Sema Kaygusuz, Credit: Muhsin Akgun

Sema Kaygusuz was born in 1972 in Samsun, Turkey. Due to her father’s itinerant military career, she lived in various regions across Turkey. A wide range of folk tales, legends and stories remain her greatest sources of inspiration. She is the author of four critically acclaimed collections of short stories, three award-winning novels and a forthcoming play, ‘The Sultan and the Poet’. Her work has been translated into German, French, Swedish and Norwegian. Alongside Inci Aral, Denise Mina and Panos Karnezis, she was a keynote speaker at the Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference: Izmir in February 2013.

We spoke to Sema from her home in Istanbul, ahead of her participation in this weekend’s Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. She’ll be discussing the Future of the Novel with China Miéville and Hari Kunzru this Saturday at 5pm. During the course of our conversation the noise from the demonstration outside Sema’s window interrupted us and forced a hiatus, so we begin with:

EWWC: How are things in Istanbul at the moment?

SK: Things are a little bit difficult, but exciting. The demonstrations taking place at the moment are very important; we’re trying to build a new Turkey. Every day people continue to meet together in parks all over Istanbul, working together in small groups to talk about the future of Turkey.

EWWC: You took part in the EWWC Izmir last March, delivering a fascinating keynote speech on National Literature. In your speech you said “the fiction that is ‘country’ is to me an inner trouble and an outer burden that increases day by day. I do not want to be represented by it, or to be its representative”. Have your views changed since you gave that speech?

SK: At the time I wrote that speech, I had no hope. I was a total pessimist. But after the demonstrations started my feelings changed – and I felt OK, I do have a country after all. And now I am feeling very optimistic, because in these demonstrations all the different classes of people are coming together. There is no homophobia or sexism; all rights groups are clinging together. It’s the first time I’ve seen this in Turkey. Before I always felt alone – I never felt that I had a country. I realise now that I can take a deep breath; it feels very modern, very democratic and very exciting. It’s a time to make things new.

From the West Turkey is often seen as a very exotic place, and viewed from a very clichéd Orientalist viewpoint. Of course the reality is very diverse. For example, 50% of the literature sold in Turkey is translated, and that’s across all genres. We have a very vibrant, diverse literary culture. But when I go outside of Turkey all I am asked about is political issues, women’s issues, Islam …

The Conference was very useful, it’s so important to talk together and to meet new writers. The student audience was very focused, asking probing and important questions. We felt very connected to each other.

EWWC: At the Edinburgh conference event last August, Ahdaf Soueif, in her keynote address on literature and current affairs, said: “In Egypt, in the decade of slow, simmering discontent before the revolution, novelists produced texts of critique, dystopia, of nightmare. Now, we all seem to have given up – for the moment – on fiction.”  Can you talk a little about how writers in Turkey are reacting and responding to the current unrest?

SK: In the 1950s in Turkey there was a very strong political, polemical strand to literature – not just novelists but from writers across the board. But now writers know to use allegory and metaphor; they know that if you make things directly political the literature will be flat. Sometimes, I know, a country needs to hear its reality from its writers. Right now in Turkey there are some books being published following swiftly in the wake of the demonstrations. They are interesting, sociologically- based texts – but these are the grapes; in the next five years we will be able to drink our wine.

EWWC: Do you feel there is such thing as a community of writers in Turkey?

SK: In Turkey there are lots of opportunities to talk to other writers – we have a lot of projects together and there are lots of conferences. So much so that it can sometimes be difficult to find an audience! Every weekend people have so many speeches and events to choose from, particularly in terms of commercial literature – people always want to talk to bestselling writers.

Literature is such an important vehicle with which to talk about sociology, history, and so on. Since this year’s demonstrations began, people’s confidence in themselves to speak and express themselves has increased – the atmosphere of Turkey has completely changed. When they’re speaking publicly people are less cynical and less prudent even, than before. And there is always a lot of humour.

EWWC: If there was a writers’ conference in 50 years time, what questions do you think it would address?

SK: Literature is changing. Some forms of literature are going to die. In some places like France for example, nobody wants to read short stories any more, it’s difficult to get them published. In Germany, it’s the same with poetry. Maybe in the next 50 years – when I’m a very old lady – I would make a case for short stories being very big art. I have written a play recently and found it to be a very difficult form – you only have dialogue and the stage and lighting directions at your disposal. The novel on the other hand is a very elastic form. I like the novel.

