Re: [Marxism] Elif Shafak

[ANIL GÖKPEK <agokpek@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

It is funny how Elif Shafak stills looks at her native country as an outsider, 
-which is possibly because of some commercial tactics- and funny how she still 
mentions Ýstanbul not as Constantinople or Stamboul, though.
  She is, (beyond being a courageous intellectual who is in some kind of 
struggle which still remains invisible to us) a perfect sample -to us insiders- 
of what the word contradiction brings to mind.

  However my point would be a correction, if I have the right to correct the 
words of a 'major novelist'. As the quote goes, "there are two undercurrents in 
Turkey, both very old. One is nationalist, exclusivist, xenophobic and 
reactionary. The other is cosmopolitan, Sufi, humanist, embracing. It is the 
second tide that I feel connected to," which seems as a distorted vision of 
Turkey to me, or possibly it is what they would prefer it to look like. The 
followers of Pamuk cult like to put sufism against the other 'undercurrent'; 
this proposition might only be true for a closed group of Ýstanbul 
intelletuals, (putting forward the idea on their insistence) these 
undercurrents are nothing but the same in final analysis.

  The danger for other 'undercurrents which are ignored' is being labeled by 
one of these groups as nationalist/xenophobic or by other as cosmopolitan/Sufi.

  I must say that this is not about being Turkish, it is about the nature of 
'intellectuality'.

  To summarize the ideas above and as a conclusion let me ask this:
  How can one be a novelist while being blindfolded?

                
---------------------------------
Yahoo! Messenger  NEW - crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail
________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism