The Descent
Introduction
The first nine chapters of The Descent were written in the span of one month,
namely: February 1994. It was, as the novel itself explains, my way of coping with my
recent conversion, so to speak, to atheism (at least as far as existing definitions
of the Divine are concerned). The conversion took place after many years of being a
practicing Muslim, and, at times, a fundamentalist Muslim who had, for a brief period in
1987, entertained some ideas of going to Afghanistan to Join the Mujahideen.
For this reason, the conversion process was not exactly a happy
occasion and did not go smoothly, at least the unconscious part of it. Indeed, it took me
a while to accept this drastic change in my life, writing The Descent, and the
first few poems of
The Voidman, helped much in
facilitating this matter. A therapeutic element has, thus, been involved in my writing
process ever since the beginning.
The final chapter was written in the span of a few days in November
1997. I needed some time to be ready, it seems, for the final "showdown" that
takes place in the chapter. I offer no apologies.
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