EWWC: If you had to choose one or two writers from the Turkish canon to recommend, who would that be?

SK: To choose just two is very difficult, but I can say the most important writers for me from the canon of Turkish Literature are Sevim Burak and Bilge Karasu.

Thank you Sema!

To buy tickets for The Novel: Tenacious as a Cockroach? EWWC event on 17^th August at Edinburgh International Book Festival, with Sema Kaygusuz, Hari Kunzru and China Miéville, click here.

Panos Karnezis and Sema Kaygusuz. Photo by Emin Menguarslan

Writers Opened up New Windows in İzmir

The İzmir leg of Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference held at Yaşar University was quite an inspirational event for the participants: writers from UK, İstanbul and İzmir, academicians, translators, students, professional readers ( as one member of the audience named herself), international guests. And of course literature was in the spotlight for two days as introduced by the Acting Chair and academician Trevor Hope,  during his opening speech. We as the audience were lucky enough to hear a number of diverse voices coming through the open windows – some which we recently discovered and some we did not even existed beforehand.

Literature in Translation, chaired by academician Jeffrey Hibbert, warmed up the stage for upcoming discussions.

Writer and translator Murat Uyurkulak mentioned the indifference of the “West” for the “East” comparing the the current  level of 3 % translated books with the previous 20 % in the 1950′s. Translation helps to cross over the boundaries created by nationalism and history, and the translator brings people closer to each other, he added.

Writer Denise Mina made some bold remarks saying, ‘All writers steal from each other. We are thieves . Therefore we need to support each other as a community of writers. This is especially important for the writers of three dominant languages – Spanish, Chinese and English – to avoid dominating the world and freezing out minority language writers.’

A National Literature? the question was addressed by two keynote speakers: writers Sema Kaygusuz from Turkey and Panos Karnezis from Cyprus / UK in the afternoon session.

First Sema Kaygusuz introduced her viewpoint with a strong tone of criticism on the ideological oppression some states exercise through citizenship in the modern era. She explained why and how all writers are in fact homeless nomads not confined to a single land.  Therefore, literature does not stop at national borders; she is against the social engineering of designing a nation with literature as a vehicle. She ended up with the warning that hidden domestication is the real threat of our times! And as a solution, she proposed that the dignity of the creators of art should be the first priority, then the art itself…

Panos Karnezis set out to discover the common elements of a national literature like homeland, local setting, language, race and literary tradition – each time ending up with more questions then before. How can we define the “nationality” of Kundera, Kafka, Nabokov, Conrad? He ended up with the tale of the Tower of Babel placing translation in a key role: ‘As writers and readers, writing and reading in a multiplicity of languages but being able to understand each other through translations, we are the children of the builders of Babel who want to return home and build the tower that would unite us again. But this time it will not be made out of bricks but something indestructible: words.’

When asked about their interaction with social media; Denise Mina said: ‘Arguments are reduced to adversarial binary discussions on Twitter: a simple Yes or No. Therefore I avoid it’

Şebnem İşigüzel described using Twitter as ‘like opening a window and letting go with a loud scream or a strong wind.’ Inci Aral remarked that too much social sharing affects her literary production negatively. Murat Uyurkulak used to resist Twitter but now embraces it as a source of timely and uncensored news. Sema Kaygusuz said that social media will be a powerful platform for sharing once we learn how to use it effectively.

After keynote speeches followed by two panels discussions, the attentive audience was full of further questions, some of them still lingering in my memory :

-The rise of the novel supported the creation of national communities in history. Is the same thing happening now with globalization or other media (ie movies) taking over this ideological role?

-Are there specific literary forms from your cultural roots or literary tradition affecting your writing?

-The reader is the recreator of art; does that in any sense inhibit what you put on paper?

-Do nations also need narratives to help heal their traumas?

The day ended with a reception just in time to allow for short chats with the writers and for turning over the ideas and images of the day in our minds.

The next day started with a Session for Aspiring Writers, chaired by writer and translator Kerem Işık.

He talked about his own metaphor of writing as gardening, scratching about for something. Writer Şebnem İşigüzel explained her own metaphor of opening up windows in a wall, being able to see through the blindfold. İnci Aral explained her own experience as a construction, first piling up then building. Denise Mina used the metaphor of archeology. Panos Karnezis described writing as more of a technical process and advised novice writers to imitate their favorite writers in the beginning observing “what?”, “how?” After some time you learn to create your own voice’, he said, with a quote from Picasso ‘Bad artists copy, good artists steal.’

