Fw: Back to AtD: Turkey

[Mark Kohut]

Matthew Cissell sent me this response to the AtD Turkey post and said he just forgot
to include all so it was OK for me to repost. 
 
Turkey: another key choice by TRP...
 
From: Matthew Cissell <macissell at yahoo.es>
To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2012 3:51 PM
Subject: Re: Back to AtD: Turkey


Just some quick thoughts. First, Turkey was an important part of the Great game which is a not insignificant theme in AD. Of course you also have the Young Turks and the inklings of the rise of Arab Nationalism (Yes, I know the Turks are not arab.).

As for the bit on iron, well try this. Most of us here know about Weber's Iron cage image, but how many (except for our german friends) know that "steel-hard housing" would be a better translation. I have this from a friend of mine who pointed it out to me. I qoute him, "The choice of materials in the translation, iron or steel, also seems to be no minor detail. Whereas iron comes from the ground and has a been in use by people for thousands of years, steel is a refined alloy, the means for the mass production of which was not worked out until the mid-nineteenth century. Weber's choice of materials, steel, has an attention to modern sciences and connotes things like the revolutionary transformation of cityscapes that steel was making possible at the turn of the century. Whereas iron rusts and becomes brittle, steel keeps its surface and its integrity. Far from being some old, rusty cage, the "steel-hard housing," which the cloak of material attachment
had become, suggests a bold new machine, forged of modern alloys and built to last until the fuel runs out."

The Ottoman empire with its young turks falls and is split up by western powers in a war that shows the difference between the time of iron and the time of steel with its machin guns, skyscrapers and futurist manifestos. The focus on the time (around WWI) and place (europe and Turkey) would also seem to mirror (in a funhouse way) our own time with its revolutionary materials, stumbling or crumbling powers and the good folk of this planet (Lord, what fools these mortals be!) dancing and whirling towards the abyss.

mco


________________________________
From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2012 6:19 PM
Subject: Back to AtD: Turkey


In these sections of Against the Day from the late 800s into the 900s, Turkey is one of the
major geopolitcal places. Why?

Did you know--I just learned--that iron was first smelted in Turkey?

A..and, the authors of "Why Nations Fail" argue that the Ottoman Empire was 
another--like the Spaniards in Latin American countries; like the Mexican rulers
of Mexico---in which the Elite exploited their workers so much more than most countries did
that they created  such a top heavy concentration of wealth that
 an almost-necessary Counter Force [my allusive word] by the citizenry happened. 

Anyone know more about Turkey than I do? Anyone have more insights than this into its use in ATD?   
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