Can you paint the picture of decay, Abidin? -2-

If you have become an inseparable part of decay, like the principle of communicating vessels, if you have become a figure in the tableau of decay, then, You cannot paint the picture of decay. You become the silent witness, the shy approver of the rot, the corruption, and the decay.you still cannot do it. To be able to paint the picture of decay, you must stand outside the circle of decay, far from thesewer pit. You must maintain yourconscience, yourhonesty,andThose who synthesize theirmastery of the pen andtheir cultural accumulation with their identity aswriters can depict decay,

Great writers bear witness to their eraand recordit. Novelsin, in their stories, theyportray the periodthey lived in with all its colors, with strikingdetails. The magical language of literaturecaptures youin the near or distantpastit sets out on journeys. Tolstoy, with the hundreds of characters in his novels, the 19th-centuryTsaristRussia erathe aristocracy of Tsarist Russia, thegreat wars, the Caucasus, the Mujiks, and reflects the individual and social tomography of Russian society. Dostoevsky, of the sameperiod's urban life, the social and individual crises of the Russian people, the Siberianexiles, misery, and passionsit describes schizophrenic swings. In French, English, and German literature, we see that the social fabric and thepolitical panorama of the periodand the individual and social effects of the socioeconomic structure are reflected,we observe.

It is generally accepted that ournovel writing began after 1870 with the generation called the Tanzimat Generation, with authors such as Şemsettin Sami, Namık Kemal, Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem, Ahmet Mithat Efendi, and Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil. This is the generally acceptedsees. Comparedto the West,which began much later,Turkishnovel writingwould make progress in a short time, and begin to producesignificant works.

After this brief introduction, it is time to return to our main subject, the period definitions of Turkish novels. It is time to return. Mithat Cemal Kuntay's Three In Istanbul The period of absolutism(the reign of Abdulhamid), the 1908 Second Constitutionalperiod of monarchyand The period of occupation(post-armistice)i) Istanbul is described. Kuntay's Three Istanbuls, novel characters, psychological analyses, character transformations in threeperiods,against the Abdulhamit administrationopposition how some intellectuals whostruggle for freedom eventually degenerate is reflected with an impressive narrative. Thepolitical, social, and sociological fabric of the period, the people,the intellectuals, the world ofthe press,theoppressive regime of Abdulhamid,the hearths,the informant system that drives it, the institutionalizedbribery, theinfluence peddling, and certain intellectuals who easilychange their stance the novel, which describes human decay throughof is one of the importantmasterpieces. In other words, Mithat Cemal Kuntay wrote only one, but he wrote it like a master! Three Istanbul is, in the truest sense, a picture of decay!

Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, in his novel Kiralık Konak (The Rental Mansion), Abdthe Abdulhamid era Istanbul. It depicts the disintegration of the traditional social structure and thedegeneration that European influencescausedwithin the Turkish family structure. The author describesthe Armistice-era Istanbul. He addresses the decay in the novel Sodom and Gomorrah.Regarding the decay in occupied Istanbul, while the streets of the capitalwere being trampled under the boots of the occupiers,a completely different worldwas unfolding.living in the world,the privileged inhabitants of the mansions and seaside villas on both sides of the Bosphorus,thelovers, and the stateless elite. The perversion and decadent lifestyle of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, along with theArmistice-era elite of Istanbul, who were disconnected from the public, indifference to the country's problems, disbeliefin the future,andopportunism. He draws parallels between them.Yaban, who participated in World War Ias a reserve officer,lost an arm, and was betrayed by his orderlyan Istanbul child who took refuge in his village, between an intellectual and a Turkish villager, the worldsensory, emotional deep abyss describeis made, through the mouth of the novel's protagonist, a Turkish intellectual's self-criticism is performed.

Yakup Kadri, HIn the novel Hüküm Gecesi (Night of Judgment),he depicts the political struggles of the Second Constitutionalera,while in his novel Ankara, he recounts the years of the War of Independence and the post-Republic period. He contrasts idealistic, patriotic characters with profiteers and opportunists.i, opportunistic characters, and social change are addressed. In the novel Panorama, post-1930 Ankara, social change, the fading of revolutionaryenthusiasm, and the transition to a multi-partysystem aredepicted.is described.

Halide Edip Adıvar, with her novels and stories such as The Turkish Ordeal, The New Turan, and The Wolf Descending from the Mountain, the Second Constitutional EraConstitutionalism, MArmistice and War of Independence areproducts ofthat period's consciousness. Reşat Nuri GGüntekin's The Fall of Leaves (Yaprak Dökümü) is a lament for thedissolution of the traditional Turkish family structure.Green Night (Yeşil Gece) is a futuristic novel by an author who senses the approaching footsteps of reactionism lying in wait.It isa work. Sabahattin Ali's Kuyucaklı Yusuf addresses the chasm between the usurious merchant town notables and the poor, as well as the bureaucraticcorruption.The Devil Within Usfocuses on the university environment and the intellectualsduring the atmosphere of theSecond World Warperiod.vividly depicts the political polarization between them.

It is timeto bringthepastto the present.To the lever of politics, tthedevastating effects of the promoted political religiousnesson individual and social morality, and thedecay it has caused, are evident. The deadly consequences of thisdecay are clear. The rent-seekers who have grown rich from war without fighting, running rampant, and the insured institutions for laundering black money and black identities are...corruptedsportsclub executives,media stars hiding behind a mask of religion,the dregs known as influencers,betting syndicates that wrap around society like a cancerous tumor, and the scourge of drugs that has reached almost down to primary schools, allpulled intothe abyss of extinction that they should be painting,where are our novelists, our short story writers, you might ask?

Let us repeat it once more. The silent, shy approversof decay, those whopretend not to see, hear, or know, cannot paint the picture of decay!