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Herongale (![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} herongale) wrote in ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/community.gif){kind=small} unfunny_fandom, |
Huh. I read the editor's remarks and didn't find them at all condescending (well, except for the bit about the reviewer being crazy at the end... and that was in reply to her comment about wishing she could cut off his hands, a comment she DOES make even though she backtracks quickly... so I think he's a bit entitled to react kind of negatively to that). His explanations were not about Turkish culture, but rather explaining why Christopher Pike made the choices he did in the book he wrote... something that an editor WOULD be qualified to explain, whether or not one agrees with the decisions made by the writer.
Re: Istanbul. The editor points out that this was an editorial and not an authorial mistake.
Re: Arabs. The editor points out that this is a mistake of the POV character. I'm assuming this Sara is an American or something, but gosh... there are tons of Americans who would assume Turkish people are Arabs, and so if that's the character's mistake it is a sensible thing to include. Depending on how entrenched the book is in the perspective of the POV character, this kind of detail is actually a GOOD thing to include, because ignorance in main characters is a nice bit of realism. (That said, perhaps a note at the end of the books explaining where Sara got some major cultural details wrong would be nice).
Having one guy in Turkey wearing a turban is a lot different from having them all do it. Similarly, I don't find it so shocking that in modern Turkey, someone might have a name that is not 100% Turkish, regardless of their cultural heritage. I know Turkey is not like America, where you are pretty much guaranteed to meet up with a mismash of names from all around the world... but it's not some kind of sealed hegemony where everyone everywhere only has approved names that come from an official book.
Anyway.
The editor there is taking a professional tone. What, should he apologize for not being Turkish while attempting to (politely) address her concerns? And personally, I find it convenient that the reviewer claims to be Turkish only after replying to his response. Maybe she is Turkish... I'm inclined to give the benefit of the doubt... but I also am not sensing any kind of level of real expertise on her part, just the kind of superficial knowledge of Turkey one might have from a little learning and Googling. If she's actually Turkish, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she actually lives in England or America or something. The fact that she wants to insist on all details conforming to an encyclopedic idea of what Turkey is about is very telling, I think.
Certainly she doesn't come off as having the kind of cultural knowledge Orhan Pamuk shows in HIS (Turkish) novels, that's for sure.
Re: Istanbul. The editor points out that this was an editorial and not an authorial mistake.
Re: Arabs. The editor points out that this is a mistake of the POV character. I'm assuming this Sara is an American or something, but gosh... there are tons of Americans who would assume Turkish people are Arabs, and so if that's the character's mistake it is a sensible thing to include. Depending on how entrenched the book is in the perspective of the POV character, this kind of detail is actually a GOOD thing to include, because ignorance in main characters is a nice bit of realism. (That said, perhaps a note at the end of the books explaining where Sara got some major cultural details wrong would be nice).
Having one guy in Turkey wearing a turban is a lot different from having them all do it. Similarly, I don't find it so shocking that in modern Turkey, someone might have a name that is not 100% Turkish, regardless of their cultural heritage. I know Turkey is not like America, where you are pretty much guaranteed to meet up with a mismash of names from all around the world... but it's not some kind of sealed hegemony where everyone everywhere only has approved names that come from an official book.
Anyway.
The editor there is taking a professional tone. What, should he apologize for not being Turkish while attempting to (politely) address her concerns? And personally, I find it convenient that the reviewer claims to be Turkish only after replying to his response. Maybe she is Turkish... I'm inclined to give the benefit of the doubt... but I also am not sensing any kind of level of real expertise on her part, just the kind of superficial knowledge of Turkey one might have from a little learning and Googling. If she's actually Turkish, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she actually lives in England or America or something. The fact that she wants to insist on all details conforming to an encyclopedic idea of what Turkey is about is very telling, I think.
Certainly she doesn't come off as having the kind of cultural knowledge Orhan Pamuk shows in HIS (Turkish) novels, that's for sure.
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