In Al-Watan newspaper yesterday, the lead story was the news about the opening of the Kingdom’s first intellectual forum. The picture which accompanied the story was of the audience. The picture said more than the proverbial thousand words about what went on at the intellectual meeting. The picture showed men, half asleep in their chairs. And some of them who seemed to be listening and following what was going on had a look of absolute boredom on their faces. Apart from the obvious lack of interest the picture indicates, does it tell us something about the cultural atmosphere in Saudi Arabia? I think it tells us that there is a huge gap between what real culture is and what we think we are offering or experiencing.
When it comes to the world of the intellect, why do people feel bored and uninterested? It is not fair to generalize here but the comments I heard about the picture in the paper said a great deal about how the cultural scene in this country is, to most people, a world apart. The people attending such events might have been actively engaged if what was offered to them represented their reality.
For some reason, what we observe here is that all our novels are symbolic and most of our paintings are abstract. Are art and culture supposed to be totally and completely vague? I don’t think so. What remains is for us to analyze the reasons why we do not really have a cultural scene which ordinary citizens enjoy and participate in. It seems to me that in our present society, we fear encountering and dealing with reality. When a book gives a realistic view of life in the Kingdom, it is usually banned here. Of course, those who go abroad buy it and bring it back with them but for most of the public, the book is unobtainable. This goes some way to explaining why successful Saudi writers enjoy attention outside our borders — simply because they are not known here. We only notice them when they die — for example, Abdul Rahman Muneef who died a few months ago. Surprisingly, the local papers wrote about his work and we had to wonder why our best Saudi writers live and work outside the Kingdom and are even sometimes unknown here. Maybe this accounts for the popular TV sitcom, Tash ma Tash. Not only is it popular but it is also controversial but we can all identify with its subjects, whether we like them or not.
I think that question of the distance between the “cultural scene” and the “public reality” will remain until we have learned to appreciate real works of art and how to face our own accurate — but unflattering — reflections. Until our paintings and books reflect our reality and we enjoy them and agree or disagree with them, there will always be a sleeping intellectual scene and an uninterested audience.
