I have just re-opened my "fiction" blog. I will not publish all the stories I have written since I closed down that blog -- about a year ago, but those that appear to the public...and fiction IS fiction...
I feel great when I write...and I don't really care how "good" it is...
I feel exhilarated, as opposed to exiled...
Writing forms of fiction is difficult...very difficult...I realized that fiction is more dangerous than politics...and more dangerous than any regular essay...because in fiction there is the illusion of Freedom...and when characters are invented, they are so free in themselves...they are who they are...yet they still belong to the milieu from where they come, in which they are born...
So fiction is more difficult, because the characters eventually come alive...and they have a message, each one has a message...it could be a message of freedom, of rebellion, of longing and wishes, of deep desires and secret places...the characters become heroes setting examples, either by their actions or by their silence, pointing to unsaid stories, half truths, partial realities, that the reader must complete...and in a society of taboos, this is dangerous...it is dangerous because the reader must appeal to his/her imagination and that is the free realm, that is the Freedom, that is out of control, that cannot be controlled by the "higher authorities"...
There are danger zones in Eastern societies and the major ones are : SEX and CULTURE to which one can add POLITICS...And fiction that revolves around sexual politics and culture are the most lethal form of fiction...
The difficulty also arises from the inner censor, the fear, the shyness, the timidity, the thousand voices that tell you -- be careful...be careful how you phrase it, be careful how you describe it... allude, beat around the bush, train your reader to read in between your lines, just as you write in between the lines, be subtle...careful, careful, careful...
How to maintain a free flow of creativity in such a "careful" atmosphere ? This is where imagination comes in...and it better be very fertile...unless one wishes to become some Eastern version of a Barbara Cartland...(hahahaha)
An Arab female writer is very exposed when she writes...in particular fiction...it is hell for Arab female writers...the walls, both inner and outer an Arab female writer has to overcome are endless....she must be able to daringly jump high, high enough over many barriers...a bit like an expert horse riding jockey..
And the risks for any horse jockey is the fall...
And by the way - I love horses - untamed ones...
