The sun is rising on the plains of Southwest Texas. The old sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), who finds the recently increased crime rate in the world quite ungraspable, narrates the good old days when sheriffs would not have to carry even a gun. The sun is rising on the village, where he has been the sheriff since his twenties. As sheriff Bell counts down to retirement, he philosophies his job. Coen Brothers’ ‘No Country For Old Men’ – winner of 4 academy awards – starts with this lyric nostalgia. Ed Tom Bell, apparently, is not a man of his age. He is an old style western character from the films of Sam Peckinbach, John Ford, or Sergio Leone, where the good and the bad, the criminal and the innocent are two separate entities whose borders are definable. However, ‘No Country For Old Men’ positions itself in the misty quarters of the postmodern 80ies, when people do not kill any more for a bunch of dollars but just for fun. Or, like Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), live the matter of life and death to a toss up. Anton Chigurh, one of the main characters of the film, is a total anti-hero with his funny haircut; cool, empty, and frightening face, and an effective air pressure gun he carries with himself. Chigurh does not need a reason to kill – he kills the ones he has to, and tosses up for the ones he cannot decide. We first see Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), another main character, a veteran soldier fought in Vietnam, hunting deer in the desert. He is younger than Sheriff Bell but older than Chigurh. Running after his hunt, Moss falls into the afterfight of a drug deal. He discovers a few dead bodies, a truck full of heroine, and the money – 2 million dollars – after a quick search. As Moss evolves from hunting to gathering, he remains unaware of the easy-money troubles.
Postmodern Western Coen brothers, tracing the three characters on a multi-layered story, tell a postmodern tale of “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”. However, in the picture by the Coen Bros., we do not find the sort of good, bad, and ugly that we see in Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western classique. Here we have a bad, who is a principled bloodspiller; an ugly, who messes up his life with a trace for easy money but who has a conscience; a good, who does not care. In this film, Coen Bros., whose filmography is a blend of film noir and comedy, set out to re-produce, re-think, and re-locate the Western. To the common knowledge, Coen Brothers love crime stories. One should not forget, though, that a Coen movie is always-and-already authentic – regardless of its content, it is told in a particular Coen-style language. What makes a movie a Coen movie? First come the characters – meticulously worked from tip to toe. Coen characters are hardly outstanding or unusual; quite the contrary, they are ordinary characters, usually inept, and even clumsy. Talented as they are to create exciting characters, Coen Brothers are equally successful in constructing atmosphere. It is possible to claim that the Coen Bros. cinema is atmospheric above all. ‘Barton Fink’ successfully conveys the depths of human psychology, while ‘Fargo’ effectively depicts the small-scale life of a North American village, and ‘The Hudsucker Proxy’ extraordinarily renders a Kafkaesque atmosphere. In this sense, ‘No Country For Old Men’ conveys an authentic atmosphere and successfully created characters, though not so satisfyingly compared to other movies by Coens. Highly charged with a high tension from the first moment till the last, the film does not bring a Hollywood ending but keeps the tension at stake. Whether the reason behind is a Brecthian critic of the catharsis, or a favouring of shock end, remains a mystery. Unfortunately, the most powerful weapon of ‘No Country For Old Men’, which tries to reposition the masculine world of the wild west, turns out to be its sole point of vulnerability – the film cannot establish a balanced narrative. Nostalgic and local, Sheriff Bell is portrayed as an old man who is born into a wrong age of which he does not want to be a part. Psychopathic and austere murderer Chigurgh stands as a metaphor for the coming age that is defined as cold and meaningless. Moss, on the other hand, is a hyphenated character who cannot belong neither to the good old days nor to the coming age. His sole aim is an escapist gesture – to take the money and live a happy life at home. The film cannot escape a narcissistic failure that is triggered by the Chigurh character, which is stunningly enacted by Javier Bardem. Therefore, the story is not developed satisfactorily and the audience is left alone to float in the cat-and-mouse sort of plot. As it is always the case with the battles of old and new, the lost generation turns out to be the one who suffers. Moss dies; Bell retires, whereas Chigurh walks his way down the road. A new era begins, and the realms of this new era is ‘No Country For Old Men’.
