“Shaytan”: Or, The Difficulties in Writing Outside of the Mainstream

There are other circumstances that call for authors to ground their text in reality in more uncommon ways. Let’s say that you, the author, are from a culture that is outside of the mainstream of that which dominates your country of residence. If this is the case, and you are writing a memoir, then take some pains to explain foreign concepts for a general reader. 

A memoir I once edited provides a useful example. It was written by a Pakistani Muslim woman, who was trying to break free of her oppressive family. I found that, in many cases, I did not know what meaning the author was to get across, precisely. 

In the first chapter, the author wrote, “Growing up in my mother’s womb was a sin…” To an extent, I could understand what the author was trying to say; that, in her society, boys were more favored than girls. But if the author was attempting to reference some specific meaning or dogma, then that escaped me. I did not know what it meant even after I spent some time searching the internet for an answer.

If you are writing in another language, then it is helpful to explain the meanings of words for the general reader. In the same book, the author used the word—then unknown to me—“shaytan.” Helpfully, the author included a translation, “devil.” I happened to look the word up anyway, just for my own edification. When I clicked on Wikipedia, I saw that the word “shaytan” refers to “evil spirits in Islamic belief, inciting humans (and jinn) to sin by “whispering” (“waswasah”) to the heart (“qalb”). They form a separate class of invisible creatures besides the angels in Islamic tradition, often thought of as ugly and grotesque creatures created from hell-fire.” 

The author included none of these various meanings in her text. Perhaps the word has a more general meaning as well. I don’t know. But this speaks to the major issue here, which was that I wanted the author to be more descriptive. To help me understand, I wanted her to say more. 

The author included none of these various meanings in her text. Perhaps the word has a more general meaning as well. I don’t know. But this speaks to the major issue here, which was that I wanted the author to be more descriptive. To help me understand, I wanted her to say more. 

This leads me to a thought regarding a recent trend I’ve noticed, anecdotally, on the internet. This is where people from minority groups say that it is not up to them to “do the work” of educating the people in the majority group of the abuses that they experience at the hands of the majority group. 

Now, I find this to be perfectly reasonable. A Black person in America, let’s say, each time they wish to discuss race with a White person, should not have to explain to their interlocutor the history of slavery and lynching, or the fear they feel—if indeed they feel fear—when they see a police car. There is absolutely a sort of baseline knowledge that is and should be expected of all people, and not just educated ones. 

This is true even without taking into account any sort of trauma that this discussion might create. Indeed, what is traumatic for one person may not be traumatic for another. To put this another way, a White person in America should not be discussing race at all if they do not know who Emmett Till is, what happened to him, and why he is important. Again, that is just a baseline.

I don’t have a method to determine how to measure this baseline. I would guess no one else does either. Again, this likely shifts from person to person.

But all of that said, there are levels of cultural understanding that go beyond—or are deeper than—this baseline. As a writer, the farther in depth you go regarding your own specific cultural background, the more it becomes unreasonable to assume that the general reader knows what you are talking about. Now individuals may disagree. If they are willing to be misunderstood, then so be it. 

If they are willing to be misunderstood, then so be it.

The limits of the brain are finite; there is only so much a human being can know. Arthur Conan Doyle expressed this very well in one of his Sherlock Holmes novels. (I’m adding an extended excerpt here, because I find it quite telling):

“His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it. 

"You appear to be astonished," he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. "Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it." 

"To forget it!" 

"You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." 

"But the Solar System!" I protested. 

"What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently; "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.””

***

Sherlock Holmes then goes on to discuss the various types of soil found around the London area, or something similar. The point is that most people are really the same way; they act the same way. They know what is helpful for them to know, and not more than that. In my case and my ignorance, I had never found it necessary to use the word shaytan before, and so I didn’t know it. 

Now, again, some individuals may disagree, that shaytan is an essential word. If they are willing to be misunderstood, then so be it, because most people don’t look words up. But to do so is to lose a certain capability of connection. Now that I know it, I may have use of it in the future, so now perhaps I will find it necessary.