Two writers and a series
“[...]
as writers, as much as we love stories and words, I believe we must
also be interested in silences: the things we cannot talk about easily
in our societies, the marginalized, the disempowered. In that sense,
literature can, and hopefully does, bring the periphery to the centre,
make the invisible a bit more visible, make the unheard a bit more
heard, and empathy and understanding speak louder than demagoguery and
apathy. Stories bring us together. Untold stories and entrenched silences keep us apart.”[1]
These are the words by a Turkish writer, Elif Shafak, whose latest published (2021) book, “The
Island of Lost Trees”, partly addresses the topic shrouded in silence -
the division of Cyprus, which is still alive in memory and painful for
both the Greek and Turkish communities, but is almost non-existent for
the rest of the world - unless someone happens to be in Nicosia and
comes across the barbed wire and cement barrels dividing the city...
This
is the second book by this author that I have read, the first, "The
Bastard of Istanbul", mentions another such theme: the deportation and
slaughter of Armenians, unpopular in Turkey, also shrouded in silence
there. Because this topic was referred to as genocide by one of the
characters in the novel, the author of the book was put on trial for
insulting "Turkishness" and was facing 3 years in prison. The charges
were finally dropped, but fearing further persecution, Shafak decided to
emigrate to London.
As we can see, one needs to have the courage to speak or write about topics shrouded in silence...
But what a coincidence, that she writes on the importance of silence and we
have Engin, who decided that “silence” was the right title for his
first book!
Once
I read about Shafak, her books and her opinions, I started thinking
whether she and Engin have anything else in common, being compatriots
and, one might say, fellow writers. Of course, we can’t compare their
writing careers. Shafak is an acclaimed and award-winning author with
over a dozen books to her credit, translated into many languages, and
her TED talks are watched by thousands. Engin writes only in Turkish and
is read mainly by his fans, friends, acquaintances, including fellow
actors, and journalists who interview him. And, as he says himself,
writing is an additional hobby for him, not his main profession.
Interestingly though, both have the same publishing house; Dogan Kitap
published Engin's "Silence" and "Timeless", but also a number of Shafak
novels. Just recently, I discovered another common point: Paul Auster,
Engin's favorite writer, was also dear to Elif Shafak. As she wrote
after his death, “his fiction was very important in [her] literary
journey.” [2]
Besides
nationality and writing, both Engin and Shafak have other points in
common. Empathy and humanity are important to both. They both talk a lot
about human rights (among others - women's rights) and equality. And
they both deal with topics shrouded in silence.
One
such topic is the persecution of the Yazidis. In her book "10 Minutes
and 38 Seconds in this Strange World" Shafak describes a scene showing a
typical way of discriminating against Yazidis - drawing a circle around
them. “The Yazidis are evil.”, “They are Satan worshipers,” says one of
the characters in the book and explains that if someone does not erase
this circle, the old Yazid will not be able to leave it. At least that's
what was/is believed in eastern Turkey. Now, we learn that Shafak's new
book, "There are rivers in the sky", to be released in August 2024,
also addresses the topic of the Yazidis. One of the book’s character is a
Yazidi girl who, as we read in the summary, “waits to be baptised with
water brought from the holy sit of Lalish in Iraq. The ceremony is
cruelly interrupted, and soon Narin and her grandmother must journey
across war-torn lands in the hope of reaching the sacred valley of their
people.” [3]
We may just guess that what brutally stopped baptism might have been similar to what is shown in the “Kacis” series, shot according to Engin's idea - a story he wrote in 2017.
We may just guess that what brutally stopped baptism might have been similar to what is shown in the “Kacis” series, shot according to Engin's idea - a story he wrote in 2017.
Of
course, neither Engin nor Shafak write stories/scripts or strictly
historical novels, although Shafak relies on many studies, and knowing
Engin and his education, he does some research too, but generally it is
fiction. Nevertheless, this is fiction with real events in the
background, and events that can be said, according to Shafak, to have
been "invisible" and "inaudible".
I
suppose many of us probably didn't know much about the Yazidis before,
and it wasn't until we got to know the synopsis of the series that we
started looking for information about them.
“Kacis”
shows raids, slaughter, human trafficking, violence against women,
training children to become fighters, but the perpetrators of the
slaughter or raids are not precisely defined - we only hear about
"organization", sometimes with the addition of the adjective "radical".
Unlike Shafak, who doesn't beat around the bush, and clearly points to
ISIS as the persecutors [4]. But most likely, Engin was not pointing
the finger at the perpetrators, but at the war itself, which he once
described as "the monster that lies dormant in people." In interviews
about the series, he said that he mostly wanted to show the ugly face of
war and in its background a man struggling with his conscience and
humanity. Only the victims of slaughter and persecution are named in the
series. And here "Kacis" has a chance to make the history of Yazidis
more visible and heard.
We
don't know if that was what Engin had in mind when writing this story,
or what exact event influenced his writing, but we know, from the
interview on the day of the “Zamansiz” book signing, that it is
important for him to raise awareness, to pay attention to certain
issues, and to certain people. And here, even if it was not his main
goal, he drew our attention to what was happening beyond the southern
border and to the fate of a certain persecuted group of people.
"Literature
tries to humanize people who have been dehumanized," wrote Elif Shafak.
I wonder if the creators of "Kacis" had a similar goal?
[1] from TED Talk “If trees could speak” - https://www.ted.com/talks/elif_shafak_if_trees_could_speak?language=pl&subtitle=en
[2] On Paul Auster on Elif Shafak’s IG account - https://www.instagram.com/p/C6bBOjoAKWD/?img_index=1
[3] The quote on the new Elif Shafak’s book is taken from Penguin Books website:
[4] On Yazidi and their persecution on Elif Shafak’s IG account - https://www.instagram.com/p/C53NnPhCy8V/