Securing a corner in the ‘Four-Cornered Triangle’…

‘Four-Cornered Triangle’ is a book penned by Salâh Birsel, a unique voice in our literature and a master of the essay, in Cihangir between August and October 1957… In this, his only novel, Birsel recounts the adventures of an observer through tragicomic stories, while simultaneously delivering the harshest social criticism and never failing to reflect the darkest humor with his own inimitable style…

Birsel’s ‘observer’ is not just any ordinary ‘observer’; he is an ‘international observer’ who does not abandon his duty even while sleeping at night. He is not just a common watchman working in the warehouse of the Tobacco Leaf House, either! And by the way, do not mistake him for a ‘peeping tom’—he is an honorable observer! Why? Because peeping toms are sick, whereas an observer is a philosopher, a sage, a moralist, and a teacher!..

He is also a ‘thought reader’ who, when twenty-four hours a day are not enough, begins to observe for forty-eight, then seventy-two, and finally ninety-six hours at a time…

He is a reader who, in the process of putting this reading into practice, first sets out to listen to people’s stomachs…
“The first observations I gathered from behind a window, a pair of binoculars, a wall, or a street corner taught me that people mostly speak from their stomachs. By speaking from their stomachs, people not only spare themselves the discomfort of keeping their thoughts under the pressure of their logic, but they also cast a definitive protest against the peddlers of philosophy who insist that the world can be governed by logic.”

Then he listens to houses, and most of all, to women. In his pursuit of the truth, he begins to spend his summers and days off at the beach. The importance of beaches in reaching a certain richness in his observations cannot be overlooked.

On the other hand, he shares his observations with people, but in vain. Because, “the truth can only show its face to those who wish to see it.”

As days follow days, or more accurately, as observations follow observations, our protagonist feels his knowledge deepening, his instinct for laziness vanishing, and that he has arrived at a definitive and clear view of the world and people…

AN ‘OBSERVER’ WITH A FIXED IDEA

What happens behind closed doors, the masks of every color and size, the hypocrisies, the tragicomic situations the observer falls into while chasing the truth…

What the watchman sees—while being viewed as a pervert or a madman when caught observing people in every setting, even in the restroom—is nothing other than the hidden, yet lived, reality! But he is a ‘crank’ who has set his mind on seeing the King naked just to be able to say ‘the king is naked’...
As he progresses on this path and his speed increases, he begins to realize that his well-being is flying away, his inner world is darkening, and his heart’s vessels have ‘anchored’ in the shallows.
He learns once again that trying to draw a conclusion from observations, just like gathering observations with hands and feet, and not wanting to ‘gild the horns’—that is, to deceive—also brings distress to the son of man.
Then, his next stop on his journey becomes the ‘coffeehouse’. His justification: “It is a place where an observer can carry out his work most easily and most satisfyingly. It is where the world’s biggest decisions are made and politics are discussed…”

When he begins to think that observation has reached the stage of an illness, he sells his ancestral gold pocket watch to get enough money to have himself examined by one of the ‘doctors who reveal the veil on the face of their profession in exchange for large consultation fees’ to get rid of it. But the answer he receives is: “There is nothing wrong with you!”

When he receives the warning from the doctor to ‘recognize the ships of the sea of logic,’ he replies: “Could these ships you speak of be the mussels of the sea of logic? It seems to me that these are just mussel shells with the pearls removed.”

“A ‘TRIANGLE-SPEAK’ GUIDE FOR AN ‘OBSERVER WITHOUT AN ADDRESS’…”

While reading the essays of Salâh Birsel, one of the first names that comes to mind when one thinks of essays and diaries, we will often find the smile that appears on our faces in ‘Four-Cornered Triangle’ as well, and these smiles will often give way to hearty laughter. Because in this work, Birsel presents one of the most successful examples of the art of satire.

To those who are curious about the end of our protagonist, who sets out saying “I am observing, therefore I am happy,” and “I am observing, therefore I am,” we suffice with this: Enter the world of ‘nots’ without hesitation, at a distance that serves as a response to the reinterpretation of space in terms of individual perception, the opposition to the rhythms of memory, and the totalitarianism of morality. Take a look at the ‘triangle-speak’ guide of an ‘observer’ without an address, who has no refuge other than observation, and ask yourself: “If everyone were an observer, would many things in the world truly be saved from confusion?”