The Writer and the Reader.. A Complex Relationship

For more than three decades, I have practiced writing in its various forms and levels in many newspapers, platforms, and fields. I was and still am learning, training, and persevering. Writing is a dynamic craft that hates calm, stagnation, and monotony, and loves movement, mobility, and being affected. It is like life in its noise, transformation, and diversity, especially in such an exceptional stage in the age of the world where its features, aspects, and directions are beginning to take shape.

During this exciting journey, I approached many angles and issues, touched upon many events and positions, and discussed many ideas and convictions. That is the major function for which writing came into existence, since the first human carved/drew his feelings and desires on rocks and mountains. However, there is an important issue I could not understand or trust in the world of writing, namely the reader's mood.

The reader, especially the modern one, resembles a riddle/talisman that can no longer be solved or deciphered. He has transformed from merely a 'receiver' of everything written here or there, into a 'participant,' even a competitor, director, and influencer, which has added many pressures, burdens, and loads to writing. Modern writing in the company of this mischievous reader has abandoned many of its habits, traditions, and etiquettes that prevailed for centuries. Writing has now become a 'consensual' process between two main parties/adversaries possessing the same capabilities and influences.

But what about the mood of the modern reader, which has become a disturbing nightmare that worries writers and those working in the world of writing? And so as not to fall into the trap of the impossible answer to this question/riddle, I will present some examples/experiences that writers face:

Readers often demand that we stay away from theorizing and philosophy, but at the same time they wage a fierce war against anyone who writes in an easy and direct language. They constantly accuse us of practicing 'self-flagellation' when we criticize an idea or phenomenon, but as soon as one of us writes about a bright aspect or a wonderful national achievement, he is accused of drum-beating, sycophancy, and hypocrisy. We write about the beautiful societal customs, traditions, and norms that we take pride in, and we are met with a flood of replies, comments, and criticisms that mock this past-oriented view clinging to yesterday. Yet the very same people accuse anyone who praises any technical, scientific, or civilizational progress in the countries of the first world of Westernization, dependence, and imitation.

And no matter how hard writers try, with all the strength, courage, and experience they possess, to reach that 'capricious mood' of readers, all their attempts end in failure.

Now, after all this complaint drenched in the scent of reproach, from me and from all writers, this question arises—one that seeks not an answer, but a consensus and harmony between the writer and the reader: What is the reader looking for in this complex age with all its platforms and networks?