Aziz Gökdemir's Archive | THTB Index | May 2000

Aziz Gökdemir's Archive

A fisherman brings his catch home. The Malova reservoir, north of Istanbul. (Aziz Gökdemir, late fall 1989.) Hodge-Podge Is there a hyphen in hodge-podge? Is there a hyphen in anal retentive? OK, you've heard of that one. I'm tired of lifting that heavy dictionary (which I have to several times a day for work) so I just WON'T LOOK IT UP. Fatigued, much? Oh yeah. What's called (without a touch of irony) the American lifestyle, especially the hyperkinetic 1990s (and now this as-yet-nameless decade) was not designed for sleeping -- or for that matter, couples with differing sleeping habits. How do people write books late into the night (as they claim they do) and sleep in the same bed with the other partner who has set an alarm for 5:30 a.m. for a morning jog? Do you just separate beds, bedrooms? I mean, really. I wish someone would tell me because I can't figure it out. I think I'm feeling a little more worn out than usual because I got bit by a dog. (Yes, that bites, thank you for your contribution; now go away.) Seriously though, I was mad at myself for walking so close to a dog, mad at the dog, and of course, at the blissfully oblivious owner ("Oh, did he get you?"). I like dogs all right, maybe not as much as cats, but I'm just kind of fed up with the dog fetish in this country and everywhere else and I just wanted to have a copy of that anti-dog-owner article Colman McCarthy published in the Washington Post a few years ago and shove it up the animal's ass and then the both of them up the owner's ass. Give him a furry enema. Dammit, I love animals and I'm not a violent person; I shouldn't harbor such thoughts. OK, gone. Sure felt good, though. Was this some sort of retribution for recently getting into an argument with a fellow news aficionado who thought the number I cited for Armenian victims in the genocide was too high? Nah, the dog walker had no mustache. And he assured me that the beast had had his shots, but after thinking about it for a few days I've now decided to go talk to a doctor. I hope rabies shots have really evolved since my childhood days. So I hear, but I'll see, won't I... The month was not fully devoid of positive events, I should say. A big package arrived from Deutsche Welle (Voice of Germany); it turns out they've decided to publish runner-up stories from their 1997 fiction contest in a new volume and they were nice enough to mail me 10 copies. I was happy to find myself in distinguished company with such people as Berat Günçikan (a prominent journalist; she writes about human rights in Turkey), the prolific Zeynep Aliye, and Feridun Andaç (who has written a number of books including a "Literature in Exile" anthology I bought last year). They say a German edition is coming out (god knows when, though). Perhaps there's some hope for yours truly's future. In that vein, I wrote a bit more this month compared to my usually pathetic output. To flex creative muscles I wrote movie reviews of a Greek film (Earth and Water), and three Turkish films (Journey to the Sun, Harem Suare, and Propaganda) for Aegean Times. And I tracked down two long-lost friends, the Net be praised! So yeah, I wasn't doing too shabbily until the dog bite, it turns out. I should look for an ugly dog picture to post. Speaking of pictures, I'll close this entry with more. First off, let me pay homage to Andrei Tarkovsky's swan song, the 1986 film, Sacrifice. I may have been unconsciously thinking of this scene from the movie when I took the above photograph: Pastoral scenes hide more than they show of course, and I should tell you, the guy in the top picture was one sour, foul-mouthed fisherman, we would later find out. And we just wanted to borrow his boat to get across. Such harsh words for such young kids with cameras... But enough ink about him. Finally, a lost picture of Ananova has surfaced in my files, and about that all I'll say is, It must have been a hell of a back rub! For more pictures of Ananova, see last month's entry; to see her read the news live, go to Ananova.com -- which, it must be pointed out, owns the copyright to everything about her. Like I said last month, just a tribute, this. Enjoy! P.S. There are already Ananova fan sites, and I'm sure this is just the beginning: Ananova at J's World, and Club Ananova. May 2, 2000

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