Felâtun Bey and Râkim Efendi by Efendi Ahmet Mithat; Levi Melih; Ringer Monica

Author:Efendi, Ahmet Mithat; Levi, Melih; Ringer, Monica
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 2017-04-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

DID YOU ENJOY hearing about Râkım’s outing to Kağıthane? Don’t think our question silly. Not many people enjoy these sorts of outings. If you’ve ever examined the particular conditions of human beings, you would agree with us. The human condition dictates that a person cannot be satisfied if he’s the only one to know about his happiness. He wants to let everybody else know about it. In fact, even when a person isn’t actually happy, he resorts to trickery and deception to make others believe that he is happy. This human need is so common that we don’t notice it. Yet, a common example of this need is showing off by paying twenty-five liras or more for diamonds to adorn a watch chain that only cost five liras in the first place. All right then, let us consider this:

It’s true that people need watches. But what is the function of the chain? Since all it does is hold the watch, a simple cord would do. Well, no, it’s not quite like that. People want the entire world to see what a great fortune they have, and that even the cord used to hold the watch is worth twenty-five gold coins. But what is the purpose of such showing off?

We already told you. It gives pleasure! Now, there are different degrees of duplicity, this one being the lowest all the way up to where people deem it necessary to come up with all sorts of meaningless lies to go around like Croesus. Let’s look at this from another angle: The purpose of going on public outings isn’t simply to enjoy the countryside, wilderness, fields, meadows, and flowers, but rather to see the public—or, more precisely—to show off in public. Isn’t this, in a way, dictated by human nature? It’s for this reason that we find at least twenty thousand people at excursion spots. If one were to think thoroughly about the kind of pleasure that one derives from suffocating in the dust and dirt of five, six hundred, or maybe even a thousand carriages—instead of sitting under a tree—and from presenting himself to those who are only ten steps away, he’d come to hate these excursion spots. However, the habitués of these outings don’t think this way. When they go to excursion spots, they don’t think about the beauty of the location and when they converse about the excursion, they don’t mention it. They are only concerned with whether there is a crowd or not. When they like an excursion spot, they display their enthusiasm by saying, “Good heavens, one should have seen Kağıthane the other day. What a crowd, my God! Everybody, everybody! Was there anyone who wasn’t there, anyone?”

Knowing that’s how it generally is, we asked whether or not the readers enjoyed hearing about Râkım’s Kağıthane outing. If not, then would you enjoy hearing about another Kağıthane outing?

It was a Friday, and in fact, one of those Fridays when Kağıthane was really crowded. And on that day in the meadows of Kağıthane, the bright gazes of a couple thousand eyes were all fixed on one spot.

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