writer

Author's name: Taha Hussein

Whenever his friends heard his premonitions of dreams or waking thoughts, they would urge him to broadcast and publish them. He would smile, then mock, then refuse them and insist on refusing, because he believed that what he wrote was not worthy of being submitted to the press. He feared the printing press, held it in high esteem, and surrounded it with a strange kind of sanctification. He used to say that the written works submitted to the printing press were similar to what the ancient pagans used to offer to their gods in sacrifices and offerings, and to what the affluent believers now offer to their gods in prayer and supplication. It is right that the victim be chosen and the offering chosen, that prayer be a part of the soul, and that supplication be an image of the heart and mind together.