In the afternoon session, writer İnci Aral from Turkey and  writer Denise Mina, from Scotland discussed The Future of the Novel.

İnci Aral spoke first, reminding us that the death of the novel has been proclaimed with alarming regularity over the years as the genre moved away from the more traditional novel. However, the novel captures human experience so neatly and brings meaning to its existence, that it can even create a common human memory by expanding individual stories. She spoke about the threat posed to the novel by the market conditions that encourage uniformity, shallowness and visual culture. She concluded with saying, ‘In order to protect its spirit and to win back its lost nobility the novel today must grasp life in all its aspects, foresee all the signs and feel the pain of the times.’

Denise Mina mentioned that the future of novel could be a totally different thing : we even may not call it novel, crime fiction could become cowboy fiction or no artefact like a book may exist anymore. There are a few reasons for this: digital copyrights allowing anybody to change anything you’ve written. She hates this because it disturbs the integrity of the work, even its politics. Therefore, writers need to find other means of owning intellectual property and further discuss the notion of authorship. If these developments go unchecked, working class people will not be able to publish because they won’t be able to make any money. The impression I got from her words is the “Death of the Writer” as opposed to Death of the Novel. As a funny example of copyright issues, she mentioned what happened to her friend: a book purchased on a Kindle disappeared one day due to copyright problems. She also warned that power is being concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people. Because a few giant bestselling books sell a lot but experimental novels sell less; therefore the gulf between these two groups is getting wider and wider. She made a call to writers: ‘We are not individual voices in a void but a chorus , so as a community of writers we have to protect the people coming after us.’

Following a discussion on questions of self and state silencing, activism, the self- consciousness of writer, sources of inspiration, changing stylistic approaches and the impact of visual culture, the day came to an end.

It was again Trevor Hope’s turn to close the conference, saying: “We want to thank you all for sharing with us more of your stories, opening windows in walls we didn’t even realize were standing before us, creating a narrative appetite and feeding our hunger for stories.”

So ended the frenetic pace of these two days full of mind-expanding discussions and inspiring conversations on literature.

Denise Mina, Prof Dr Murat Barkan (Rector) & Leigh Turner (HM Consul-General)

The Future of the Novel

Keynote address given by Inci Aral

First presented at the EWWC Izmir, Turkey

Watch The Inci Aral Turkey Keynote Video

Inci Aral Keynote text: “The Future of the Novel”

In the literary world there seems to be constant fear for the future of the novel and the question of whether it is dying out or not is put with alarming regularity. The novel, which is widely held to have come into existence with the publication of Cervantes’s Don Quixote, flourished and took firm hold in the 18th and 19th centuries. The first worries about ‘the future’ surfaced as the era of Jane Austen, Stendhal and Flaubert drew to a close. In certain circles the fear continued to grow that the genre would die out as it moved away from the more traditional novel. There were those who readily expected the announcement of its funeral, but the novel did not die then and neither is it dying now. Not at all. Instead it lives on, alive and well and is as prolific as ever.

The novel represents the art of discovering human life. It reflects human nature, the soul of its communities and the spirit of life itself. The great novelists created not only works pertinent to their own country but works of global importance by stepping outside the one-sided wholesale language of history and employing their high sense of principle to write epic discourses with about tumultuous periods in world history.

In the last century, developments in psychological and philosophical concepts have been mirrored in the expansion of the boundaries of the art of novel writing. Novelists have written with passion in their attempt to bring meaning to existence, to create – recreate and to quote Kundera, to discover ‘that which the novel alone can discover’. They have attempted to fathom love, the darkness and light of the human heart and the mysteries of the subconscious. With moving stories they have laid out and examined the unjust attitudes of various political regimes that have abused human rights, labour and freedom and which have proved injurious to human dignity. By expanding these tragic stories from an individualistic level to a communal one, from within to without, a common human memory is created. The novel has unparalleled power to change life and to keep fresh the collective memory.

It is harder for a book-loving novelist to imagine the death of the novel than it is to imagine their own demise. Fortunately, there is no need for this. Whilst the world has been striding forwards from the Industrial era towards the modern day the novel has managed to keep its place firmly on the agenda. This is even true during the last one hundred years and our digital age of ever progressing technology. Even today when we find ourselves bombarded by empty and meaningless visual images, we can still take refuge in good novels that contain that special element of the human spirit. If such an influential art form were to be wiped out we would also have to give up hope for other treasures and beautiful creations of humanity.

