Francophiles, Turkophobes.... and a Kipling poem

The Elephant (second-hand English) bookshop has now at last reopened in its more central location in Shishman St, Sofia. The books are more accessible – although still a few piled high. I emerged last week clutching 5 –one of which was Julian Barnes’ collection of essays on France - Nothing to Declare. He really is a superb writer!

You don't read Barnes to be transported into imaginary realms, or to encounter the struggle and pathos of humanity. You read him, rather, for that superior tone and for his voice; in many ways, his novels are all voice - amused, languorous, insouciant and arch. You read him for his hauteur, his gift of cultivated digression and for his riffs and anecdotes. Above all, you read him as an essayist, one of our best.
Nowadays, any newspaper columnist who can sustain an argument of more than 1,000 words is recognised as an essayist, but the popularity of the column or 'piece' is no more than an example of the cheap popularisation of the essay in a degraded culture. Dr Johnson called the essay an 'irregular, undigested piece'. That is right. The column is too regular, too finished; it's an easily digested piece. But the essay, as perfected by Montaigne, Charles Lamb and EB White, strives for literary permanence. It concerns the search for a personal voice, of the kind that animates the most successful offerings in Barnes's new book of essays about France.
Barnes first visited France in the summer of 1959. He was 13, on holiday with his parents, and was enchanted; he has been returning, at irregular intervals, ever since. France, it seems, is the idealised Other against which he measures all other countries, including England, and finds them, by contrast, a perplexing disappointment. He accepts many of the stereotypes about the French: that they are Cassanovan in sex and Machiavellian in politics; that they are 'relaxed about pleasure' and treat the arts 'as central to life, rather than some add-on, like a set of alloy wheels'.

Here you can actually read the opening essay - and judge for yourself.

Books about Turkey never fail to fascinate me and Tim Kelsey’s Dervish – travels to modern Turkey (1996)  was another book in my package. Most books I’ve read on the country are balanced if not positive – but

in vain will the reader search for passages on the splendors of ancient Ephesus, Cappadocia's fairytale landscape, pristine Mediterranean beaches, colorful bazaars or amusing anecdotes about friendly locals. Instead the author of “Dervish” paints an almost dystopian portrait of a country that, just a decade-and-a-half ago, appeared so full of contradictions that social, political and economic meltdown lay just around the corner.

It is, however, a gripping read - focusing on the marginal underside of Turkey - with chapters on transvestites and the minorities struggling for survival in the troubled south-east. It's all a good reminder of how far Turkey has travelled in the past decade. For those wanting a more rounded picture of the country, Hugh Pope recommends his best 5 reads on Turkey

The Sofia-Bucharest drive is one of the most civilised I know – and I know my central European roads! In 1991 I was based in Copenhagen and drove a lot to and from places such as Gdansk (when the first election campaign was underway); Berlin (in which I had an employer in 1992); Prague (where I worked and lived from 1991-93); Budapest (Miskolc and Nyíregyháza 1993-95); Bratislava (and Nitra 1996); and Bucharest.

Friday gave a superb, relaxed drive (despite the heavy snow of the previous days) – initially over the Balkans – arriving Bucharest at 4pm. And Saturday’s visit to the Humanitas and Carterescu bookshops bagged another 5 books – including a lovely poetry compendium (with CD) The Great Modern Poets ed by Michael Schmidt which contained this amazing 1917 critique of ruling elites written by a man usually associated with Victorian Imperialism – Rudolph Kipling

Our dead shall not return to us while Day and Night divide--
  Never while the bars of sunset hold.
But the idle-minded overlings who quibbled while they died,
  Shall they thrust for high employments as of old?

Shall we only threaten and be angry for an hour:
  When the storm is ended shall we find
How softly but how swiftly they have sidled back to power
  By the favour and contrivance of their kind?

