Four days ago was the birthday of one of my favourite writers, Ray Douglas Bradbury. I am grateful that he once honoured the world with his presence and lived the writing profession to the full. I didn't grow up with his stories, but I grew, enjoyed and developed with them.
He was a man with a spirit that was said to be childlike. He would even organise activities such as magic shows for the children around him. He would also share some of the toys he had in abundance in the basement of his house. But the point, of course, is that he did not lose his inner child in the full sense of the word. He never stopped buying and collecting toys, gifts and trinkets. He attributes this to finding inspiration for his stories, keeping his imagination alive and not wanting to lose it. For example, dinosaurs are his favourite and he has many stories about them. It is lovely that he can see all kinds of objects he collects as tools for his stories. And he hasn't had to make any extra effort to do that, he's just continued to be who he is.
I think that is wonderful. When we start to delve deeper into the subjects, we discover how detailed, fascinating or challenging seemingly ordinary things can be. The ability to remain childlike, to not allow our imagination to be dulled, and to incorporate this into many aspects of life is certainly one of them. What's more, this kind of behaviour doesn't mean that we are nonchalant people. There comes a time in life when everyone has to get serious.
Photo by Silvana Mool on Unsplash
Now let's pull the camera back a little and slowly move away from Bradbury. While we're at it, let's take a little trip in time and space.
Bradbury was born in 1920 and died in 2012. He wrote science fiction, fantasy and dystopia all his life. For someone who claimed not to know much about science, he was quite active in the field, and some of his predictions have come true today, albeit in similar ways. His dystopian work Fahrenheit 451 is one of the most famous and previously banned books in the world today. His fantastic narrative stems from the free-spirited attitude we mentioned earlier.
But all this took place in the period just mentioned. History is a complex phenomenon. Depending on your age, the dates mentioned will have different meanings. This, of course, changes according to where you live.
When I look at our country, I think of these dates. Of course, I do not know what happened before, what people felt or thought. Like everyone else, I can only understand by reading or asking family elders about related issues. Nevertheless, when I think, "What kind of artistic development has taken place in my country and to what extent has it been reflected in the public?" I do not find much that is inspiring.
This could be due to a lack of knowledge. Apart from the fact that I personally do not know, there is also the fact that the relevant records are not kept or are no longer available. Nevertheless, as an individual trying to follow in Bradbury's footsteps, I don't see any equivalent to him in my country. Or, if there is one, I haven't heard of him because I can see that the influence of literary works such as science fiction, fantasy or dystopia in my country is perhaps only recently increasing.
Yes, there are many would-be writers in our country, including myself. In fact, unfortunately, this concept, which is becoming more empty rather than more valuable by the day, still does not seem to be replaced.
Today I tried to think about what it is all about.
Since I was talking about our country, I began to think: "If we lack these things, what riches are we experiencing?"
I don't want my articles to be too pessimistic, but I have to say that as a country we are not very skilful, and those who are can't get away with much. In other words, there are reasons such as not being able to do something, but also reasons such as not being able to claim what has been done, not being able to take it to the top and not being able to pave the way for it. These may be the main reasons why we don't have it.
Let's go back to the main question: what do we have? Each era brings a new generation. They choose what they see as unique or what they feel is theirs. This has always been the case and will always be the case. On the other hand, there is also the phenomenon of previous generations adapting to the new era. In other words, we are both giving birth and growing, and on the other hand, we are even dying, losing another generation and those with them.
As a country, our tastes are constantly changing in all areas. It is as if we are giving birth at short intervals, or like adolescents with their heads in the clouds, our threshold of determination is low.
When I look at previous generations in terms of literature, I have the impression that they were very familiar with the poetry of local writers. It was as if they had a few poems in their pockets for emergencies, but no one found them extraordinary. Looking at the present, everyone is very forgetful, everything is recorded, memories are empty. The strange thing is that we don't like or find it effective to analyse the records. What is poetry in this way of thinking? We can only remember a few aphorisms.
Over time, the subjects on which we need to challenge our memory have become nothing more than memorising the examples of questions that will appear in the exams, or the obligatory formulae that go with them. Rumours have been digitised, as have writings. Moments began to be recorded, archives that were never looked at were filled to overflowing. Forgetfulness began because our muscles became soft.
It may seem that I can't find the answer to my question because I still seem to be talking about what we don't have rather than what we have. But the main thing we had was an emptiness, a void itself. Now let's concentrate on something more concrete.
It is about art, branches of art. As I said, we don't write in certain genres as if we deny them or don't take them seriously as a society. What I'm talking about is imaginative content in general, which is why Bradbury was always ahead. He never ran out of fuel in his head, whereas we have very little.
We consume what exists. We even consume what is most like us. Consuming what is different seems to be a controversial issue. In other words, approaching, adopting or at least absorbing the new seems to be a sham. Our traditional perspective prevails over innovation. We hesitate, we cannot internalise it, we are afraid, we avoid it. We act in stereotypes. "We won't do this! We don't do that!"
We are led and guided by monotonous sentences and reason, and resistance to the new can at some point infect us, even those who defend the new. But we should continue to protect and defend the point of view we love, regardless of age, place or time. "I love writing this! I will continue to read that!"
Unfortunately, our drama-loving country is in love with productions with dramatised themes. If we take a step back and look, we can see this clearly. TV series, books, songs... All the works that most urgently need to be popular include these. Because of our social closeness, it is easy to internalise and consume what is not new, but similar to what we have already experienced.
The main reasons for the failure of those art forms that we seem to frown upon and scoff at, like rock and metal music, opera and ballet, fantasy series and films, horror novels, and so on, are the same reasons I mentioned earlier, and even these are probably only some of the reasons. This is what we have, and it is the existence of this that keeps us down. Revolutionism has been weakened.
The strange thing is that we actually have a more active imagination than we think, deep desires and an inquisitive nature that would burst out if we were to dig beneath it, but we are very badly repressed. This is because of our family, our traditions, our circle of friends, our society or our cultural and political impositions.
We should not forget how important individual effort is to getting ahead, and we should fight to keep it alive, like Bradbury. Perhaps the toys he collected reminded him that he could succeed in any time, age or place if he kept his spirit. We need to find that in ourselves. Sometimes we will grin in spite of everything and everyone. We will flatter and pat each other on the back in small groups. We will memorise poems and exercise our brain muscles by trying to disconnect from the digital. We will talk about the stars, dream of places we cannot go. We'll try to pronounce the names of dinosaurs now and then, and we'll watch the smarter kids outsmart us at it, repeating to ourselves that hope isn't over yet.
An artist cannot be ordinary. He is rebellious, different, critical, thought-provoking. We must repeat this with our favourite or well-known works. It is necessary so that when tomorrow comes, these generations will know what to stand on. For me, Bradbury is a pillar, a foundation that I can't bring myself to build on, but he continued his art until his death, proud that he was able to create it. To live with our art, to be proud of what we have done, is the best gift, the best teaching, the best toy we can give to tomorrow.
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