Fdsfso Mdcnso Mdcnso itibaren Yeniköy, 01680 Yeniköy Köyü/Yumurtalık/Adana, Türkiye
فكرة إن الكتاب يكون عبارة عن تأمّلات شئ جميل وكل حاجه لكن في نفس الوقت ما تبقاش مجرد أفكار متبعترة وخلاص! يعني ممكن حاجه تلفت إنتباهي فأناقش فيها كذا حد وأسمع فيها لكذا حد وأقرأ حاجه عنها مثلاً فأروح كاتب عنها مقال أو كتاب لكن الي ملاحظه في الكتاب إن الفكرة الي بتيجي للعسيلي بيكتبها علي طول مفيش فيها تفاصيل بس بيفضل يحوم حوالين النقطة نفسها ويعيدها ويجيلها من اليمين والشمال بس من غير ما يبيّن أبعادها إلا لو جت في نص الموضوع بالصدفة كده ومثال علي موضوع "الي بييجي علي باله بيكتبه" موضوعات السياسة والحكم الديني الي في قرب أواخر الكتاب، متهيألي لو كان طرحها علي أي طالب سياسة واقتصاد/أزهري (بالنسبة للدين) كان حيكتب بشكل أحسن من كده بكتير تاني حاجه الجمل الاعتراضية أو الي مالهاش لازمه في الكتاب كتير جداً، وده من الحاجات الي ممكن تخلي حد يقول إنه مجرد حشو للكتاب مالوش داعي تالت حاجه الكتاب بسيط وتمام، لكن من كتر بساطته حسيت إن أي واحد ممكن يكتب كتاب زي دي، ومش السهل الممتنع زي ما الناس بتفتكر، لأ إنتا ممكن تكتب زيه خلال أسبوع ولا اتنين مثلا طالما كل الي بييجي علي بالك بتكتبه وخلاص وبتعتبره كتاب رابع حاجه العاميّة في الكتاب أول حاجه رافض فكرة إنه اعتبرها لغته الأم مش لهجته، ومقدّر طبعاً إنه مش بيقول إن دي الطريقة الأفضل للكتابة زي ما فيه بعض الناس بتظن ولكن في نفس الوقت فيه اتجاه لكتابة لغة عربية ومن بينها حروف عامية للتوضيح زي ما بيعمل ساعات د. أحمد خالد توفيق مثلا! وفي رأيي الشخصي ده أفضل بكتير وبيقوّي اللغة العربية عندي في بعض الأوقات بس الكتاب بوجه عام بيدعو للتفكير في حاجات محدش فكر في إنه يكتبها قبل كده، وبرغم إنه أقل من كتابه "كتاب مالوش اسم" إلا إنه كويس إلي حدٍ ما لذلك يستحق نجمتين عندي :)
** spoiler alert ** Quite mild spoilers herein: What an absolutely wonderful read! The basic premise is that two cities, Bészel and Ul Qoma, occupy the same physical space but crucially distinct political spaces -- to the extent that when the gaze of a resident of one city should fall on a person or thing in the other city, he or she must "unsee" it --, and borders are policed first and foremost by citizens' ingrained psychological restraint, and only secondarily (when absolutely necessary) by the use of force (wielded by an extra-judicial power called "Breach," seated outside either city though marginally accountable to both); but a crime whose circumstances straddle both cities requires a detective to (reluctantly) investigate beyond these boundaries. World building is a difficult thing: too scant an outline may lead to confusion, implausibility, or simply a lack of interest; while conversely, too much detail can deaden one's imagination and mire one in meaningless minutia. Miéville succeeds in avoiding both pitfalls; owing no doubt in part to the fact that the maintenance of social norms and avoidance of attendant taboos, at times through acts of unconscious but highly conditioned acts of ignorance ("unseeing" in the novel), is hardly foreign to our own world. By the middle of the novel, and still now, I couldn't help but feel that maybe Bészel and Ul Qoma actually do exist. (At one point I even tried to look up a song mentioned in the book on youtube, only to moments later realize the obvious futility.) The culture surrounding the juxtaposed cities is also eminently human, with an abundance of peculiar neologisms ("grosstopic," to describe the superimposed geographies of the two cities, for instance), cultural tropes (stories of forbidden love across cities, and a questionably real third city, Orciny, which assumes great prominence in the novel's storyline), and humorous incidents (Ul Qoman's assiduously unseeing copulating Bész couples in the park, for instance) to which the reader can easily relate despite their foreign context. Like the premise of "unseeing," the aforementioned Orciny storyline, which evolves throughout the novel, is effective in how it is simultaneously distant and close to our own urban imagination: who has not wondered about an underground or hidden city within one's own, or felt the at once frightening and liberating sensation of anonymity a large city can give? Orciny -- an alleged third city whose inhabitants live "between" the two cities, in areas recognized by Ul Qomans as Bész and by Bész as Ul Qoman, effectively unseen and thus anonymous -- is a key player in the murder case with which the story is occupied; but, we slowly realize, it is less Orciny itself than individuals' fascination with the idea of Orciny that is central. In this regard the story is less a fantasy novel than a novel about fantasy, and especially about the irresistibility of fantasy to the human mind. Really the only thing that slightly disappointed me about this novel was the character of Ashil, an agent of Breach. Even through the spare prose and lack of significant interior reflection, most of the other characters felt fully realized and distinctly believable, with their own psychologies and motives and desires; yet Ashil was oddly hollow and underrealized. Yes, sure, he's an "avatar" of Breach, and has to project such an image at least to the residents of Ul Qoma and Bész, but towards the end of the book Miéville makes it quite clear, through Borlú's narration, that Breach are in fact humans (ex-Bész, ex-Ul Qomans) and have their own individual points of view and predilections. Unfortunately at this point it becomes a bit "telling not showing" as Ashil really doesn't appear to have any such character. Nevertheless, despite this slight shortcoming (disappointing, coming at the end of the book as it does and thus slightly compromising the memory of the pleasure of the rest of the book), the whole thing is very much worth reading and certainly one of the most interesting works of contemporary fiction I've read.