Sins of Algiers was a work of Dark Romanticism, it celebrated the divinity of Man despite all his flaws while acknowledging the sombre reality of living in Algiers. For many years the Algerian Literature had recently grown more romantic than realistic, it explored many topics that were available for the limited perspective of their writers but if we are to talk about Algiers from an unlimited perspective then we sought to pay our attention to what's beyond a simple peaceful scenery.
Algiers as seen from my glance during its time of writing that stretched from the confinement period to the early months of 2021 was more dark than peaceful, I saw that men celebrated their survival by endorsing themselves in a dark festivity. It is very important to prioritize reality first in a fictive work and the reason why I opened the book with "No Matter where of Conformity no man will ever dare to speak" was to quit the limits imposed by society and the then-writers and to call to a more realistic town where the citizenry is the main antagonist and the free-men "Numidians" are the protagonist.
Sins of Algiers had put the fight between right and wrong from an individual perspective rather than a common truth as talking of sex drugs and epitaphs had always been a censored topic. Yet from my own part as a bohemian writer the only triad I have witnessed both in the streets of Algiers and during my societal intercourses with common writers were the three things mentioned above. Furthermore, Sins of Algiers shattered the societal hypocrisy of both of the lower social class and the bourgeois to an equal glance where the poems are the sole judges of this corrupted ethical morality.
Due to my spiritual duties as a writer, lurking the readers to a sinful lifestyle had never been my aim; but I was calling for an acknowledgement of our own flaws individually without further comparison with a fellow human being, and I went to the lengths of scarifying my own image for the sake of intriguing the reader and putting him in my lens.
Theologically, Algerians regardless of their social class or religious beliefs have always had the tendency to measure their goodness vis-à-vis other people in which a societal comparison and boast of principles was the fundamental basis of their beliefs. Each man is cursed and doomed in viewing himself as the perfect saint being whilst others are inferior to his core beliefs aside from the priest, poet and warrior. Coming back to Dark Romanticism that naturalized the corruption of the human being regardless of his faith was among its pioneers firstly a call for recognition on one's flaws and self-realization in order to be amply prepared and equipped with an open mind to witness the spiritual path that follows.
In the first chapter I explored the realism of living in the streets and how that dark inspiration derived from the loss of faith among the populace, with a lurking towards drugs and to fill the void caused by the feeling of despair and loneliness, tribalism was very present and as I had labeled myself as the son of Algiers I knew no geographical limits, this openness to all neighborhoods came as a vestige from the universal oneness that was the foundation of the first book Sons of Algiers. I poetically explored and described the town center of Algiers, Belcourt, Sacred Heart, El Biar, Bouzareah, Bab el Oued, Bologhine and Ain Benian was my no man's land. The first chapter wasn't a celebration of the delinquency that was a common lifestyle among the youngsters of my then-generation but it was a necessary bridge that led the reader, the novelist and the rascals to quit this highlonesome lifestyle caused by the feeling of loneliness, in quest for a soulmate or a partner that would fill their hearts with Love.
In my second chapter after finding the Muse of Algiers that was a dramatis persona both for the writer and the reader, the sentiment of manly pride caused by the ghetto living puts a blockage on the love trying to pierce. Moreover, at that time the Algerian society was quite aggressive towards romantic sceneries that were tenfold oppressed by those who haven't yet found their soulmate. This struggle is vividly described in Andalusian Waltz that was written as the opening for this chapter where the narrator faces the judgements of society on his romantic affairs yet still he fights only to love and enjoy the moments shared with his lovers, the dark and good moments. In the second chapter the narrator discovers the sentiment of love for the first time and now is amply equipped with a less lonely perspective on his life where he now had found meaning. However, as the daughters of Algiers are attracted to the one who oppresses them, this love suddenly fades away from the narrator's journey but only to be forwarded to a more universal love.
In my third chapter that comes as the plot twist of this epiphany, the narrator combines his psychedelic experiences witnessed in the first chapter with the romantic ones that unblocked his heart chakra and now is transcended to later be transformed in a series of revelations and self-realizations that potentially creates the real meaning of this book, a call for enlightenment through the human error.
The chapter of the soul starts with Darj that is the à priori last movement of the traditional Andalusian poetry, the narrator in here is discovering himself again and going through a soliloquy from the etymology of his name to his societal functions only to find himself as the writer yet again whilst acknowledging the duality of Good and Evil and light and darkness but replacing the concept of Sin and Virtue of Illusion and Enlightenment. Renouncing his Ego's identity and street masculine pride to identify as a female and male soul merging into one. In this concluding chapter there are no more confusions or societal laws only liberation that creates a series of self-realization that enlightens both the reader and the writer at the same time.
The chapter of the soul was written by my soul and is heavily spiritual, a rascal's Divinity was the magnum opus of the book and not only does it conclude the sorrow once shared in the earliest poems but it gives it meaning and replaces the loneliness of the town with a sense of universal connection, the pronoun I is gradually replaced by We in a form of acknowledgement to our higher selves.
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