I heart NYPL
bakmakla öğrenilseydi kediler kasap olurdu
During a weekend in Beirut and a few unemployed days in Kadıköy, I was able to fill my bags with what I hoped would be a little survey course for myself in modern Turkish and Arabic literature. I had a much easier time being comprehensive in Turkish since Turks themselves have an ingrained pantheon which is pretty easy to spout off. Hatice also gave me an anthology of the writings of Murat Belge from who to rip opinions off of for years to come. I finally got my hands on Reza Aslan's Tablet and Pen and it seems like the editors of the Turkish section are equally educated in the accepted narrative of modern Turkish fiction.
In Beirut the man at Antoine wasn't very helpful, and neither were my smug, practically Kemalist assumptions on the paucity of Arabic fiction. I was left almost choosing at random, buying even more books by Muhammed Choukri, Sonallah Ibrahim, and Ghasan Kanafani.
Now having a New York Public Library, I don't have to stumble around so blindly trying to figure out 'what to read' in either language. I'm hoping Matti Moosa's "the origins of Modern Arabic Fiction" and "Arabic literature: Postmodern perspectives" will help. Through the latter I already have two books each from Elias Khoury and Rashid Da'if, and have finally found some academic writing on Sonallah Ibrahim. I used to think that Ibrahim's reoccurring theme of political nostalgia was what made him so unique, but it's quickly coming to appear to be the one thing that makes him like everyone else.
Anyhow, as the Turkish proverb says, if you could learn by watching all cats would be butchers. I wonder how the self-study survey course I'm hoping to read through this semester in Modern Turkish/Arabic's greatest hits will prepare me if I, if I, if I, get into a program. I guess when people are in school they don't really have time to read all of these things, too busy reading about them. If nothing else it will be a super fun project, and the NYPL is sure being a big help. I'll try to write about the experience, if nothing else to have a record of my initial impressions of modern Turkish/Arabic literature before the academic intervention, my orthodoxification.
During a weekend in Beirut and a few unemployed days in Kadıköy, I was able to fill my bags with what I hoped would be a little survey course for myself in modern Turkish and Arabic literature. I had a much easier time being comprehensive in Turkish since Turks themselves have an ingrained pantheon which is pretty easy to spout off. Hatice also gave me an anthology of the writings of Murat Belge from who to rip opinions off of for years to come. I finally got my hands on Reza Aslan's Tablet and Pen and it seems like the editors of the Turkish section are equally educated in the accepted narrative of modern Turkish fiction.
In Beirut the man at Antoine wasn't very helpful, and neither were my smug, practically Kemalist assumptions on the paucity of Arabic fiction. I was left almost choosing at random, buying even more books by Muhammed Choukri, Sonallah Ibrahim, and Ghasan Kanafani.
Now having a New York Public Library, I don't have to stumble around so blindly trying to figure out 'what to read' in either language. I'm hoping Matti Moosa's "the origins of Modern Arabic Fiction" and "Arabic literature: Postmodern perspectives" will help. Through the latter I already have two books each from Elias Khoury and Rashid Da'if, and have finally found some academic writing on Sonallah Ibrahim. I used to think that Ibrahim's reoccurring theme of political nostalgia was what made him so unique, but it's quickly coming to appear to be the one thing that makes him like everyone else.
Anyhow, as the Turkish proverb says, if you could learn by watching all cats would be butchers. I wonder how the self-study survey course I'm hoping to read through this semester in Modern Turkish/Arabic's greatest hits will prepare me if I, if I, if I, get into a program. I guess when people are in school they don't really have time to read all of these things, too busy reading about them. If nothing else it will be a super fun project, and the NYPL is sure being a big help. I'll try to write about the experience, if nothing else to have a record of my initial impressions of modern Turkish/Arabic literature before the academic intervention, my orthodoxification.
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