The works of the well-known Turkish Cypriot poet and writer Mehmet Yaşın will be reprinted by Everest Publications. Mehmet Yaşın, who spends his time in England, Turkey and Cyprus, answered our questions about literature, identity and Cyprus.
Despite the fact that you were born and raised in Cyprus, it is known that England and Turkey were more crucial determinants in your development as a poet and a writer. You say that Cyprus was not directly influential in your development as an artist. What is the exact relationship between the novelist and poet Mehmet Yaşın and Cyprus? Cyprus is more of an inspiration for me... It is not a place where I can professionally reproduce myself as a writer. My publishers have always been located in Istanbul. Therefore you cannot escape from the literary circle there which directly effects and transforms your lifestyle and perspective. You find yourself observing the island not only as an insider but also as an outsider, a foreigner. This intensifies the multilocality that is always already part and parcel of being a Turkish Cypriot. You begin to evaluate your birthplace in the light of the literary concerns in many different countries. Because it is a small place, Cyprus does not offer the professionally equipped, adequate level of literary and artistic institutionalization. Turkey and England offer more for authorship as an institutional vocation. Yet Cyprus is important in being a source, a reference point. Poetry and literature are deeply related to childhood. One's vital concerns, resources of language and culture, and inspiration come from one's birthplace. Cyprus and childhood are therefore significant inspirational materials for me. There are no professional, contract-based publishers, distributors, literature magazines and centres, research and critique institutions, literary agents in Cyprus.
Can you elaborate on observing Cyprus both as an insider and as an outsider? I believe this holds for every professional writers and artists born in Cyprus. It is of course saddening to see the closed and isolated lives of the Turkish Cypriots in the last fifty years. This effects literature and art very negatively. Life in Cyprus is completely centered around the subject of Cyprus problem which is a very limited perspective that cannot nurture literature and art. A poem or a novel calls forth a type of reading with philosophical and aesthetic concerns that question the universal, deep and complex dimensions of human existence. This matter of "reading" is very important. Literature, with the engagement of its readers, realizes itself and attains a reproductive capacity. I analyzed the theoretical consequences of the under-institutionalized, peripheral, and minor nature of the Turkish Cypriot literature in my book “The Anthology of the Turkish Cypriot Poetry”. In “Collected Essays”, there are analyses on the meaning of the insider-perspective about the Turkish Cypriot literature which sees it as a unique literary development and the outsider-perspective which perceives it as a sub-category of the wider Turkish literature.
FATHERHOOD COMES FIRST Since you mentioned a couple of your books, let’s talk about the portrait of Mehmet Yaşın as a writer? I have a small daughter. If you ask me who I am, I will probably define myself not with respect to the books I wrote, but with respect to my role as a father. But of course people get to know me as a writer. This is an identity independent from the one you have in your private life. Most of the time, this identity has a life of its own, independent of the intentions of the writer. The identity as a writer is mostly shaped by the image formed by the public opinion, a process that the writer can never control. How much of this identity is formed by the works of the writer, on the one hand, and how much by the subjective and superficial readings of these works, on the other; this is uncertain. As I said, the issue of reading and readership is of utmost importance. Many of those who know your name know it from the newspapers or from mutual friends. However, if someone wants to talk about the identity of a writer, this must be derived from the works of the writer. His or her literary style, artistic approach, and worldview can easily tell who a writer is. Though a writer changes in time. With every new book, you redefine yourself.
You say that poetry is very much related to childhood. Let's return to past, then... How was your family life, how was your childhood? My mother was a teacher who was very interested in literature. She was a close friend of Ulus Baker's mother Pembe Marmara who was a talented poet. For instance, there is a poem in Marmara’s book dedicated to my mother. She was also the cousin of Taner Baybars, a poet and writer who produced works not only in Turkish but also in English and French. My grandmother was related to the family of Müftü Raci Efendi, the famous divan poet. My father Özker Yaşın was also a poet. He wrote novels, plays, and essays. He was a newspaper owner and a publisher. I met my father’s poet, writer and published friends from Istanbul. We were not a very traditional family and we were not very close to each other. I grew up alone. I was not raised in a crowded house or in an extended family, except for the holiday times. I never showed what I wrote to my parents. I was not encouraged to do so. As I look at it retrospectively, it looks like my being a writer was something inevitable and quite natural.
