Think About It 047: ALEXEI SAYLE

Because capitalism has won the battle of competing economic systems, we never really question it's nature.  Now in many ways it's a wonderful thing.  Nanotechnology, reasonably priced socks, and Ed Sheeran.  Wow, it's amazing.  The only problem is it depends on constant endlessly expanding consumption, and that's destroying the planet.  There are efforts to ameliorate defects, windpower, recycling, but as a child of left wing parents I know an empty gesture when I see one!  One has a feeling, born out of experience, that things are better run in Europe than they are here, the roads are better, the trains aren't run on some nightmarish scheme devised by Hieronymous Bosch PLC, food is better and healthier, government at local and state level seems to have more sense and competence.  The reason for this, perhaps more than every other: every nation in Europe lost the war.  Either they were defeated by the Allies like Germany and Italy, or they were defeated and invaded by the Germans.  One way or another this defeat led to them getting a Fresh Start, a catastrophe on such a scale inevitably led to these countries having to reassess all their government structures and ways of doing things, from top to bottom a clean sweep introducing a new mode of things not affected by attitudes unchanged since the nineteenth century.  Those structures and individuals that had brought their countries to defeat were removed and replaced with more efficient ones. Whereas in Britain, because we won, we were left with the sense that the way we did things, ran our factories and cities, managed our Health Service, was with all its snobberies, massive inefficiencies and sheer stupidness, the correct way to do this.  Who won the war in Europe?  Us and Russia, says it all.  If we ever want to experience happiness and prosperity, what we need to do is lose a war to somebody.  And quick.

Interview [Source unspecified]


 

Use the link below to visit the website of British comedian, actor, writer and astute social commentator ALEXEI SAYLE:

 

http://www.alexeisayle.me/

 

 

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Poet of the Month 057: SENNUR SEZER

 

 

SENNUR SEZER

 

THE SONG OF THOSE 
WHO WEAR SECOND-HAND CLOTHES

 

Once you’ve grown weary of purchased dreams
Throw them away and never look back
For I shall be there.
A dream of kissing in the moonlight
A worn-out velvet blouse silver embroidered
A repeated honeymoon with straps of lace
I don’t think I’ll wear it again... I’m so cold.
My dreams
Need warmth.

 

Soup left half-finished
Steak sent back and 'cheating' is not my habit
Your summer clogs have thin heels
What I need is something thick and washable
Something I’m as familiar with as my relatives
And color, color it must surely have
To hide my wear and tear.

 

In your markets you’ve no fabrics for sale
Which conjure up my childhood days when I touch them
Jealously concealing cherished secrets of my youth.

 

The size of your garments were not designed to fit my pains
You know what a fear it is
To grow old and be forsaken.
I have a whole range of them
But they do not coincide with yours
Mine are mostly born of affection.

 

It’s your second-hand garments that are sold in this department
And those are the ones I can afford.
The touch of my hands brings them back to life
Or is it by chance you who are worn out? 

1997

 

Translator unspecified 

 

 

 

Sennur Sezer was born on 12 June 1943 in Eskişehir, a province of western Turkey.  Her first poem was published in 1958 when she was a high school student.  She left school in 1959 to begin working at the Taşkızak shipyard.  Her first book of poetry, Gecekondu [Slum], appeared in 1964.

In 1965 Sezer began working for Varlık Yayınları [Varlik Publications], going on to publish her second book of poetry Yasak [Forbidden] the following year.  In 1967 she married her friend and colleague Adnan Özyalçıner, eventually going on to have two children with him.  In 1977 her third poetry collection, Direnç [The Resistance], was published.  Two years later she published a work for children titled The Story of Reality. 

Until 1982, Sezer worked as a copywriter in various publishing houses and on the staff of several encyclopedias.  She then devoted herself to writing poetry, essays, criticism and a number of film scripts, also finding time to become a founding member of the Turkish Labour Party, supporting women's rights and the right of the poorest Turkish workers to strike in order to gain higher pay and better working conditions.

Sezer, whose work was widely published in various newspapers and magazines, died in Istanbul on 7 October 2015.

 

 

 

 

Use the link below to read more translated poems by Turkish poet SENNUR SEZER:

 

 

http://www.turkishclass.com/forumTitle_39460

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Last updated 13 April 2021

 

 

One Page At A Time (2015) by GRANT SNIDER

Re-posted from the blog Incidental Comics

© 2015 Grant Snider

 

 

Use the links below to visit INCIDENTAL COMICS, the wonderful blog of North American cartoonist GRANT SNIDER, and purchase his many fine books from ABRAMS COMIC ARTS and CHRONICLE BOOKS:

 

 

http://www.incidentalcomics.com/


https://www.abramsbooks.com/contributor/grant-snider_15889594/


https://www.chroniclebooks.com/collections/read-aloud-childrens-books/products/what-color-is-night?_pos=1&_sid=48c1770e7&_ss=r 

 

 

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The Write Advice 121: SE HINTON

A funny thing happened when I was writing Rumble Fish.  The book I was writing changed into a different book.  It had already changed a couple of times: first it was a short story; then it was a novel told from Steve’s point of view (which was too easy).  I decided to use Rusty-James as a narrator, a very hard choice, and had to stay in the character of a very simple person and tell a very complex story.
      At the time, I was reading a bit of mythology, wondering about the need humanity has for mythology.  I thought I was using myths to write a story.  Turned out that I used a story to write a myth.

Author’s Note Rumble Fish (August 2013)


 

Use the link below to visit the website of acclaimed North American novelist SUSAN ELOISE HINTON:

 

www.sehinton.com/

 

 

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