Skip to main content

Insulting Turkishness.

Things are a bit slow in the land of literature these past few days. Nevertheless, I have been interested in the plight of Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, who is to face trial for insulting "Turkishness":
Shafak joins a roster of more than 60 writers and journalists to be charged under Article 301 of the Turkish criminal code since its introduction last year. University professors, journalists and novelists such as Perihan Magden, Orhan Pamuk and now Shafak have been charged under legislation drawn so broadly as to criminalise a wide range of critical opinions. Writers not only face the prospect of a three-year jail term, but the prosecutions also lay them open to a campaign of intimidation and harassment waged by rightwing agitators.
The interesting part here is that she argues that it is the character in her novel, "The Bastard of Istanbul" that insulted "Turkishness", not her. Sounds like a bunch of right-wingers taking something trivial a tiny bit too far.

Sounds familiar doesn't it...?
Labels:

Comments

  1. bibliobibuli27/7/06 9:15 am

    yes, i was also thinking things are a bit slow ...

    i think because it's the summer hold in the northern hemisphere and everyone has gone to the beach with their books!

    this is a pretty interesting story ... particularly in the wake of the orhan pamuk trial. and yes, it reminds us of a place not so far away (but luckily nowhere near as bad to its writers)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ted Mahsun27/7/06 9:57 am

    Oooh yes... summer, it completely slipped my mind!

    Yes, that place so far away isn't as bad to its writers. Unless of course the writers touch upon some really, really sensitive issues...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm going to Clarion West!

So yeah! I'm going to Clarion West this year! If you didn't know, Clarion West is a really awesome science fiction and fantasy writing workshop that runs for six weeks in summer every year at Seattle and is usually taught by a faculty of award-winning authors and editors. Many students who attend this workshop also go on to have illustrious writing careers of their own too. I've been meaning to attend this workshop (or its sister workshop, Clarion UCSD, which is the original Clarion workshop but runs in San Diego around the same time) for years now but never had the courage to apply. Many reasons as to why: didn't think I'd have money for the most part, didn't think I was good enough, didn't think I could leave work long enough, didn't think I could leave family behind, etc. But something sparked inside of me late last year. I felt I should at least give it a go this time round. So I did. They requested a sample of my best work and an applicatio...
Post a Comment
Read more

REVIEW: Confessions of an Old Boy by Kam Raslan

Kam Raslan's right. In the preface for his new book, Confessions of an Old Boy: The Dato' Hamid Adventures he writes that we've known Dato' Hamid all our lives. Seeing as my own dad is an old boy of MCKK, the people I get to meet when he drags me to an Old Boy function and the people he tells me of, reflect the characters found in Kam's book. It really does feel like I've known Dato' Hamid all my life. Dato' Hamid is a civil servant of the Tunku Abdul Rahman generation. He is the sort of person you rarely see nowadays, a fine example of the anachronistic Malay. This generation, groomed in the ways of the colonial British would be out of place not just in 21st century Malaysia, but in Britain too. And yet, Dato' Hamid, in all his snobbishness and patronising ways, is essentially a Malaysian. Without people like him, our country would probably never exist at all. At least not like we know it now. I'm glad that Kam Raslan decided to capture this ...
5 comments
Read more

Wait? We have a writing scene?

On some mornings, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to find a copy of The Sun lying on the seat in the LRT when I enter. Today was such a morning. And the other sun - the real, big ball-of-gas one - was even out too. In today's edition of The Sun, on page 18, in the U! section (which isn't linked online... yet), there is an article written by Joanna Van, headlined, "The Write Stuff". The gist of the article is this: Ms. Van talks with four college students between the ages of 19 - 22 about the Malaysian Writing Scene. *cue horror theme* These four students's opinion of the local writing scene is that it is almost non-existent, as is voiced by Erin Chong, "Wait? We have a writing scene?" Very observant. Fortunately, all of them agree that there is a problem with Malaysian Writing. They are quick to point their fingers at the culprits: "Censorship!"; "People don't read!"; Narrow-minded teachers!"; "Money-minded parents!...
12 comments
Read more