Even while they soothe us, while they promise large amends,
  Even while they make a show of fear,
Do they call upon their debtors,  and  take  counsel  with  their
     friends,
  To conform and re-establish each career?
                         
Their lives cannot repay us--their death could not undo--
  The shame that they have laid upon our race.
But the slothfulness that wasted and the arrogance that slew,
  Shell we leave it unabated in its place?

I'm surprised this poem has not been dogging Tony Bliar as he is followed around by those wanting to have him prosecuted for war crimes for the death of so many people in the Iraq invasion and occupation. The poem was written in the aftermath of the British invasion a hundred years ago of...Mesopotamia

True Confessions

The weather has finally broken here in the mountains. At 09.00 it is still gloomy with mist encircling the house and the neighbours’ houses just eerie blots. Even the cat chooses to lie abed! A time for surfing, thinking and writing….So, for once, let me just follow the drift of the surfing (amidst my soup-making – bean, carrot, leek and celery!).

First I updated, as I usually do, some recent blogs – not least adding to my recent blog on caricaturists this magnificent record of every single Honore Daumier print and painting he ever did 

The superb blog of a couple who are spending two weeks in about 50 countries and who have, during October, been in Scandinavia was then accessed. Great on places and sensual experiences….

And then one of my favourite blogs - glamour granny travels - whose author travels serendipitously; was until recently based in Turkey (see below); and landed yesterday (par hazard naturellement) in Genoa.

An historical overview of FBI Director relations with American Presidents over the past 50 years really brought home again  how tenuous that country’s claim to democracy really is – with parallels with that ofcontemporary Russia 

An article about Turkish PM Erdogan reminded me of my love of that country – borne first of a memorable week-long official visit I made to Istanbul in 1984 or so  (courtesy of OECD) and then of several later trips, not least a motor tour from Bucharest in summer 2002 of the Aegean. For my first trip, I arrived late at night at Pera Pelas Hotel - made famous by both Ataturk (whose room is still kept as a museum) and by Agatha Christie! And woke early in the morning to the specific smells and noises of the Orient (sadly the smells seem to have vanished in later visits). I was there –with about a score of other European municipal leaders – to share our experience of governing metropoles with the Turks. Of course my experience of a declining West of Scotland economy (of just over 2 million people) seemed to have little of relevance to a chaotic and expanding metropolis of 10 million people – but who would give up the opportunity, for example, of being ferried around the Bosphorus in the Istanbul Mayor’s personal boat?  And our institutional arrangements were interesting – with one powerful Region having 19 autonomous Districts and four Health Boards. I quickly became friendly with a Turkish journalist who had a personal network with the (still heavily repressed) democratic Turkish opposition. For a week I led a double life – during the day being part of the official power system; in the evening meeting dissidents of various sorts. 

Because of her contacts and support, Gul was treated like a princess in these latter places. Inevitably I fell in love with her – the concoction of context and high-boned beauty was just too heady. On one memorable evening she took me in a taxi across the great bridge into the Asian side for a romantic dinner in a famous fish restaurant – where we pledged allegiance after only a few platonic kisses. 

Sadly we lost contact – once in Prague a decade later I had a mysterious message which promised a reunion in that romantic city – but it never happened. So there, dear reader, you have a rare confession…..heavens…where will this lead??

Like many Brits, I have contemplated living in Turkey – particularly Istanbul – I find them the most incredibly friendly people. And hope next year to make another long, car trip there to explore the many exotic parts of the country which Glamorous Granny writes (and photos) so well. 

For those wanting more depth analyses, Perry Anderson’s seminal essay still remains one of the best, serious  introductions  - one of several great pieces he has done on modern states. Those wanting more reading material on the country could look at this list. And also this one. A decade ago, I came across both the interwar poems of Nazim Hikmet and the writings of Orhan Pamuk about which I was initially enthusiastic but have latterly become ambivalent. 

Finally a good update on the Scottish situation on which I gave a brief overview of the past few decades earlier this year.