How did you become a professional poet and writer in this process that developed spontaneously? Before learning how to write and read, I made up stories and sentences that sounded like a poem. Then as I began to read poetry, I was inspired by other poets. My first poem was published in a school magazine at the age of 11. I don’t know how it developed, the poem is created spontaneously. My family probably had an influence on me... When I first shyly handed in a file of my poems to a publisher in Istanbul, I was a 25 year old postgraduate student. Some of my poems were published in several magazines in Turkey. Without thinking of the consequences of publishing a book and how this will change my life and without being prepared for the consequences, I tried to get my first book published so that I could dedicate it to my mother who were to die of cancer soon before the first print. This first book won two poetry awards in Turkey in 1985 and was reprinted in Istanbul. It was well received both in Cyprus and in Turkey. Therefore I half-consciously found myself in the world of literature. I saw my name in newspapers and magazines and it felt like “Mehmet Yaşın” was someone else, different from the person I myself had come to know. Perhaps this process of self-alienation which every poet and writer must go through happened to me earlier and harsher than it was supposed to be...
THE FIRST BOOK THAT CAME AFTER 25 YEARS Everest Publications is now reprinting all of your works. Have these reprinted editions caused you to face the creative process of your past, have they stimulated a self-reflection? Is there anything in the past that you wish you had or had not done? It is really interesting to reflect on the 25 years of poetry and how, why, and in what direction it developed. Of course you view your old poems from a distance and see things that you wouldn't write or you would definitely add if they were written in the present. You also think whether it was better to wait longer before the publication because you face much wider creative potentialities in your works. Nevertheless you hope that the reader will make the connections and unveil those potentialities himself/herself. In this sense, it is fruitful to read my poems in a collected edition. Therefore, the newly printed "Collected Poems" is like a finalized first book. It covers a period of 25 years and almost 200 poems. For the first time it feels like a whole...
You said that life in Cyprus is completely centered around the subject of the Cyprus problem. The TRNC is internationally non-recognized and isolated. How do you think isolation affects the Turkish Cypriots individually? It affects them very deeply, in every sense. There are very few communities, especially in Europe, who have lived such an isolated life. Usually the political, economic, commercial, and administrative deadlocks caused by isolation are emphasized. I believe there is a psychological deadlock which is much more determining. Feeling disconnected from the world, being punished and unwanted, being surrounded by hostilities and developing very unhealthy psychological defence mechanisms in reaction to these hostilities. Individuals perceive themselves through a mirror of unrecognition, unacceptance, and exclusion and this perception makes them either very fragile or very aggressive, or fragility and aggressivity feed each other.
Isolation undoubtedly affects the Turkish Cypriot literature. What can you say about the Turkish Cypriot literature? The Turkish Cypriot literature is under the pressure of a definition of "Cypriot Literature" in Greek monopolized by the Greek Cypriots. Only the Greek Cypriot writers can use the cultural advantages of the European Union membership. Turkish, which is one of the official languages of the 1960 Republic of Cyprus, was not accepted as an official language in the European Union. The Turkish Cypriots unfortunately have not applied to the EU courts to seek their very understandable right in this matter. Any writers association in North Cyprus could have made that application. However, the isolation of North Cyprus leads to the formation of a shallow, isolated mindset in the world of Turkish Cypriot writers... In order for the cooperative bicommunal activities between the Turkish and Greek Cypriot poets and writers to have positive results, the Greek Cypriots need to accept the Turkish Cypriots as equally rightful owners of the island. This cannot be solved with naive brotherhood/sisterhood slogans. If you think that the 3,000 year old Cypriot literature only consists of Greek elements and leave the Turkish and many other elements out of this common history, then the problem is bound to remain unsolved. Therefore the most important issue is the Turkish language... I know from my own experience that whatever I write, the fact that it is written in Turkish and I am related to Cyprus causes disturbance. They think that I subvert the image of Cyprus as a Greek island and the equivalence of Cypriot literature to Greek Cypriot literature.
