The Philosophy of Writing Highlighted at Sharjah International Book Fair

Truth or Fiction?
Are authors lying to their readers or letting them think?

Sharjah, UAE, November 3, 2016:  A literature forum at the 35th edition of Sharjah International Book Fair taking place at the Expo Centre Sharjah, brought together a panel of three top international authors to discuss whether writing should come from the mind or the soul. The forum asked whether writers had a duty to be logical, reasonable and rational in their work or if they should be able to write from their spirits and their dreams.

Taking part were Emirati novelist, journalist and poet Ali Abou Al-Reesh, Lebanese professor and children's author Dr Tariq Al Bakri and award-winning Nigerian novelist and writer Abubakar Adam. The audience-filled session, entitled ‘Maps of Writing – Between Mind and Soul’ heard from Ali Abou Al-Reesh that writing should be the domain of aesthetics, not ideas. “We know when something is beautiful. I can accept that a flower is beautiful, I do not need it to be proved. We do not need to implant ideas into readers’ heads. Ideas are formed by the interpretation of facts.”

Abubakar Adam believes that writing should not be constrained by being purely factual and told the audience that every author is unique. “People start to write for very different reasons. Some people are looking to escape the reality of life, others are looking for a different reality. Fiction allows us to look at things from a different perspective and fiction by its very nature shouldn’t be factual. Fiction simply takes reality, rips it apart and stitches it back together.”

Dr Tariq Al Bakri, who wrote ‘The Beautiful House’ series believes there is a compromise, but that authors must be very careful how they map their stories.

“I tried to make my writing scientific and logical to a large extent, but then we have to look at the emotional side, not rational when we are talking about heroes and characters. Writing from the soul causes the writer to dig deeper and use literature to say and do things he couldn’t in other places,” he said.

“By that same token, we must be careful that writers do not try to trick their readers and open up a trap door. They should not try to convince the reader that their stories are real and that is why our writing must also be honest and true.”

Literature Forums form part of the Cultural Activities programme at SIBF and are running every day of the event from 2-12 November.