رواية الضوء الأزرق لحسين البرغوثي

Abstract

In the beginning, it should be noted that this novel, according to critics, is considered one of the finest achievements of prose in Palestinian literature. It delves into questions such as: Who am I? Who is the Other? What is my identity? Is my identity real? How do I know? How do I think? Are we trapped in a bubble? Can we break free from this bubble and its constraints? But how? These are the questions that revolve around Hussein in the midst of the atmosphere of this universe and its space, which he can barely grasp before they slip away from him, trying to gather and shape them to fit each individual. However, they escape, thinking that he is not ready for them. It is from this very point that Hussein Barghouti sets off, among all these organized, apparent, mysterious, fake, and real randomness, to soar with us to a distant and very close point from here, to talk to us about the blue light, his life, his experience, and his story, which is akin to a wrestling arena. Our lives are all a ring, but what Hussein reveals is a unique and strange arena with its own constitution, mixed with rationality and madness, with edges and the middle, with the apparent and the hidden, with illusions and reality, with margins and content. After learning about his illness, Hussein decides to write "The Blue Light" to illuminate an idea and bring it out from the darkness of secrets into the light of life. Hussein takes us on a journey of self-discovery, connecting the self with its memory, experiences, and history, and all the designations of identity. Hussein shows us how to shape our own dictionaries, free from any impurities that harm them, dictionaries that go beyond the drawn lines, forming new lines that suit and express us, with colors that belong to us, outside the realm of capitalism and the material and spiritual changes it has brought about, and beyond subordination to the Other, and sufficing with the self. Or rather, breaking this relationship resulting from a false consciousness, as it is not necessary for there to be an Other where there is another person. Then he explains the types of identities and how they are shaped based on memory, history, and designations. Hussein wanted to convey to us the importance, and even the necessity, of creating and rebuilding identity, a solid and rooted identity, in the current fragmentation and loss, and to redefine our minds and set a goal for them. He emphasizes that every person or civilization has something that distinguishes them; it is not necessary to be dependent on others. It is only here, and while understanding ourselves, that we are truly born. Hussein Barghouti calls for building a newmental state that embraces all these "dual" identities and breaking the models that erode the identities of our youth, which reduce their meaning to a narrow-minded bias. Perhaps one day, humans will reach the selves that have been waiting for them since eternity.