Before we get started, I wanted to welcome you to the new and improved blog! I hope you enjoy the new look and the new name. I will be continuing to change some elements of the blog as I go, but for now, enjoy the new theme I call "blue serenity".
I decided also, not to limit myself to a schedule to post new content because that made this blog feel like a job. Whereas I do actually have a job which requires a lot of physical and mental effort. As such, whenever I read a new book or have a thought on a specific topic which I would like to share with the world (consisting of the very few people who read my blog), you will find it posted! This makes it feel more like what the blog really is to me, a hobby I wanted to share with others. Now that we've established what Literato has to offer, let's get into the first post of the new blog!
A lot of you out there know of the esteemed Dr. Ahmed Khaled Tawfik (May Allah have mercy on his soul). In his career as an author, he has written many books and even came out with a series of ghost stories that inspired the very first Netflix produced Egyptian series " Supernatural ما وراء الطبيعة". Probably his most influential book at the time that he wrote it was Utopia. It was even compared to books such as 1984 by George Orwell and 451 Fahrenheit by Ray Bradbury. Mainly because all three books share the writers' view of what a dystopian future looks like for either their respective nations or the world in general.
Utopia was first published in 2008, which was an eventful year for both Egypt and the world. There was the Egyptian general strike, the extension of the 27-year-old Emergency law which stifled the Egyptian press's freedom of expression, the global financial crisis, and so on. Considering all of this was happening at the time, this book's purpose, in my opinion, was written as a very big wake-up call for Egyptians. Here's why.
For starters, the book sets Egypt as barely a nation any more. Several events occurred to cause there to be an extreme segregation of the Egyptian people into two categories; the filthy (underline this word a thousand times) rich, and the dirt (again, underline a lot) poor. The government was basically non-existent as well. Petrol was a thing of the past. Israel was an actual nation and not just an occupant of the country of Palestine, meaning Palestine no longer existed. Egypt and Israel's peace treaty was a thing of the past because they were basically best friends, specifically with the luxury-drunk category of Egyptians. All this was set in the year of 2020. Have I shocked you yet?
Dr. Ahmed also provides a POV from each side of the spectrum, those of which belong to a teenager born into the rich side, and a middle-aged man who was born into the poor side. Curiously, they share only one common factor. They both read everything available to them that gave them knowledge of what Egypt once was; and they both cursed the Egyptian people for it, although for different reasons. The teen was looking for something that didn't make his life boring while the man was only ever looking for him and his sister's next meal. They encountered when the teen decided to encroach on the land of the poor and exchanged some very interesting thoughts about the country and what goes on. This "two sides of the spectrum" approach shows us what happens to both those who have everything and those who have nothing. What they think of each other; how they view each other's actions; how each side views God; what each side places into right and wrong. However, this is not one of those stories where two people from opposite sides find mutual understanding and decide to try to change the country. In fact it's quite the opposite. The scary part is that because of basic human nature and what we know of Egyptian society, all of what is described in Utopia is very much possible and in my opinion can very well be reality.
This book was designed, also, to give the reader a glimmer of hope. I'm trying not to spoil it for those who haven't read the book, but when you reach the end you're shown that Egyptians always have a way of surprising themselves. We as a country have seen many strikes and revolutions in the last 100 years. This is a testament to Egypt's resolve to demand what is right. Dr. Ahmed saw that with the way he ended the story, I think. It's very dark, and the future in it looks bleak, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It's a warning, but one that ends with a resolution.
Now my overall opinion of this book is that it is very well written, a bit poetic, and very strong-worded. My interest was definitely peaked, but I only regret that I haven't read this book the year it was published. As the adult that I currently am, a lot of the things used in Utopia as shock-factor was dulled for me, probably because before I read Utopia, I had already read or watched other dystopian-future stories, so there wasn't much that was surprising to me. The only thing I will admit is that I did not think that anyone in Egypt thought that society could turn into what Dr. Ahmed described, and that was the main reason why I was surprised by what he wrote and that he wrote it in 2008, which us Egyptians know were much simpler times in society than they are now.
I would rate this book at a strong 7.5/10, but as I always have encouraged, please read the book for yourself and I always want to hear your thoughts and opinions. You can find Utopia pretty much in any book store, so why not? Let me know your thought afterwards, either here in the comments section of the blog or on the Literato Facebook page.
Thank you for reading, literati!
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