“If we want to strangle an old love, we must constantly mock it”
— Mohammed Hasan Alwan · 1979 –Source: القندس (The Beaver), Dar al‑Saqi, 2011 · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The sentence is attributed to Mohammed Hasan Alwan and appears in citation listings as a passage from the novel القندس.
- What remains uncertain
- Attribution is verified in secondary quotation sources and book extracts, but no page‑numbered primary‑text scan was located to give a precise pagination reference.
Understanding the quote
Alwan captures a defensive trick: mocking a past love to strip it of its power. In The Beaver the line shows how ridicule is used to build emotional barriers — not to erase longing but to contain and quiet its influence.
In the original · Arabic
إذا أردنا أن نخنق حبًا قديمًا، فعلينا أن نسخر منه باستمرار
The story behind it
The Beaver has circulated widely in quotation sites, and this sentence is one of the novel’s most‑shared lines among readers online.
Going further
- The era
- In 2011, amid a wave of contemporary Saudi fiction, القندس examined memory, migration and fractured family ties.
- The thinking
- A psychological insight rather than a system: using mockery as self‑protection means turning pain into spectacle to feel less controlled by it.
- Key word
- Defensive irony: using sarcasm to weaken an emotional hold.
Three challenges to live it
In the app, you pick the one that fits your day, and in the evening you say how it went.
Write for 10 minutes a single paragraph that mocks one specific memory of the old love: exaggerate details and make the scene ridiculous.
Mocking the memory in words strips it of heroic meaning and reduces longing. Writing externalizes the feeling so it loses emotional dominance.
Take a 5-minute breathing break and visualize the memory as a comic scene; observe how its seriousness softens without judgment.
A mindful, mocking visualization separates you from the image so longing loses intensity. The breath anchors you while the ridicule shrinks the memory's hold.
Draw or write a 3–4 panel mini-comic that pokes fun at a defining scene from that old love.
Creating a caricatured comic turns feeling into story. By exaggerating the past visually, you shrink its emotional importance and gain control over the narrative.
How do you use humor or sarcasm to guard yourself from old hurts?
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