Sariyer Literature Days

Last Sunday, I was a speaker at a panel titled “One Hundred Years of Our Storytelling” at the “12th Sarıyer Literature Days” organized by the Sarıyer Municipality, along with Sadık Aslankara, Özcan Karabulut, and Hürriyet Yaşar . Despite the bitter cold of Istanbul and the rain, while a qualified majority listened to our thoughts on our storytelling, almost all of us paid attention to the work that Sadık Aslankara prepared in this field, which will soon be published as a book. While Aslankara explained his basic orientation towards his work one by one, he presented us with the common characteristics of the bright periods that were combined with many breakthrough writers in story writing. In his meticulous work, Hürriyet Yaşar conveyed the first period of our contemporary story writing, which came to the fore with Refik Halit Karay, Ömer Seyfettin , and Esendal . Özcan Karabulut explained the reality of the writer organization behind the strong rise of the 90s writer generation that he was a part of. He shared with the audience the story magazines that were published one after another, which were connected to the story days that started with the Story Days in Ankara and then spread to almost the entire country, and the beginning and tradition of the February 14 World Story Day.

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To tell the truth, with the difficulty of interpreting such a broad title, perhaps the most important step in evaluating our storytelling in the past century was to touch upon some stories. Although it may seem subjective to proceed by determining my favorite ten stories from our century-long history, it could be a baby step towards seeing the general picture. Based on Metin Altıok ’s line, “If I say so, know that it is you,” I tried to provide the expansion of my own perspective in this way. The stories I chose were as follows:

Mahmut Şevket Esendal's "Wife's Husband" tells us the events that occur when a mother and father move in with their son, a young engineer, by describing the language of daily life and presenting an approach that is far from exaggeration. Esendal ends his story with a tremendous irony. Thus, one of the first dynamic examples of our contemporary storytelling is presented.

Sabahattin Ali 's story "Ayran" is one of the miraculous stories of our transition to society. Hasan's tiny world consists of selling ayran at the station and feeding his hungry brothers. One day, the train leaves before he can collect the money for the two mugs of ayran he sold. A blizzard hits. After a while, hungry wolves surround him.

In Orhan Kemal 's story "Chocolate", three children stand in front of a candy store window: The older sister and the yogurt seller's daughter. The older sister offers to buy chocolate for her brother, whom she takes to the barber. The yogurt seller's daughter has never tasted chocolate before. Thus, Orhan Kemal presents us with the crucial points of class differentiation in our country, not only in his novels but also in his short stories.

In the story journey that begins with Haldun Taner ’s “Şişhaneye Yağmurduğudü”, he gives us his satirical, bitter and humorous side with a completely different technique where essayism is almost dominant at times. We come across the story of the milkman’s horse Kalender. When the horse sees his image in the mirror on the back of a porter and neighs, it knocks down a shop window. He also lets a car behind the tram that brakes suddenly to avoid hitting the animal. Thus, the business deal of the rich man in the car is broken.

One of the best examples of village storytelling is given to us by Fakir Baykurt in “Anatolian Garage” . Arif, who knows the value of what he has as a villager, is ostracized by the city dwellers on the basis of class. He is aware that the calf will become stronger if it receives the necessary care. He realizes that his son, who has settled in the district, does not know the value of the calf either. The changing world ignores village development.

Vüs'at O. Bener tells us the hospital adventure of a young girl in a heartbreaking way in “Brucella” . So much so that the tragedy of the story merges with Bener’s lyrical irony.

In Onat Kutlar 's "Kül Kuşları" (Birds of Ash) the story of a little girl who carries the weight of the world and learns of her mother's death is told. After the postman brings the letter, death is spoken of so easily and quickly. However, even though the little child Gazel runs after her grandmother, the starlings cannot stop her and take off.

Erendiz Atasü , in the story “Women Also Exist”, Servet comes face to face with himself when he is diagnosed with uterine cancer. Despite dedicating his life to his wife and children, he is sure that each of them will take a selfish attitude in their new process. While Servet questions himself, his doctor Gülşen is no different. In this country, women’s hopes are being stolen. Atasü also presents us with the trace of the period when women were made active in life.

In my favorite story, “Encounter” , Mehmet Günsur leaves the reader in a place where life and story are almost intertwined. The adventure of three friends on a vacation ends with one of them leaving. Now separations and dreams are side by side.

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In these stories, the literary tendency that has developed periodically layer by layer until today actually integrates within itself and a general theme emerges. This also embodies the fact that our country provides solid examples in the periods when storytelling is dynamic and developed.

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To tell the truth, Sarıyer Literature Days made me think once again about the power of meeting, the importance of thought transfer and the first step of organization. In the interviews, information, experience and sharing of mind were sometimes blended with artistic creativity. Most importantly, while the heritage of the past was remembered, ways of looking to the future were also discussed. In countries like ours, the word thought is avoided at a run. Melih Cevdet says in one of his articles, “Thinking tires us, we believe that we can act even with little knowledge” ; subtly mockingly. He emphasizes the importance of “thought” while looking at social events, the contradiction between the rich and the poor, and the behavior of the ruling minority against the ruled majority. The building mortar behind intellectuality is culture and accumulation. In periods when ignorance is rampant, this word is first shelved or emptied. Perhaps this is why sharing thoughts becomes a “crime” .

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That's why we need more meetings like this. To think, to share, to distill...