Whilst the debates surrounding the novel may differ according to the times or their intellectual level the main subjects around which discussion occurs are critical and academic questions, the novel and political ideology, the various movements of the novel and its commercialisation due to technological developments. Academic discussions usually remain limited to within universities. But because the discussions are oriented towards out-dated or currently fashionable issues they can be somewhat artificial and tedious. As for the discussion surrounding literary movements, it has mainly been the domain of philosophers and critics. For years now the various styles and new narrative practices of the novel have been topics of debate. Theories have been cast on the table, and tested. Now the era of the critic is over and modernism, if not abandoned, has at least been declared out-dated. Due to its deficiencies, post-modernism too has become untenable.

These days more is spoken of the future of the novel than of the novel itself. Is this perhaps because now it has more freedom than ever before? Nowadays everything is possible. The novel can reach out to vast new areas thanks to the inventiveness allowed it by its being both an explicit and a practical tool which can be attuned to people and their constantly changing sensibilities. The powers of the novel to push the boundaries artistically or to engage in linguistic experimentation are vast. The author is free to do whatever he or she wishes between the covers of the book. The novel, which has no boundary other than its own narrative and aesthetic style never ceases to search for novelty. If it is to find new fields of existence in an electronic medium and an on-screen format then this will be alongside the existing printed form and will allow it to evolve in a new and altogether different manner.

We cannot deny the fact that most readers today invariably find themselves in front of a screen and that the very practice of reading is declining in importance. It has been confirmed that in developed countries less than half of all adults read novels and the number of readers, especially among the young, is rapidly falling. The situation is no doubt related to changing habits in the use of on-screen technology. The computer screen is used for entertainment, learning, leisure, shopping and self-expression and is now a fundamental part of everyday life. Nevertheless the fact that most readers find themselves in front of a screen does not mean that they will cease to read. The drop-off in reader numbers should be ascribed to the struggle of paper versus screen and the pursuit of convenience. As reading from the screen becomes more widespread the novel may still emerge victorious from the process.

In Turkey five hundred novels are printed on average each year, many of which are first-time novels. In 2012 the number increased to precisely 780 novels. We may be a country with a poor education system and a low literacy level but known authors can attain relatively high circulation. The book shops in Turkey are filled with beautiful books and avid young people. On the internet there are a great many books, literary magazines, websites and lively forum debates concerning the novel. I have heard that very informative narrative-based novels are being written in hypertext in the electronic media. In short, interest in the novel remains very substantial. As the technology of the near future continues to develop and invent itself it will allow novels to be written of such interest and appeal that we cannot yet imagine.

What will the future electronic novel writer be like? A gifted trickster, an insensitive code breaker or a carefully considered emotive writer? That I don’t know. My fear is that depth and content may suffer in the name of technique and that the soul of the novel may be lost. Because at the same time as making our lives easier, technology has become a symbol of intelligence. It changes the way in which we feel, think and see. The world under a technical gloss sterilises all types of imaginative processes and paralyses our own voice. Even more than this, it also plays with our desires. The end result will be that the novel, like it or not, will be forced into a much more confined context than that which it hoped to attain. What is more, the internet has not yet developed a language that is distinctive enough to compete with the art of novel writing. However, it is highly possible that that point will be reached relatively soon.

We must also remember that technological advances do not always give the required results. There was talk that the printed novel would disappear as e-book devices became widespread – but this did not happen. Those marketing the devices tried to assure people that electronic reading was going to be the easiest and most pleasurable form of reading. But attention also fell on the higher than expected cost of such items. And why should we make do with only an electronic object? I can’t see many people giving up on the paper book any time soon – it’s portable, user friendly, safe to use and you can even go to sleep with it in your hand.

In my opinion some of the problems threatening the future of the novel are the market conditions that encourage uniformity and are becoming shallower by the day.

As consumerist society and popular culture try to reinvent themselves as a visual language by way of the novel they succeed only in putting a gloss on trashy novels. Once the language and content of novels is reduced to facility and vulgarity the taste of the readers can be pulled down with it resulting in a seriously negative outcome. As some publishers, for the sake of sales, steer promising novelists towards writing about a cheap kind of spirituality, sex, weak topical subjects and encourage them to write about a corny kind of mysticism they turn the novel into a cheap thrill and as these ‘fast food’ books sells in their millions around the world, novels of real quality sit in their thousands gathering dust on the shelves.

