فهد عافت يشعل السجال حول قارئ الشعر والرواية

The poet Fahd Aafat renewed his passion for reviving stagnant cultural dialogue by presenting a diagnosis of poetry and novel readers on the platform "Qul wa Dall." Aafat argued that the poetry reader is quick to react and judge things and people, unlike the patient novel reader who is slow in their responses and judgments. He justified his claims by stating that the poetry reader derives their understanding from the nature of the poem, as a poet needs no more than two poems to judge their text, and the judgment on their poem can be made through just two lines, while the novel reader takes longer to read and reflect on events and the narrative flow. This division of opinions among intellectuals ranged from acceptance to reservation and opposition, especially since Aafat emphasized the term "possible" and did not assert definitively.

The critic Dr. Hassan Al-Nami sees the reader as a third element in the creative process, noting that the text's producer is responsible for creating their text according to a personal vision. However, their writing carries codes that only reveal themselves to their specific reader, which enhances the reader's responsibility in understanding their role in producing meaning. Each reader arrives at their meaning based on their reading, culture, and level of awareness, pointing out that each reader has their meaning that does not obligate others, regardless of whether they are reading poetry or prose.

The poet Abdulrahman Moukli believes that it is impossible to define the contentious boundaries between poetry readers and novel readers or to grasp them, affirming the presence of jealousy and envy within the shared creative space. He pointed out that jealousy and envy grow among poets in the realm of poetry and among novelists in their narrative field more than we find between a poet and a novelist. The author of "I Have No Limits in Your Sky" posed the ethical question of whether poetry represents the superior dimension in our culture, making it discriminatory towards other forms of creativity, including the novel, which represents all segments of society. He answered, saying, "I don't know."

Professor of literature Dr. Ahmed Al-Tihani asserts that the impact of the text on the reader varies from one text to another, including the impact of poetry and narrative texts. He clarified that the nature and spirit of the poem do not necessarily produce a cognitive effect but often touch the reader emotionally and aesthetically, as the poet directly engages with the feelings, especially if the text is captivating. Al-Tihani considered narrative enjoyment of language as a whole, providing information and entering into a dialogic narrative state, as the novel places us within the discourse represented in the language of events and the dialogues of the characters, which elevate the style while being rich with historical scenes and images that entice the exploration of time, place, and humanity through delightful drama. He added: the novel softens history, unlike the dry books of historians that strip information without providing narrative enjoyment, emphasizing that poetry is only cognitive for those who wish to develop their experience; its impact is spiritual, while the impact of the novel is even greater.

Meanwhile, the writer Suham Al-Qahtani considered Aafat's opinion to be old perfumes in a new vase! She sees his analytical approach as correct regarding the nature of poetry and the novel, affirming her agreement with him in analyzing the function and nature of both arts, as poetic deception is a fundamental nature, while the deception of the novel is a crafted nature.

The poet Khalid Qamash believes that poetry and the novel do not compete for influence but differ in nature. Poetry bets on the power of language and the density of imagery; thus, a single line may leave an impact equivalent to an entire book because it touches the heart and awakens what is latent in the soul. Qamash sees the novel as a space that gives the reader the opportunity to live the experience from within, to empathize with the characters, and to rediscover humanity through the narrative, affirming his belief that poetry is not an art of answers but an art of questions, leaving an open impact on the reader that renews with each reading, while the novel generates an impact that grows with the extension of the story and its details. He added: the reader does not need to compare between them but gives each literary genre its chance, as poetry condenses life into a moment, while the novel grants that moment a full lifetime.

The poet Mura'i Suwadi stated that reading creative texts has multiple levels depending on the text being read, and the poetic text, in general, is a rhetorical emotional discourse that quickly affects the recipient, provided it is based on the quality of the text's artistic structure and the multiplicity of outcomes, images, and internal and external rhythms. He considered the novel a silent and stimulating journey between the writer and the recipient, accompanied by apprehension, repulsion, and closeness in the course of the narrative and its escalations and slowdowns, creating a nearly interconnected and continuous relationship between the text's generator and its recipient, whether negatively or positively. Suwadi pointed out that the poetic text has a direct impact, while the impact of the narrative text is slow due to the process, technique, and phases of storytelling and character development.

The writer Yusuf Ahmed Al-Hassan believes that it is difficult to classify readers strictly and divide them into novel readers and poetry readers, as many of them read both genres. He explained that one could say that the novel reader possesses patience due to the text's requirement for a wide temporal space accompanied by a cumulative state of events and characters, with coherence in the idea over dozens or hundreds of pages, which can cause boredom for some readers. He considered reading poetry through measured language with beautiful rhythms and intense moments does not take as long as reading a novel. According to him, a poetry reader can understand the intended meaning from several lines, resembling a work of art with its condensed and perhaps shocking idea.