|
Wednesday, September 24, 2003 Children of the Alley Naguib Mahfouz Children of the Alley, also published as Children of Gebalawi, is a narrative of the trials of an Egyptian family through the generations. To be honest, I thought it was depressing. The history of this family was ever repeating--if the novel were to go on, the cycle of jealousy, violence, and redemption would also go on. This pretty much mirrors the history of mankind where people forget about what happened in the past (or if they remember, it's only thought of vaguely in mythological terms) but continue fighting and waging wars against each other. Another interesting parallel is the novel to religion. For instance, in the first chapter in Children of the Alley, Gebalawi, the lord of the alley, expelling his son Adham and his wife from the luxury of his palace to the squalidness of the outside world because of their temptation of trying to glean what was in Gebalawi's will. One can immediately point out that it's the same as God expelling Adam and Eve from Eden because of their temptation with the tree of knowledge. But this isn't a repeat of the Bible or the Torah or the Koran. When the novel was first published religious leaders denounced it as blasphemous and it was banned in Egypt. It's easy to see why, especially at the conclusion where Arafa the magician claims to have killed Gebalawi with magic. Even the people of the alley claim, "if we had to choose between Gabalawi and magic, we'd choose magic." It's pretty clear that the magic that Arafa is perfecting in his workrooms is supposed to be science. Haven't people already declared that science has killed God and haven't most people turned to science rather than faith as the savior, particularly for material and physical things? Again, interesting but depressing. Children of the Alley was recommended by Media Queen. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:33 AM : ]
Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post: |