There is no doubt it is not always easy to draw the line between bad and good. Every reader will choose a novel that is on their level. However, aggressive advertising and the pressure of widespread popular culture have a very real effect on the choice of the reader. The writer that does not stand firm against the market will not only suffer but will not be able to stop their works being exploited and pirated on the internet. The fight against piracy of material in Turkey has not made great headway. Whilst it is not so apparent in the big cities, illegally printed books are openly sold in bookshops in Anatolia and novels are downloaded, without permission, from the internet.

At the Edinburgh conference the writer China Miéville suggested that in order to ensure fairness the state should give salaries to writers. For us in Turkey this is but a joke. Whilst there still exists in our country the mentality that censors writers, throws them in prison, opens court cases against the Pen writers’ organisation and considers classics such as ‘Of Mice and Men’ to be damaging, there can be no-one within the state who will protect the rights and fight the corner of the writer.

We are going through a complicated period in which some values are being lost. But, despite everything, the novel and individual psychology continue to retain their significance. Writers are still awarded recognition and respect. There is still enormous interest in creative writing centres and courses. Writing a novel remains to be many people’s greatest dream. We are surrounded by surprising new narratives, constructs and new languages. The world of the novel is still so rich and alluring that it beats the dominating visual image hands down.
At the moment it appears that the importance of the novel’s discourse on its relationship to politics and ideologies has declined considerably. And this at a time when the world’s economic and political problems are at an uncomfortably high level with falling regimes, ever growing uncertainties, bloodshed and natural disasters. Our hopes that this century would turn out for the better are rapidly dwindling. The outlook for the future is hazy. What is humankind and the world waiting for? How will the economic crisis end? Will there be another large-scale war?

In such a situation can the writer remain shut away in their own world, indifferent to events around them? Can they shut their eyes and disassociate themselves from what is going on? The answer is both yes and no. If such is the case, we can say that the political spirit of our times has not sufficiently been reflected in novels. Whilst enjoyment and indifference are being heralded, politics is regarded with contempt and is being further hacked apart by outdated and negative examples.

No matter which oppressive regime is in question; we can never endorse the ‘regimented’ practices that are carried out in the spheres of literature and the arts such as censorship and persecution of writers, attempts made on their lives or their being silenced by exile. We should feel utter contempt for the restrictive prohibitions placed upon writers to prevent them from freely expressing themselves. Politics is to be found everywhere where people exist and to be non-political is also a political stance.

We are witnessing how literature and specifically how the novel is brought under control by various subtle pressures; how certain subjects are desensitised, blunted and made into media-style copy before being accepted. It is a very good thing that there are wonderful world writers of all ages that do not hold back now from subtly and expertly exposing and criticising the latest spurious plan for our happiness. Whilst inclining towards well-founded subjects they continue to make their readers happy and to write fabulous novels.

The years ahead will tell us in a more definite way just how the developments we are currently experiencing will affect writers and the novel. In which direction will thing set off, what will be the principal dynamics and from where will the subject matter be born?

More importantly when will marketing, which adversely affects writers’ insight, vision and the creative process, hit rock bottom? In order to protect its spirit and passion and to win back its lost heritage the novel today must grasp life in all its aspects, intuit all the signs and feel the pain of the times. Otherwise, as humankind’s downward spiral increases in velocity the novel too will draw its last breath.

Translated by Caroline Stockford

Below is text of the keynote speech given by Inci Aral in Turkish:

ROMANIN GELECEĞİ

Edebiyat dünyasında romanın geleceği için sürekli kaygılar beslenir ve sık sık
ölmekte olup olmadığı sorgulanır. Cervantes’in Don Kişot’u ile doğduğu kabul edilen roman,
18. ve 19. yüzyıl boyunca serpilip yerini sağlamlaştırdı. İlk ‘gelecek’ tartışmaları ise Jane
Austen, Stendhal ve Flaubert gibi yazarların dönemi kapandığında başladı. Geleneksel
romandan uzaklaşıldıkça türün biteceği korkusu -kimi çevrelerde- artarak sürmüştür.
Cenazeyi kaldırmak için bekleyenler oldu hep ama roman bir türlü ölmedi, ölmüyor. Dipdiri,
son derece doğurgan bir biçimde yaşamakta.

