Abdullah Al-Samti

The parents of the famous British novelist, author of the "Harry Potter" novel series, met at a train station then t married, and Rowling wrote the first lines of the idea of the "Harry Potter" novel while she was ing by train from Manchester to London, where the train broke down for four hours, which were enough for the birth of the idea of "Harry Potter" and she was psychologically crushed and did not find her daily sustenance. This novel series made her fortune today exceed more than 5 billion English pounds as one of the richest writers in the world today, after its sales and translation in its various parts to various international languages and its transformation into cinematic films shown throughout the world.

Dozens of novelists, storytellers and poets wrote about the train and its stations, while the train was linked in the folk imagination with a number of folk proverbs and expressions that link between it and age and life stations.

The Train and the Social Imagination:

It is not just a means for transport and travel, but also includes a picture of the forms of civilization and the transition of man from his individual state in travel via horses and camels, or even via cars, to a mass state in which various groups and social strata participate in a unified means of travel and transport. This is the image of "the train" and its presence in the social and folk imagination. Although it participates as a means of mass transport with ships, buses, and planes, the way of its presence differs in its shape, the multiplicity of its carriages, its iron line, its majestic image and sound, its stations, its timings and its movement between cities sometimes or between countries at other times.

From here the train acquired many civilizational, social and even cultural significations. No world literature is devoid of mentioning the train in its novels and poems, and cinema is not devoid of conveying train scenes. Indeed, a large group of Arab and international films have the train as the place of their events, from their beginning to their end. Among the novels that inspired the train: "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins, which is one of the science fiction novels, and "The Mystery of the Blue Train" and "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie, and "Strangers on a Train" by Patricia Highsmith, which is a psychological thriller novel, talking about two men who meet together on a train, and agree on an exchange of murder, so that they are not suspects in the death of each other''s victim. The novel appeared in a movie entitled: "Strangers on a Train" directed by the famous director Alfred Hitchcock, then turned into a play and a series.

Also published was the novel: "Stamboul Train" by Graham Greene, "The Adventure of the Lost Locomotive" by Solar Pons, the story: "The Celestial Railroad" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Iron Council" by China Miéville, and "The Steam Detective" is a series of mystery novels written by Andrew Martin on the British railway lines, and other novelistic and literary works and children''s stories that inspire the train. In Arabic, there are many narrative works that addressed the train, including: "The Train" by Khalid Al-Arfi, "The Lady of the Train" by Mustafa Nasr, "The Train Reader" by Ibrahim Farghali, and "A Night in the Train" by Issa Al-Naouri. In Arabic poetry there are many poems that addressed the train as a poetic subject including: "In the Train" by Ma''ruf al-Rusafi, and with the same title: "In the Train" by Elia Abu Madi, "The Train Passed" by Nazik Al-Malaika, and "The Train Passed Quickly" by Mahmoud Darwish.

The Cinematic Train: International cinema witnessed a large set of films whose events took place in the train or train stations. Among these works: "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974) for Albert Finney and Ingrid Bergman, and The Narrow Margin (1952), Night Mail (1936), North by Northwest (1959), and Band on the Run (1975). Among the famous films: (Under Siege), which is an action movie produced in the United States and released in 1992, starring Steven Seagal and Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey. And "Dark Area" (1995) and "The Station Agent" (2003) and "Snowpiercer" (2013) which is a post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Bong Joon-ho about a luxury train circling the earth.