A Quest for Normalcy

A Quest for Normalcy by Hassan Khader (writer, literary critic and editor of the literary journal,  al-Karmel) was born in Gaza and currently lives in Germany.

Sometime in the 1980s, a Japanese artist interviewed by a Palestinian journalist was quoted as saying: "If you Palestinians don't prevail, then there is something wrong in life". That sentence has been engraved in my memory ever since - but for the wrong reasons. I keep asking myself: what if something really is wrong in life? After all, thinking of the world as a place where rational choices are made, justice is done and dreams are fulfilled is an indication of too much trust in human intelligence. Fortunately, that kind of trust is being constantly contested and deconstructed by art. Such acts give art a highly subversive quality and explain why it doesn't surrender to conventional wisdom. Nevertheless, it can also explain why we humans are always fascinated by and attracted to art: it gives us another way of seeing ourselves and the world.

This is exactly what a Subjective Atlas of Palestine is all about. For a Palestinian, Palestine is a profession, a metaphor, and a reality defying categorization. Looking from outside, the checkpoints, the wall, the Orwellian regime of mobility restrictions and the uncertainty of locating Palestine in a non contested map, seem like a nightmare. From inside, the nightmare isn't less obvious. It's there in all possible details. However, among usually recognized manifestations, it has a comic aspect which can't be seen from a distance; like a surrealist dream come true, where things are not exactly what they seem and negotiating one's identity and place is an endless effort of normalization. Looking from inside, the nightmare is like a disease with which one can live, not only as a fait accompli but as a tactic of survival. Tactics of survival bring out the best as well as the worst of human behaviour.

The Palestinians are locked somewhere in the middle. Not an easy position for people who strive just to be 'normal' like others. Normalcy is not to be taken for granted, it has to be imagined and invented. Mothers sending their children to school in the morning, lovers meeting in a coffee shop, labourers on their way to work, taxi drivers waiting for passengers, teenagers roaming the streets, middle-aged men smoking water pipes and reading newspapers. All these people know that their reality is fragile and their tranquillity artificial. Yet they make the best of both, as if the world were stable and they are in control.

There is a lot of melancholy hanging in the air, a sense of black humour and even boredom. The map is formed and deformed, joyfully or sarcastically; daily life activities are cherished as precious proofs of resilience. Normalcy can be achieved in different ways, by different means. No-one would stop for a moment to ask: "How can I normalize my life?" The question is: "How can I keep time-tested means of normalcy functioning and oiled?" Palestine as a metaphor is much more complicated and multi-layered than the one portrayed by political rhetoric.

Behind every truth there is a much deeper one. The potential of Palestine as a metaphor has always been rich. The Palestinians are tired, they need a break. The energies they invest just to be like anyone else, their quest for a normal life and the hopes they nourish, are channelled into a tortured relationship with time and place. I think in such a relationship many people in different parts of the world are able to learn something, not only about the intimate and rich existence of the Palestinians, but about human nature as well.