Roman insan hayatının keşfedilmesi sanatıdır. İnsan hallerini, hayatın ve toplumların
ruhunu yansıtır. Büyük romancılar dünyanın altüst oluş dönemlerini tarihin taraflı, toptancı
dilinin dışında, destansı bir söylem ve yüksek yazarlık vicdanıyla dile getirmişler hem yerel,
hem evrensel değerde eserler yaratmışlardır.

Geçtiğimiz yüzyılda ruhbilimsel ve felsefi kavrayışlarla birlikte roman sanatının
sınırları da genişledi. Romancılar varoluşa anlam katmak, eğlenmek- eğlendirmek, ve
Kundera’nın deyişiyle; “ancak bir romanın keşfedebileceği şeyi keşfetmek için,” tutkuyla
yazdılar. Aşkı, insan yüreğinin karanlık ve aydınlığını, bilinçaltının gizlerini çözmeye,
anlamaya çalıştılar. Farklı siyasi rejimlerin insan hak, emek ve özgürlüklerini kısıtlayan,
insan onurunu zedeleyen adaletsiz tutumlarını etkili hikayelerle sergileyip sorguladılar. Bu
trajik hikayeler bireyselden toplumsala, içten dışa doğru genişleyerek ortak insanlık belleğini
oluşturur. Toplumsal belleği diri tutmada ve hayatı değiştirmede roman benzersiz bir güce
sahiptir.

Roman sanatının sonunu hayal etmek sıkı roman okuru bir romancı için kendi
sonunu hayal etmekten daha zor. Neyse ki buna gerek yok. Dünya, sanayi devriminden
bu yana ve özellikle son yüzyılda, hızla gelişen teknolojiyle dijital çağa yürürken roman
gündemde kalmayı başarıyor. Bugün bile insani öze sahip iyi romanlar, içi boş bir görsel
imaj bombardımanı altında bunalan günümüz insanının sığınağıdır. Eğer bu kadar etkili bir
sanat yok olacaksa başka insani zenginlik ve güzelliklerden de umut kesmek gerekir.

Romanla ilgili tartışmalar zamana, zemine göre farklılık gösterse de genelde
eleştiri ve akademik sorunlar, roman ve siyasi ideoloji, çeşitli akımlar, gelişen teknolojiyle
ticarileşme gibi konularda yoğunlaşır. Günün akademik tartışmaları genelde üniversitelerle
sınırlıdır. Ama bunların ilgileri ya eski ya da moda olanlara yöneldiğinden yapay ve
sıkıcıdırlar. Akımlar ise daha çok felsefeci ve eleştirmenlerin tartıştığı konular oldu. Yıllar
yılı, romanın farklı biçem ve yeni anlatı yöntemleri üzerine tartışıldı. Teoriler ortaya atıldı,
denendi. Artık eleştirmenlerin çağı kapandı, modernlik ise terk edilmiş olmasa da eskimiş
kabul ediliyor. Post modernizm ise açıkları yüzünden fazla savunulamıyor.

Bugün kendisinden çok geleceği tartışılıyor romanın. Şimdiye kadar hiç olmadığı
kadar özgür olduğu için mi acaba? Artık her şey mümkün. İnsan ve hayat üzerinden değişen
anlayışlara uyum sağlama yeti ve olanakları yaratıcılığa son derece açık ve elverişli olan
roman çok geniş alanlara uzanabiliyor. Bir romanın anlatabilecekleri kadar artistik arayış
ve dilsel deneme yolları da sonsuz. Kitabın iki kapağı arasında yazar istediğini yapabiliyor.
Kendi anlatı ve biçim estetiğinin dışında sınırı olmayan roman yenilikler aramaktan hiç
vazgeçmiyor. Eğer elektronik ortamda ve ekranlarda farklı yaşam alanları bulacaksa bu da
kağıt baskının yanında, yeni ve farklı bir gelişme olarak yaşanacaktır.

Bugünün okurunun çoğunlukla ekran başında olduğu ve okuma eyleminin önemini
kaybettiği gerçeğini yadsıyamayız. Gelişmiş ülkelerde yetişkinlerin yarısından daha azının
roman okuduğu ve okuma oranının özellikle gençler arasında hızla düştüğü saptanmış.
Durum ekran önünde değişen alışkanlıklara bağlanıyor. Ancak artık eğlenmek, öğrenmek,
vakit geçirmek, alışveriş gibi günlük faaliyetler ve kendini ifade için, bilgisayar ekranı
yaşamın temel parçası. Yine de okurun çoğunlukla ekran başında olması artık okumayacağı
anlamına gelmez. Okur sayısının düşüşünü kağıt ve ekranın mücadelesi olarak görmek ve
kolaylık arayışına yormak gerekir. Ekrandan okuma yaygınlaştığında roman bu süreçten de
galip çıkabilir.

