Last summer, being free of the tasks that had previously occu-pied my time, I had the chance to look closely and attentively into what my brothers read — brothers who are passing through that critical period of their lives, adolescence, of which the psychologists have said that it is the most dangerous period a person traverses in his life: in it he is affected by the most trivial causes, and is prone to slipping, to recklessness, to anxiety and turmoil... This period is the period of transition from the life of childhood to the life of boyhood and youth — the life of maturity, sound judgment, and stability. It falls to us, then, the matter being of such gravity, to have prepared for our adolescent young a complete store of reading matter to fill their leisure, form their lives, and build their future. So what have we prepared for them???..

I said that I looked into the read-ing of my adolescent brothers; and in looking into it I was look-ing into everything read by boys of their age in this country of ours... I began with my brother of sixteen. I had glimpsed in his hand a huge album, over whose pages he was absorbed in fixing certain pictures... I took up the huge album — and what did I find in it?.. Pictures of actresses and actors, alongside comments from certain newspapers about this one and that; and I was appalled to see those vulgar, half-naked pictures pasted over a comprehensive report on West Germany which my brother had prepared during the school year — these cheap pictures blotting

out its features and ruining it.

I showed no displeasure or annoyance, for I wanted to carry my inquiry through to the end. I asked him the name of this actress and that actor, and off he went with the greatest enthusiasm, explaining to me the distinction of each: this one excels in playing seduction roles; that one's fame rests on the beauty of her leg, this one's on the beauty of her bust, and so on... He recited all this without a stammer or a stumble; he had it by heart... And I was certain that had I asked him to give me some of the distinctive merits of al-Mutanabbi or al-Buhturi or Abu Tammam or the others whose lives and poetry he had studied during the school year, the answer would have defeated him. I pressed on with my inves-tigation and asked him to show

me his reading; he led me to his bookcase, and there I found an enormous collection of cheap pocket books, of slipshod language and vulgar style; and he went on telling me about Arsène Lupin and his beautiful, thrilling adventures, and about Sherlock Holmes and his cunning and cleverness, and the other heroes of endless adventures and cheap translated detective stories... In another corner of the bookcase I found a well-stocked collection of American magazines, the names of most of which revolve around the word Romance — from True Romance to Screen Romance to Intimate Romance — and there was another set, all of it revolving around movie actresses. I leafed through some of these magazines, and what did I find: pictures of actresses in various poses... stories from which I now pluck a few titles: I Loved My Mother's Husband... I Loved My Daughter's Husband... I Was a Sinful Girl... My Husband Was a "Sadist," that is, a pervert — and so on among these vulgar, misleading subjects... And when I asked him the price of a single issue, he answered me:

To Housewives (TIXIT)

To Housewives

Housewives often grieve over the loss of a large part of their stored provision of potatoes, owing to shriveling and the sprouting of buds. This is now a thing of the past, thanks to TIXIT, the substance that keeps potatoes in their natural state for a long time and thus preserves them in both quantity and quality. The prices are modest, and the results brilliant.

Distributors:

The Agricultural Remedies Company

Al-Maarad Street — the Greek Orthodox Waqf Agency

Al-Hisar Square — the Makassed Agency, Telephone: 30636