{"id":282276,"date":"2011-02-18T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2011\/02\/18\/the-clash-of-images-why-this-book-should-win-the-btba\/"},"modified":"2018-05-04T15:25:17","modified_gmt":"2018-05-04T15:25:17","slug":"the-clash-of-images-why-this-book-should-win-the-btba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2011\/02\/18\/the-clash-of-images-why-this-book-should-win-the-btba\/","title":{"rendered":"The Clash of Images [Why This Book Should Win the BTBA]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Similar to years past, we\u2019re going to be featuring each of the 25 titles on the BTBA<\/span> Fiction Longlist<\/a> over the next month plus, but in contrast to previous editions, this year we\u2019re going to try an experiment and frame all write-ups as \u201cwhy this book should win.\u201d Some of these entries will be absurd, some more serious, some very funny, a lot written by people who normally don\u2019t contribute to Three Percent. Overall, the point is to have some fun and give you a bunch of reasons as to why you should read at least a few of the BTBA<\/span> titles.<\/em><\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for all past and future posts.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Clash of Images<\/em><\/b> by Abdelfattah Kilito, translated by Robyn Creswell<\/p>\n

Language:<\/b> French
\nCountry:<\/b> Morroco
\nPublisher:<\/b> New Directions
\nPages:<\/b> 118<\/p>\n

Why This Book Should Win:<\/b> Book that pleasantly surprised me the most from the longlist; Robyn Creswell won a PEN<\/span> Translation Fund Award for this; New Directions; I think this is the first Moroccan book I\u2019ve ever read.<\/p>\n

I wrote today\u2019s post.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a huge proponent of the \u201cyou should read translated literature to understand other cultures\u201d argument. People don\u2019t like medicine, and although this isn\u2019t quite that, it still smells a bit funny, you know?<\/p>\n

Besides, not all works of international literature give the reader great insight into other cultures. Sure, you can sometimes see how a character\u2019s mind works, how the cultural context influences a particular character\u2019s decisions, actions, and beliefs, but generally, people seem to read translations for the same reason they read any work of literature, which includes a lot of factors (style, complexity, plot, characterization, beauty) other than \u201cto better understand another part of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then again, occasionally there is a book that\u2019s not just beautiful and intriguing, well-written and compelling, but does give you a special insight into a different culture. Enter The Clash of Images<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Kilito\u2019s book is about the shift from the \u201cold Arabic world of texts and oral traditions\u201d to the new \u201cmodern era of the image, the comic book, photo IDs, and the cinema.\u201d By taking this moment in time as its base, and crafting beautiful short pieces around this theme, Kilito provides a special perspective on what it was like growing up in this culture\u2014a perspective that actually can provide foreign readers with subtle shades of meaning and understanding. Witness these bits from \u201cThe Image of the Prophet\u201d:<\/p>\n

I had never seen any images properly speaking, except my own in the mirror. On the walls of our house there were no photographs, no reproductions of any sort. The walls were white, cold, and smooth, with no more than on Quranic verse in calligraphy: \u201cThe All-Merciful is seated firmly upon the throne.\u201d An ambiguous verse and one that\u2014despite the ingenuity of exegetes bent on removing all traces of anthropomorphism\u2014_presents an image_ (Arab theologians needed several centuries to quell the tendency to lend divinity a human form).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was only once I learned to read that I was actually able to decipher images.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There were a number of these, images with a certain prestige, sold not far from the great mosque. Each told a story, or else the climactic moment of a story, with a religious subject. [. . .]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These were considered edifying images that exalted the faith and exemplary figures of the past, though at the cost of violating the ban on figural representation. One limit was respected, however: the prophet of Islam was never pictured. The prophet was a story, a word in the mouth, not a face. And yet many claimed to have seen him in their dreams (with what features?).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a short book, one that\u2019s quick to read, but which sketches out a number of lasting images, lines, stories. In particular, I\u2019d recommend the \u201cRevolt in the Msid,\u201d \u201cA Glass of Milk,\u201d \u201cDon Quixote\u2019s Niece,\u201d and \u201cCinedays\u201d sections\u2014all of which are brilliant and prove why this book should win the BTBA<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Similar to years past, we\u2019re going to be featuring each of the 25 titles on the BTBA Fiction Longlist over the next month plus, but in contrast to previous editions, this year we\u2019re going to try an experiment and frame all write-ups as \u201cwhy this book should win.\u201d Some of these entries will be absurd, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67476],"tags":[22486,37866,37856,3426,38406,56,22456,38396,37876],"class_list":["post-282276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-translated-book-awards","tag-abdelfattah-kilito","tag-best-translated-book","tag-btba-2011","tag-french-literature","tag-moroccan-literature","tag-new-directions","tag-robyn-creswell","tag-the-clash-of-images","tag-why-this-book-should-win"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282276"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":397502,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282276\/revisions\/397502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}