Türkiye’de de her yıl, çoğu ilk roman olmak üzere ortalama beş yüzün üstünde
roman yayımlanıyor. 2012 de sayı yükselmiş, tam 780 roman basılmış. Eğitim sistemi çok
kötü, okuma oranı düşük bir ülkeyiz ama tanınmış romancılar yüksek sayılacak tirajlara
ulaşabiliyorlar. Kitapçı dükkanları güzel kitaplarla ve ilgili gençlerle dolu. İnternette bir çok
kitap ve edebiyat dergisi, sitesi, romanlar üzerine yoğun tartışmalar var. Elektronik ortamda
çok anlatıcılı, çok anlatılı, hipermetin formunda romanlar yazılmakta olduğunu duydum.
Kısacası romana ilgi çok yoğun. Yakın gelecekte teknoloji kendine uygun buluşlarla şu an
hayal edemediğimiz olağanüstü çekici ve ilginç romanlar yazılmasına olanak sağlayabilir.

Geleceğin elektronik romancısı nasıl biri olacak bilemiyorum. Yetenekli bir oyunbaz
mı, duygusuz bir şifre çözücü mü, hesaplı bir duygusal mı? Korkum, teknik uğruna
derinlik ve içeriğin zarar görmesi, romanın ruhunu yitirmesi. Çünkü teknoloji hayatımızı
kolaylaştırırken aynı zamanda aklın simgesi haline geliyor. Hissetme, düşünme, görme
biçimimizi değiştiriyor. Teknikle cilalanmış dünya her türlü tahayyülü kısırlaştırıp dilimizi
felce uğratıyor, dahası arzularımızla oynuyor. Sonuçta ister istemez romanı da ulaşmaya
çalıştığından daha sınırlı bir içeriğe zorlayacaktır. Ayrıca internet henüz roman sanatıyla
rekabete girecek ölçüde özgün bir dil oluşturamadı. Yakın zamanda o noktaya ulaşması da
kolay değil.

Tekno gelişmelerin her zaman beklenen sonuçları vermediğini de unutmamalıyız. E-
kitap cihazlarının yaygınlaşması ile basılı romanların ortadan kalkacağı söylentisi boş çıktı.
Satıcılar elektronik okumanın en kolay ve zevkli okuma olduğuna insanları inandırmaya
çalıştılar ama aşılmış olduğu ileri sürülen değerler üzerine düşünmeye de ittiler. Neden
yalnızca elektronik bir nesneyle yetinmek zorunda olalım ki? Pek çok insan, kolayca taşınan,
birlikte uyunabilen, kullanışlı, sağlıklı, kağıt kitaptan yakın zamanda vazgeçmeyecek sanırım.

Bence romanın geleceğini tehdit eden sorunlardan biri de sığlaşan ve bir örnekliği
özendiren piyasa koşulları. Tüketim toplumu ve popüler kültürün roman üzerinden kendini
görsel bir dil olarak yeniden servis etmeye çalışması çer-çöp romanları parlatıyor. Roman
dili ve içeriğinin kolaylık ve basitliğe indirgenmesi zaman içinde okur beğenisinin aşağı
çekilmesine neden olacak ciddi bir olumsuzluk. Yetenekli bir romancıyı satış uğruna ucuz
bir gizemciliğe, bayat bir mistitizm, seks ve kof moda konulara yönlendiren kimi yayıncılar
yüzünden roman ucuz bir eğlenceliğe dönüşüyor ve bu ‘çabuk çorba’ kitaplar tüm dünyada
milyonlarca satarken nitelikli romanların bir-kaç bin kopyası raflarda tozlanıyor.

Kuşkusuz iyi kötü çizgisini çekmek her zaman kolay olmaz. Her okur düzeyine uygun
romanı okur. Ama saldırgan reklamların ve yaygın popüler kültürün baskısı okurun seçimini
çok etkiliyor. Piyasaya ödün vermeyen romancı ise hem mağdur oluyor hem de eserleri
internette bozuntu ve hırsızlıktan korunamıyor. Türkiye’de korsanla mücadelede de fazla
yol alınamadı. Büyük kentlerde daha az görülmekle birlikte Anadolu’daki kitapçılarda açıkça
yasa dışı basılmış kitap satılıyor ve izinsiz internetten roman indiriliyor.

