The readers ... and I!
I believe that there is a predestined and inevitable relationship holding between the reader and the writer. I may go further to say that the relationship between the writer, myself in this case, and his reader is like the relationship between a growing child and a grown up person.
I believe that the writer must assume a strong, invisible, and acutely sensed relationship between him and his readers. Likewise, he must believe that, without his readers, he will feel lonely and deserted, and his talent will die, as it would be like fire which is not ignited, or a lightless cresset coated with an icy cover, and lacking the air which is necessary for ignition.
The reader, in the end and in the beginning, is the one who looks after the writer intentionally or unintentionally, embraces him, and brings him up through the stages of the evolution of his writings. The reader is the one who motivates the mental and conscientious talents of the writer. When the writer looks down on his readers, and insists on being a dweller in an isolated island, and thinks that the reader has to compel himself to swim to reach him, the reader will get tired of this futile chase and will abandon him. Abandoning the writer is like a death sentence to his writings, because talents are living beings destined to live and to die, according to Nikolai Gogol in his well known story 'The Overcoat', about which the great Russian Anton Chekhov said: "We all came out from Gogol's Overcoat".
So, talents die, and those who die never come back again.
There is a term that refers to a branch of science called Deontology. Its main concern is to define and explain the duties, responsibilities, and obligations between human beings. I believe that this kind of relationship must be strong and sensed between the writer and the reader in dealing with each other, respecting one another, and not trying to probe the intentions of each other. In order that the reader may get the writer right, the writer must cherish noble principles, free of evasive means and methods, because the reader's mentality may be wider than that of the writer. Therefore, the writer is obliged to respect the mentality of those whom he addresses, as they may be faster than him in discovering evasion, hypocrisy, and lies, and in realizing whether he writes for the sake of their vast interests, or his own narrow interests. The reader, accordingly, will commit himself to encourage the writer, and to avoid misinterpreting his unseen intentions.
On the other hand, the writer should be humble enough to realize that he reflects the readers' or the people's wishes and ambitions, as he has the stage of doing that. This reminds us of the mechanics of physics realized in reflecting the sky on the ocean's water. The reflected element is the original one. Accordingly, the original element here is the people, whereas the writer is the means of reflecting their opinions and ambitions.
I learned all of this and even more from my readers. Moreover, when I started exchanging views with them, I felt as if my energies and enthusiasm started to recharge anew. Their feedback multiplied my knowledge through their encouragement, direction, criticism, and views. Sometimes they are lenient, but rough in some other times, exactly like the one who brings up some minors. Spending some of their time in writing to the writer, regardless of their opinion, proves clearly how much they care. It drew my attention that those who write to the Arabic sister publication of this newspaper, Al-Eqtisadiah, master a high style in Arabic, that is, rarely you may find them using colloquial or a low level language. To the contrary, most of them astonish me with their enlightened ideas, distinct style, and their extraordinary ability to sieve the thoughts, criticize them, reform them, and present them anew. One of them presented some technical ideas to the company of electricity as a solution to the shortage of power in summer. I was very much astonished that he said he is not an engineer. Another reader provided me with some interesting ideas, which I literally used in a TV interview as if they were mine. Thank God that the question of copyright has not yet turned into judicial cases!
When I review the readers' feedback, I feel very much impressed by the vast knowledge, serious presentation, intelligent proposals, sublime irony, and intimate humanistic sympathy.
For me, one negative thing that made evil suggestions to me due to the supremacy of the readers was that I became more convinced that I occupy this position in the newspaper without enough and justified capability!
Twitter : @najeebzamil
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