The Theme of My Stories is Misunderstanding

Mohammad Abdi's second collection of short stories, titled "Enjoy the Opera," has been published both electronically and in print by Nakhoja Publishing in Paris. This collection contains very short stories that resemble snippets without beginnings or endings from the lives and worlds of characters that the author depicts with concise words, akin to 15-second Instagram clips. Mohammad Abdi is the guest of this week's book review on Radio Farda. Before our conversation, we hear (and read) lines from one of the stories in this collection titled "Coffee": "...I turned to the window. The yellow leaves had fallen to the ground, and the crows were cawing. Well, this is a constant image of death. Why does every death happen in autumn? But people are so carefree. Groups of them are comfortably sitting in the café across, as if they don't even know that Soraya has had an accident, because they don't know her at all. I wish I were there too, drinking coffee. Why are my ears so heavy? I pinch my nose and push with all my might from inside against the wind. Ah, now I can hear some things. The sound of a man's crying. A man?! I turn around. A man is holding Soraya's hand, crying profusely, kissing her head and hands. Who is this?! Maybe I'm dreaming. But no, there's also his voice: Soraya... my dearest... - Yes, sir?!! You? - What does it matter to you? Do I have to show you the marriage certificate to touch her? People like you don't understand love? I suddenly felt crushed. I don't know if it's because of the man's love for her or if he mistook me for a lowly officer. I've never grabbed anyone's collar in my life, but involuntarily, I reached for his clothes and pressed him against the wall. * You filthy bastard, if you touch Soraya again, I'll ruin your face... * Yes, yes?!! How do you know my girlfriend's name? No, it seems that what shouldn't have happened has happened. Calmly, I let go of his collar. * Girlfriend?! * Yes... Soraya is my girlfriend... for three years... * But Soraya is my girlfriend!! Four years! Now he put his hand on my collar and started shouting..." Enjoy the Opera. Your second collection of stories "Enjoy the Opera" is between short stories and flash fiction. Did you narrate this collection with a predetermined goal or did these stories happen regularly over a period? Mohammad Abdi: Yes, I can say it is completely calculated. If you look at both books, namely the book "The Death of the Intellectual" which was published in Iran about twelve-thirteen years ago and this book, both contain very short stories without excess and superfluities. My entire effort has been to eliminate both the events before and after the incident. I aim to explain and share only a very small slice of an event with the reader. You surely know that Hemingway says not to use adjectives. I not only tried not to use adjectives in my writing, but I also attempted to eliminate any kind of extra content. I aimed to shorten the story as much as possible. The stories have been edited several times, and I tried to remove as many unnecessary elements as possible. This could have two reasons: one is that the times are moving in a direction where people have less time to read longer pieces, and the other is that I think this is an effort to approach a pure narrative language where one can eliminate anything that is extra. How successful this is, of course, the reader must say. One of the issues that is observed in short stories, especially in stories this short, by those who execute this experience successfully in world literature, is that these stories usually present a specific and special moment. This does not always happen in the works we see in the collection "Enjoy the Opera." You see, the space I create is just a slice of a life. In this slice, nothing may even happen. The important thing is that this space, this situation, this character, is created in such a way that it can engage the reader. I am merely the narrator of that situation. Perhaps these "slices" should be such that either in terms of "narrative form" they produce more appeal or that the story itself creates a "moment" within itself. The space I create is just a slice of a life. In this slice, nothing may even happen. Well, it is not the case for me that I sit behind a desk and think that I want to write a story. These stories are stories that have come from somewhere that I do not even know, and I have sat down in a situation and written them. I even wrote one of them while I was at the airport and about to miss my flight, but I felt that I had to open my laptop and write this story, and I did it, even at the cost of missing my flight. In the short stories in this collection - which is also a slim book - some of them have strong undertones of humor as well. Like this story "Coffee." Did you not think that perhaps it would be better for this humor to continue in your other stories as well? This ambiguous or underlying humor that exists in one or two of the stories in this collection seems to give much more richness to the work. It depends on the story's atmosphere. These stories are completely different from each other. They were not meant to be related. Of course, they may unconsciously relate to each other. One or two writers in their critiques pointed out how these characters connect. But I have never deliberately tried to make these stories similar. In my opinion, each story builds its own world. If it works in that world, it is successful in that structure. For example, the story "Coffee" that you mentioned, because of its structure, is about someone who is in the hospital, and two people are present above her, two people who do not know each other and both had relationships with this woman. This situation is humorous, even though it can also be tragic. You have been living in London for years, but apart from one story, in the rest of the stories, the "urban space" or the "environmental space" where the events take place is not identifiable, or at least there is no sense or atmosphere of the city of London - where you live - in these stories. This is completely deliberate. In the book "The Death of the Intellectual" as well, none of the characters are specified as to where they are. I believe this is a strength of the stories. In "Enjoy the Opera" it is the same. The characters are not specified as to where they belong and what kind of lives they have. We will not know about their past or future. We only see that slice of their lives that is happening at a moment and can be anywhere in the world. These people can belong to anywhere in the world; not just Iran or London or anywhere else. And in terms of structure!; the form and narrative structure of one of the stories is completely different from the others. In the whole book, this narrative form is only seen in that short story called "Monologues" which has a good narrative structure from separate, unrelated, and irrelevant dialogues of two people that merely exist in the minds of those two and together complete the whole short story. Well, how did this or something similar not appear in other experiences? Well, these stories are very different from each other. Each has its own special structure. Some have humor. Some are completely surreal. For example, if you notice, the story "John Wayne" is a completely surreal story. It is actually a dream. In fact, my entire effort has been that there is absolutely no sentence, no logic, in it, and at the same time, I allow the reader to interpret it however they want, consciously or unconsciously. In "Monologues," the structure has been important to me that we are hearing what is going on in these people's minds; the conversation of two people with themselves, a man and a woman, and how their worlds are separating from each other. I think if we want to look thematically at these stories, their most important theme is the theme of communication. The communication between a man and a woman and how various issues lead to all kinds of misunderstandings and things of that nature.