First Post

In my first years in the United States, I spent a lot of time reading the Vanity Fair, as well as watching the True Hollywood Story on E! whenever I came accross one. I still watch a fair amount of TV, and spend at least an hour everyday reading blogs-mostly political or academic, but sometimes gossipy as well. Some people would describe this as a waste of time. What I find is that without these seemingly low-brow exercises my connection to my adopted country would be tenuous at best. I was not in the United States during the Clarence Thomas nomination proceedings, but I get the references to Anita Hill. That's just one example, but people underestimate how much of our ongoing conversations are built on references to past events-both high-brow and trivial. Pop culture, political scandals, Shakespeare or Biblical references could all be signposts and shortcuts that help move an exchange along.

Of course, even the most phillistine among us have it easy when it comes to the United States. I grew up in Turkey, but that had not stopped me from watching Charles in Charge and all of the original Star Wars movies; I had heard of O.J. Simpson and Gary Hart before I stepped foot in the US. Delving into the background of conversations in another country is much harder.

What I intend to do in this blog is to create a source for Turkey expats, visitors, scholars and observers by commenting on the public discourse in Turkey. It is not going to be travel blog or a news blog-although I might include travel tips or news every now and then. What I hope to do instead is to analyze and translate Turkey to foreigners, and in doing that, I will hopefully come to understand it better myself.