Shame on Those Who Sold Their Pens

Is everyone who writes, draws, and licks a little ink an intellectual? Is it possible to call everyone who is a little more intellectual an intellectual? Does every writer, literary figure, philosopher, journalist, etc., in other words, everyone whose job is to read and write, make an effort or have to make an effort for the world or at least their own sphere of influence to develop and move forward? What do societies expect from these figures? The answer to all these questions varies depending on what each group understands from concepts such as being an intellectual, developing, and moving forward.

It is difficult to understand Ezra Pound being a fascist. The technical aspects of literature and the ideology it contains can present an appearance at different qualitative levels. However, many people have been educated with the mistaken idea that enlightened people are democratic and humanist, and that people who read and write a lot are enlightened people.

There have been many writers throughout history who were considered enlightened by society but who never received their share of enlightenment. There are still many of them today.

The determinant of being an intellectual is the value judgments carried in every field and is not technical. Is it possible to call a writer who is ideologically committed to fascism an intellectual? When the example of Heidegger is taken into consideration, where should we see Heidegger? Can writers whose ideology does not include democracy, freedom of thought, respect for human rights and nature, the supremacy of law (not laws), and who do not refer to scientific findings be intellectual?

It is a moral issue that every writer, regardless of their ideology and field of activity, who can prepare the ground for being an intellectual, should express their ideas without being under anyone's protection and without being anyone's man. Apart from ideology, moral values and consistency are also conditions for being an intellectual.

Even if there is no consensus on the ideological axis, respect is and should be given to writers who defend their ideas with consistency and a principled stance, and who are not anyone's man. This respect expresses a life stance that everyone who lives with concepts such as honesty, morality, personality, justice, and standing tall is expected to defend.

However, evidence may emerge that will cause you to lose respect for an author, or the author in question may have lost his reputation through his writings without the need for any other evidence.

An author whose writings, books, articles are read and whose speeches are listened to may have had an impact on certain segments of society with the technique he used or the ideology he had, or both. Because the aesthetic use of an almost immortal power such as language, literature, and writing may have influenced the reader.

Turkey has rapidly lost its social intellectual intelligence in recent years. In addition, it has witnessed that many writers have lost their moral stance or that the morality that had already been lost has come to light today. Turkey has met these people in the past as well as today.

Years ago, while browsing through the shelves of a bookstore in Berkeley, I came across a book titled “Poems for the Millennium.” Curious, I looked inside and saw Nazım among names like Ezra Pound, Mallarme, Stein, Rilke, Tzara, and Mayakovsky.

My respect for Nazim turned into joy when I saw Nazim among the poets of the millennium in a work published by the University of California/Berkeley. Nazim, who was forced to leave his country because of his ideas, who was forced to go to Moscow as a result of a conspiracy against him and was declared a traitor.

There is a poem by the same Nazım that astonished me when I first read it and ends with the following lines:

"You are the RUSEL generation of big bellies,

You, the servant of the murabba,

You are a child's puppet,

You are the worst of sold-out servants!!!"

Years ago, I read the news that some names who had found readers in Turkish society, such as Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, Peyami Safa, Yusuf Ziya Ortaç, Cemal Kutay, Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu and İbrahim Çallı, had sold their pens to the government at the time.

I liked or disliked his technique, shared or did not share his ideology, but I wondered how a writer could sell his pen. I forgot about the literary aspect, but respect, honor and dignity are completely different concepts. While these people were begging for money from the government of the time, many other writers, especially Nazım, were trying to produce works in poverty.

Why do I respect Nazım? Because he did not sell his pen and suffered and longed not to sell it. Because I understood once again that the joy I experienced when I saw him on the list of poets of the millennium was not in vain. But, there is also the sadness of loss of time in feeling regretful about having read the Ninth Foreign Ward, Letters to the Creator, The Furrier's Shop, etc. and interestingly, for whom did Nazım write the above lines? Peyami Safa.

Shame on those who sold their pens.