In a series of forty-five short essays that constitute his book translated into English under the title “Damn the Novel: When a Privileged Genre Prevails Over All Forms of Creative Writing,” Sudanese-born poet and essayist Amr Muneer Dahab denounces the privilege granted to the novel, the literary genre that is treated by publishers—and viewed by the public—as superior to all others and is virtually guaranteed marketability and profitability, to the detriment of others.

In this series of posts, the prolific author shares excerpts from the book.

This week: Chapter 42

Writing and Lobbies

“There are many white writers who earn big cash and they are among the best sellers, while their publishers keep supporting them, and they will continue to support them in all circumstances. Those writers tour the country getting big cashes just for speaking on meetings or gatherings. You won’t find a black writer among them. It’s racism simply,” said Terry McMillan, the American novelist in Why We Write. It’s clear from her tone that she belongs to the group of black writers whom she considers to be unlucky many times already.

Nagging became a phenomenon especially with Oscar and Grammy Awards due to racist attitudes. Such accusation is not pronounced only by black writers, but also supported by white writers.

That is almost similar to an era of total ignorance (middle ages?). White writers are not all against promoting black writers for the award. Nevertheless, the objection is likely to be less overt or hidden, showing up from time to time. However, the lobby we tend to deal with is not always a racist group, or rarely racist so to speak. The groups that take hold of the market of writing and control everything are groups from many backgrounds. It happened that I mentioned that in my book O Writers, Be Humble in the essay entitled “The Writer’s Supporters,” and I saw that the expression of “supporters” is more likely to be a light description compared to what is going on in the world of writing—a world full of all potential allies and enemies working on the same battlefields where not only writers take part.

I went on elaborating in my essay “The Writer’s Supporters” that the term “group of supporters” can be taken as power/a political party/an ideology/a literary or religious sect/tribe. . . . Because imagining a world without lobbies in every possible aspect of life is likely to be a legitimate dream. I went on saying that “every writer must have an attitude toward a group holding power (lobby) in case he is seeking fame and public recognition, since neutrality/justice/impartiality of the effects around the writer commenting on his work and guiding him is like a fairy tale or a myth in best cases. While the stream supporting art for art’s sake is still a romantic dream tickling the imagination of a group of writers who are not fully impartial when it comes to valuating creativity away from any ideological effects. I guess that such writers may declare their war against their opponents against anyone who stands as a producer of art in response to merely a social obligation.”

In case the writer is not willing to be put in the bright spots of the cultural and literary public, it would be safe for him to take a smooth attitude against any group, but for real, is there anyone who is not willing to be put in the lights? Some can trace the path of abnegation but without ignoring take the path to light and fame. I still cannot believe that some writers say that fame is not their concern. The bottom line is that the writer is writing to the masses and not himself. So, this judgment is illogical.

There is no harm in getting to the path of fame. But the main obstacle is how to get to the horizons of fame that are full of critical influential groups that a writer has to make use of to be safe. Skillful seekers of fame are the ones who know how to sympathize with more than a group; some of them may reach the level of setting enmity to only one group in a clear strategy to gain fame not only as a duty dictated by life circumstances.

As we have explained in our previous essay about “Mass Media Standards,” our main goal is not to present media as an innocent entity given that it just transmits the war among the proclaimed “militias.” If it is not mass media that should be the largest Mafia, it should at least regarded as the window that every Mafia opens to the public or perhaps a window where no writer can pass without being guided by a lobby.

Accordingly, every group must shove an alliance with the media so that the latter can reinforce their chances to get to the large masses. The media play a vital role in rendering a less prominent piece of work a subject of public debates.

The group as an entity seems to be a destiny for writers from the beginning of time. We can describe it as the clan in the pre-Islamic period or the fans of Jarir against Al-Farazdaq in the Umayyads Caliphate. Or maybe the supporters of Abu Firas against Al-Mutanabbi, or the ones who stand for Al-Aqqad against Ahmed Shawqi. Furthermore, we might consider them as the ones who stand for Taha Hussein against Mustafa Sadiq al-Rafii. We can sum up all and say that it is a literary sect fighting/struggling against other sects (having opted for some other approach or philosophy).

As I said before in O Writers, Be Humble, it is noteworthy to mention that if we imagine a utopia, but not in the sense of Plato, in which the power of groups does not exist in order to promote a writer, then a group of writers will gather and create power for themselves in order to destroy other groups.

Finally, it would not be wise to deny that writers are creating what they need of influential groups or support what they like out of the already existing groups in a life that is naturally full of lobbies.