TURKISH LITERATURE The honorary guest of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair (one of the most important literary activities in the world) is Turkey. Will you participate in this fair? All of my Turkish books published by Everest will be there. There will also be some French, Italian, English, and Letonian translations. I am not sure whether the German translation will be completed by then.
Are you happy to be represented in Frankfurt under the category of Turkish literature? Is the literatary works of Mehmet Yaşın a part of the Turkish Cypriot literature or a part of the Turkish literature? These categories are not mutually exclusive. A writer who was born in Cyprus can simultaneously be part of the Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot, Turkish, European and at times English literature. Moreover I consider Turkish literature to be a "Turkish language" literature. My Turkish Cypriot literary works can therefore be considered as contributions to a wider conception of Turkish literature. There are many strands of literary currents that are rooted in the wider Ottoman-Turkish tradition without belonging to modern Turkey.
Are there new books on the way? In 2007, Everest Publications published five books of mine. This year they will publish some more. Currently most of my time is spent on following the translations of my novels and poems. They will be published, also as poem DVDs, in English, Italian, French, German, Letonian and Russian.
Mehmet Yaşın’s works Born in 1958, Lefkoşa, Mehmet Yaşın lives in Cambridge. Several of his novels have been published in English, Italian, Greek, Hebrew magazines and anthologies. "Soydaşınız Balık Burcu" and "Sınırdışı Saatler" are being currently translated into English and Italian.
Poetry books: Sevgilim Ölü Asker (1984), (1985 Akademi Poem Award/A. Kadir Award); Işık-Merdiven (1986); Pathos (1990); Sözverici Koltuğu (1993); Hayal Tamiri (1998); Don’t Go Back to Kyrenia (2001); Adı Kayıplar Listesinde (2002); Collected Poems / 1977-2002 (2007)...
Essays and reviews: The Anthology of the Turkish Cypriot Poetry (1994); The Anthology of Ancient Cypriot Poetry (1999); Poeturka (1995); Step-Mothertongue - From Nationalism to Multiculturalism: Literatures of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey (2000); Kozmopoetika (2002); Diller ve Kültürler Arası Bir Edebiyat İncelemesi: Kıbrıs Şiiri Antolojisi: MÖ 9. yy. - MS 20. yy. (2005), (2005 Memet Fuat Award); Collected Essays / 1978-2005 (2007)...
The legendary music band R.E.M. is once again ready to speed up our musical journey with their 14th album “Accelerate”. They are returning with their guitars, which they have not used very frequently during their recent albums, and, as the title of the album suggests, they intend to rock and roll at high speed.
R.E.M., one of the most respected rock bands of the world of music, is getting prepared to honour their loyal fans with the release of their 14th studio album “Accelerate”. The band which has gained popularity on a worldwide basis due to its hit singles such as “Loosing My Religion”, “The One I Love”, “Man On The Moon”, “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” released their latest album “Around The Sun”, which was a bit of a disappointment considering their older albums, in 2004. After a three year interval, R.E.M. seems to be returning to its roots and original style. It is told that the album is guitar-dominated and that “Accelerate” will be like “Monster”, even better.