Edinburg’daki toplantıda yazar Çin Mieville, adaleti sağlamak için devletin yazara
maaş bağlamasını önermiş. Bizim için bu ancak bir şaka. Yazarları sansürleyen, hapse atan,
Pen Yazar örgütüne dava açan, “Fareler ve İnsanlar” gibi klasikleşmiş kitapları bile sakıncalı
gören anlayışların var olduğu bir ülkede yazar asla devlet tarafından hakları korunup kollanması gereken biri olamaz.

Karmaşık bir değerler kaybı sürecinden geçiyoruz. Ama roman ve bireysel psikolojiler
her şeye rağmen anlamını koruyor. Yazarlar hala saygı ve itibar görüyor. Yaratıcı yazarlık
okul ve kurslarına ilgi yoğun. Bir roman yazabilmek pek çok kişi için hala en görkemli rüya.
Şaşırtıcı anlatılar, kurgular ve yeni dillerle karşı karşıyayız. Romanın dünyası hala öylesine
zengin ve çekici ki hakim görsellik büsbütün alternatifi olamıyor.

Bu arada romanın siyaset ve ideolojilerle ilişkisi tartışması önemini yitirmiş görünüyor.
Oysa dünyadaki siyasi ve ekonomik sorunlar, çöken rejimler, uzayıp giden belirsizlikler,
dökülen kan ve doğa katliamları rahatsız edici boyutlarda. Bu yüzyılın daha güzel olacağını
dair hayal ve umutlarımız hızla tükeniyor. Gelecek perspektifi ise puslu. İnsanlığı ve dünyayı
bekleyen ne? Ekonomik kriz nasıl bitecek? Yeni bir büyük savaş mı çıkacak?

Böyle bir ortamda romancı kendi alemine kapanıp olup bitene kayıtsız kalabilir mi?
Gözlerini yumup kendini yaşananlardan soyutlayabilir mi? Hem hayır, hem evet ! Öyleyse
yaşadığımız dönemin siyasi ruhunun romanlara gerektiği kadar yansımadığını söyleyebiliriz.
Yalnızca eğlence ve aldırmazlığın pompalandığı yerde siyaset hor görülüyor, eski olumsuz
örnekler üzerinden paramparça ediliyor.

Hangi baskıcı rejim olursa olsun; yazarı, sansür ve sürgünlerle susturmuş, eziyet
etmiş ve canına kastetmiş “güdümlü” sanat ve edebiyat uygulamalarını asla onaylayamayız.
Bir yazarın özgürce yaratmasına gem vuran yasaklara nefret duymalıyız. Ancak insanın
olduğu her yerde siyaset de vardır ve siyaseti olmamak da siyasi bir tutumdur. Piyasanın
hileli sansür yöntemlerini unutmayalım. Edebiyat ve özelde romanın hangi incelikli baskılarla
kontrol altına alındığını, yazarın belli konulara nasıl duyarsızlaştırılıp körleştirildiğini ve
medyatik suretlere dönüştürülüp teslim alındığını görmekteyiz. İyi ki yeni moda yalancı
mutluluk tasarımlarını incelikle, ustalıkla ifşa eden ve eleştirmekten geri durmayan olgun ya
da genç harika dünya yazarları var. Onlar sağlam konulara eğilirken okurlarını mutlu edecek
müthiş romanlar yazmayı sürdürüyorlar.

Yaşanacak gelişmelerin romancıyı ve romanı nasıl etkileyeceği önümüzdeki yıllarda
daha net biçimde belli olacak. Hangi yönelişler içinde yol alınacak, temel dinamikler ne
olacak, konular nerelerden doğacak? Daha önemlisi kavrayışları, bakışı ve yaratma
sürecini kötü etkileyen piyasacılık olgusu ne zaman dibe vuracak? Roman bugün ruhunu
ve arzusunu korumak ve kaybettiği soyluluğu yeniden kazanmak için hayatı tüm yönleriyle
yakalamak, işaretleri sezmek, zamanın acılarını hissetmek zorunda. Yoksa insanlığın iniş
rotası hızlandıkça romanın soluğu da tükenecektir.