Sinan and famous writers, on the relationship between literature and life
Sinan: The letter annoyed you?
Suleyman: No, I don't give a damn. The dogs bark, the caravan moves on. There are many ways to be valued. I'm not stupid. See how they try to grab the limelight. For one thing, you don 't start writing like you start a regular job. Tha't just a cheap game.
Sinan: But in this world, where nothing is sacred, someone isolating himself for the sake of art, doesn't that give you hope?
Suleyman: He refuses teamwork, collaborations and artistic alliances. On the contrary, the letter struck me as the dithering of a naive youth too mortified to speak in front of a crow he overrates, but desperate to conceal this failing from himself and the world under the veil of philosophy.
The letter is not bad, to see it as an impassioned cry from the depths of the countryside. Nonetheless, I'm sorry to say that I find it sugary and nauseatingly sentimental.... But it's time you let me go home! Ok ? Let me go home and soak my feet in salt water! You know why? Because there's just one reality I've been aware of the last half-hour. The searing pain in my legs and sneaky pain in my neck just waiting for a killer migraine.
You know what that means, young friend? I don't fucking care about the centre of literature being language or any other shit. That's what naive brains like yours fail to grasp. There isn't only one reality. Literature, success.. . You can keep them! I'd turn down a Nobel Prize right now! Can I be any clearer?
Sinan and Imam one, on virtue
(owed money) Imam: Now, Sinan. We already pray every night. And through these prayers, we reveal all our flaws and failings. Is there better self-criticism than that?
Sinan: So do what we like, then repent at night and relax?
Imam: I'm not saying that, Sinan. Of course we can be weak. But a believer should show common sense in all matters. You should be prudent and deliberate.
Sinan: Why just believers? Does nobody else need common sense?
Imam: No, but a believer tests himself with a higher morality. And therefore he feels extra responsibility.
Sinan: Maybe. But he feels it because he's been told he should. Why should I want responsibility on a plate?
Imam: Nobody is more dependable than a person who's alone with his conscience and free will because he builds this responsibility, he doesn't receive it. So he must undertake all the consequences of his acts.
Sinan: Who says free will is free? Even if it was, how could you trust it?
Sinan and Imam Second, on the role of faith
Sinan: But raging rivers drag along lots of pebbles and sticks, too. Just like strong characters drag underdogs and losers with them?
Imam: Exactly! That's the point of faith or religion. How else do you control all those crowds?
Sinan: Wasn't it mostly believers who created mountains of bones in the past? In trying to create order, they were worse than the persecutors.
Imam: Humanity can't get rid of it, like rabies. If we generalize, we're bound to make mistakes.
The vast majority of people are believers, aren't they? Because man's moral backbone is faith.
Sinan: How can you say that? Why is the crime rate so low in atheist countries then? That means being just and moral has nothing to do with faith or religion.
Imam: Then wouldn't people feel all alone in vast universe? The crime rate may be low in those countries, but the suicide rate is high. People don't commit crimes, but they aren't happy either.
Sinan: So faith is belief in the unfathomable?
Imam: Sinan, look. The bottom line is this. Would you want to live in a world where God exists or one where He doesn't?
Sinan and Imam Part 3, on nothingness
Imam: His thing is basically a revolt against the absurdity of life. But if, despite all the contradictions, you can stay positive, if you can curb your desires, renounce your self...
Sinan: Let's drop it. It's tricky.
Imam: ... Then life won't seem absurd. We're all sloshing around in a glass of water. Let's just call it fate and move on.
Sinan: Don't give me fate! You're into easy answers now! Abuse, sins, crimes... are you calling them fate now? Disappointments are fate's fault. Successes are our own doing.
Imam: That's how it is, Sinan. You're so bitter. Let people find comfort where they can.
Sinan and Imam 4th, about new reality
Sinan: I heard the other day about a pilgrim in Mecca, who threw his iPhone by mistake during the stoning ritual. Myth merging with reality, the abstract with the concrete.
Imam: Has religion helped to rid communities of bad habits, poverty and addiction?
Sinan: Yes.
Imam: Isn't that what matters?
Sinan: And people's own reality? Doesn't religion also stop people attaining their own truth? Doesn't it do that by defining the world for them?
Imam: How can you be so sure what people really want? No one wants to find their own truth or anything. The so-called 'man' is always busy, carving things out to his advantage. On the contrary, people try to escape their reality. Everyone's busy saving their own ass!
Sinan: But isn't everyone bound to each other by invisible threads?
Imam: Call it fate or call it causality. It makes no difference. But no one should consider themselves pure as the driven snow.
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