The best of America... The new album consisting of 11 songs will be released on March 31. The first single “Supernatural Superserious" was released last February. The new song can be listened on R.E.M.’s official website. All the songs of “Accelerate” were rehearsed in Dublin and “Supernatural Superserious” clearly shows that R.E.M. returned with the bitterness of its high-volume guitars. With the band’s more experimental musical adventures which started with the album “New Adventures in Hi-Fi" (1996) and continued with “Up” (1998), “Reveal” (2001), and “Around the Sun” (2004), the guitar-oriented rock music was replaced with a softer, low tempo, improvisational songs. Despite the fact that the loyal fans of R.E.M. found something admirable in these experimental attempts, commercially speaking the albums were not successful. “New Adventures In Hi-Fi” sold 994,000, “Up” sold 664,000, “Reveal” sold 415,000 and “Around the Sun” sold only 232,000. The declining figures were disappointing (disappointing, of course, most notably for the record company, since it is a great injustice to measure the achievement of such an album as “Up” in solely commerical terms). No doubt R.E.M.’s true accomplishment was its skillful blend of basic rock instruments like bass guitar, guitar and drums with the poetic lyrics accompanied by a definitive mix of punk, folk and rock music. An exemplary album in this regard was “Out of Time” (1991) which sold 4 million copies. It was no surprise that the famous music magazine “Rolling Stone” simply named R.E.M. as “the best rock and roll band in America”. Similarly omfortable with the grungy guitars of punk, the blues of modern times, and the folk music of a cold city of skyscrapers, the musicianship of R.E.M. was characterized by its radical openness to novelty. Furthermore, their fame did not eradicate their modesty. If R.E.M. can be said to play "alternative" music, then R.E.M. gave the word “alternative” its fullest meaning, depicting it not only with their music but also with their lifestyle. They voiced their concerns regarding a variety of social issues ranging from environmental crisis and animal rights to anti-Bush politics.
The “Golden Age” begins... Founded in Georgia, USA in 1980 by Michael Stipe (vocals), Peter Buck (guitar), Mike Mills (bass guitar) and Bill Berry (drums), R.E.M. quickly became one of the first popular representatives of alternative rock music. The unique guitar technique of Peter Buck and the gloomy voice of Michael Stipe influenced an audience with the first R.E.M. album "Murmur” (1983). Rolling Stone Magazine announced "Murmur" as the "album of the year" the success of which was to be followed by equally popular albums like "Reckoning" (1984), "Fables of the Reconstruction" (1985) and "Life's Rich Pageant" (1986). With the 1986 album, Stipe's vocals became more and more prominent and original. "Life’s Rich Pageant” was the first R.E.M. gold record which also stimulated a renewed interest in the band’s previous albums. In 1987, the fifth studio album "Document" was released and quickly became the most popular R.E.M. album ever. The album contained the hit singles "The One I Love" which rose to number two position in American charts and "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" which introduced R.E.M. to MTV. The 1988 release “Green” epitomized the beginning of the golden age of R.E.M. The first two singles from the album, “Stand” and “Orange Crush”, occupied number one positions in the music charts. The 1991 album “Out of Time” was equally successful in both the UK and the USA.The first single from “Out of Time”, “Losing My Religion” was to become the best known R.E.M. song. Another single from the same album, “Shiny Happy People”, was a popular R.E.M. song as well. In the USA, "Out of Time” sold more than four million copies and became the most successful album of R.E.M. The 1992 album “Automatic For The People” with the hit singles “Everybody Hurts” and “Man On The Moon” was just another major R.E.M. achievement. Then came the 1994 album “Monster”, a true rock album which reached the peak position both in the UK and the USA.
The R.E.M. stance... In 1997 R.E.M. signed a contract with Warner Bros for 80 million dollars; this was the most expensive contract the music industry has ever known. The same year the drummer Billy Berry left the band and the rest of the members decided to carry on as a trio. R.E.M. was founded at a time when the 1970s’ post-punk trend left its place to alternative rock. R.E.M. managed to become a mainstream band without ever compromising its always "alternative" stance. R.E.M.'s invasion of the mainstream music scene meant that an alternative interpretation of the period's musical taste was quite possible. R.E.M. is the only band (with U2, of course) that can claim to be the best rock band. R.E.M. was included in the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" in 2007. The band took its name after the abbreviated form of “Rapid Eye Movement”, which signifies the stage of sleep during which you dream. The magnificent 28 year old career involved 13 great albums with memorable singles. Now their 14th album is getting ready to make music lovers much happier.
