and digital knowledge, as well as communication via social media between critics and creators, all of which are matters in the end in the interest of the creator who must accompany change and considers this ordeal Grant.
The literary critic, Mr. Ismail Deif Allah, considered isolation a difficult experience for those who lived his life years moving towards seminars and cafes, and isolation - in his estimation - a cruel optional prison for every person who loves freedom and lived his life dreaming about it and defending every act that increases its margins in our Arab societies.
Dhaif Allah recalls many works written by creators in isolation of prisons, starting with the Italian thinker Antonio Gramsci, who lived in the isolation of prison for 11 years to the father of poets Fouad Haddad, stressing that creators can accomplish in prisons, but these are difficult achievements in which to feel happiness, which is a feeling of creativity Himself in isolation in homes, which is no less severe than isolation in prisons.
Deif Allah accomplished a lot over a period of two months, seeking to fill all his time by learning and acquiring creative tools to escape the thinking of compulsory isolation, and with his resistance to the fatal desire to leave, he brought his world to his home, activated his YouTube channel, and organized discussions, seminars and critical readings online, as an alternative For an expected future instead of direct seminars that consume ages to reach their headquarters in the midst of traffic and chaos, to end the symposium with words that evaporate in the air of the room, unlike webinars that can be preserved and referred to.
Although he feels as a creator that he is in a race with Corona, which targets the heart of life, the resistance to the repercussions of the virus with more work at home does not produce happiness in his cells, as he is "not enjoying life in all its details in isolation in general."
Insatiable for hair
In turn, the poet Alaa Janb realized that he had a greater responsibility towards his fans, who in his isolation became more avid for poetry and creativity in general, which led him to develop tools from direct meetings and throwing poetry in various seminars and events to throw poetry in a live broadcast sometimes on Facebook.
He also records some poems with his voice and publishes them on his accounts in communication platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Telegram, and is close to forming a whole new poetry collection.
One of the paradoxes that Alaa touched on one side between the beginning of isolation and today is that he feels that the long day of isolation is insufficient to accomplish what has become required of him daily.
As for the member of the Egyptian Writers Union, the writer Abu Al-Yazid Al-Sharqawi, he films in himself what Western researchers talked about the effect of household isolation on people, in terms of reduced absorption and dispersal of thought, due to psychological changes to prohibit the habits of reading, studying and cognitive achievement, and the results were not positive, as these indicate Studies indicate a marked decrease in awareness, understanding and understanding.
But Al-Sharqawi still believes that continuing to read is the effective weapon to confront this ban that we have not gone through before, and because it is a new experience, not all of us have had experience dealing with it.
For the first time, what is required of you is to remain at home, contrary to all the advice that we inherited from the merits of work and the value of seeking life and the importance of going out and movement, which is a cultural heritage that we all carry motivating us to seek and leave, and once you find yourself required to completely abandon this cultural heritage, it is said "Stay home".
According to al-Sharqawi, some mental activity must be sheltered to resist this miserable situation. Perhaps the advantage he obtained during this ban is to continue reading the heritage, a reading that must not stop; Heritage has countless treasures, and researchers have not yet come to it, and therefore heritage books remain in constant need to reconnect with them, interpret them and read them in light of the facts of the times, and this is a required achievement.