A couple of weeks ago, while on a date, I was just sipping through the foam of my latte when the Turkish friend across from me asked my opinion: "So, is Turkey a modern country?" Finishing my sip, I rested my cup on the table and took a moment's pause. It wasn't the first time I had fielded that one. Come to think of it, I had spent the good part of an entire semester battling the question of modernity inside and out of sociology and Middle East Studies classes - what does it mean to "be modern"? Who judges? Who applies for admission into the "club"? Does the concept hold weight? Is it even useful? Or simply degrading?
Over the past few months here, too, the many young, Turkish people I have talked politics with are genuinely concerned that they have to convince me of just how "modern" Turkey is - of its merits, its civility, its humanity, of all the factors that, in their eyes, makes Turkey fit in with the ranks of the uber-"modern" (and uber-idealized): the Western Europeans and (although less so, increasingly) Americans.
As an American, I'm supposed to (to my surprise) know a thing or two about "being modern". I become, at first introduction and without consent, a legitimate authority in regards to the question of Turkey's modernity.
Whenever posed with the modernity conundrum in casual conversation, however, I always throw it back into the face of the inquirer: "Well, what does it mean to be modern?"
In this instance, however, we were speaking in Turkish and I, thus, found myself a bit less eloquent and a bit more unnecessarily existential. My question came out more like, "What does 'modern' mean?" To which my otherwise well-spoken date stuttered a bit and took a minute before coming up with some criteria. "It's when people are polite to each other. They speak nicely to each other. And they are clean."
"In that case," I noted, smiling over the tip of my coffee, "most of Turkey is probably modern, but the city of New York is definitely not."
4 comments:
AMEN! New York = anti-modern
You are far too clever, big sister. I really enjoyed reading that entry, though.
I like your answer. Such code words are used as benchmarks and they get under my skin like sticky bubblegum stuck my pants. Insert annoyed emocon. There's a fine offering of first, second, and third world in Turkey as well as a world all of its own. I do hate it that we cannot drink the water here, it's as clear and simple as that. The Istanbul Modern rocks though and is free on Thursdays ...
Very eloquent. I'll be reading your blog more often inshallah. ;) Hope you are having a great time in Turkey! I looked you up because I had this inkling that you had told me that you like to dance, and I wanted to let you know that we're (My girlfriend and I) a swing dance at the Hamilton Wenham Community Center. Let me know when you are back stateside and we'll put on another!
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