If the people were all left to themselves without any check from the outside world, what would happen? An interview with Aslı Biçen

Luke: Could you start by laying out who you are and what got you into novel writing?

Aslı: About 30 years ago I studied English Language and Literature and then started working as a literary translator. I translated more than 50 books, mostly novels from such writers as Dickens, Faulkner, Djuna Barnes, Rushdie, Fuentes, Cortazar. But my writing career goes back to an earlier time. I started writing poems as a child, then I wrote some stories and finally I started to think that the subjects I wanted to write on could only be contained in a novel!

Luke: You have worked extensively as a literary translator. How does your work in translation feed into your work as a novelist?

Aslı: I think all the books I read feed me in my work as a novelist. Translation does not have any privilege in this respect.

Luke: I read the English translation of the book. I’m curious to know to what extent you were involved in the translation.

Aslı: A translator is the writer of the translation. You need special skills to translate literature. I would not be able to meddle with the translation if it was into Chinese so I stood out of it when it was into English. I completely trusted Feyza Howell because I know she is a very good translator. When she finished working on the book she asked me some questions to clarify a few points, that’s all.

Luke: What was the initial spark that inspired Snapping Point?

Aslı: We lived in a seaside town named Ayvalık. Andalıç is modelled on this Aegean town. There was extensive use of loudspeakers when we were living there and I found it a bit oppressive. Living by the beautiful sea in a sunny little town with ancient buildings and a slow pace is wonderful. People came to our town for a few days or weeks in their holidays but there was another life going under this cute façade. If it was not the town of your dreams you see in photographs but a disaster-stricken place, if the people were all left to themselves without any check from the outside world, what would happen? That was the spark.

Luke: From that beginning what sort of process did you follow? Are you the sort of writer who makes detailed plans or do you just write and see where the story takes you?

Aslı: In my first novel I just wrote and the story took shape on its own. I used to write my poems in a kind of trance and the pencil moved on its own will. I really like that kind of writing. To see on the paper the things that you have no knowledge of beforehand is enchanting. But a friend of mine had criticized my first novel just for this, that it was so personal and lacked a proper kind of plot. Elime Tutun (Hold on to my Hand) was published 10 years later probably because of that criticism. About the time it was published I was translating Dickens’ Bleak House, from the Norton Edition if I’m not mistaken. At the end of the book there was a detailed plan of the book Dickens made before writing it. I wondered if I could work like that in my second novel. So I made a detailed plan for Snapping Point. It was a different kind of writing but I found out there was still a vast space in spite of the boundaries and it worked really well for this novel.

Luke: You have a good cast of compelling characters in the book: Cemal and Jülide obviously, but also peripheral characters such as Muzaffer and even Erkan are well rounded. What’s your process for developing characters?

Aslı: I simply wait for them to take shape in my mind. I waited for Jülide for about 6 months or so. She just refused to turn into a real character in my mind. I waited until I saw them in flesh and blood. After the characters took shape they made me write the book. They sometimes changed my plans and they mostly talked as they wanted to. 

Luke: The book has some speculative elements in it, most notably the floating island. However, you are quite restrained with the use of these speculative ideas. What led you to write the story in that way?

Aslı: A floating island is not the most important element in this book, for me. It was only convenient for the story I wanted to tell, especially for the pace of the story. I needed the events to unfold in a quicker pace and it was not possible in an ordinary setting. That kind of change takes a lot of time and with many breaking points. But I wanted just one strong snapping point that cuts into everyone’s lives and changes them all of a sudden. So the speculative ideas were not my main focus, they were only a side effect!

Luke: Your novel is quite political, but in an indirect way. It reminded me of Orhan Pamuk’s Snow in that once separated from the outside world the underlying tensions in society have no choice but to blow up. What do you think your book is trying to say about the societal tensions within Turkish communities?

Aslı: I have not read Snow yet but I think that’s a good comparison, because it seems that Pamuk chose a more realistic way to separate a society from the outside world. Once a society is isolated the discrepancies become more emphasized. I think my novel is not only about societal tensions within communities in Turkey but between a far-right government and a leftist opposition in general. This kind of tension and oppression is universal. The USA faced this kind of threat when Trump was in power and now the situation is getting very dangerous in Brasil with Bolsonaro refusing to withdraw from power. With the climate emergency, immigration crisis, anti-vaxxers, wage gap, unemployment and far-right gaining more power, we’ll be seeing this kind of tensions more often, and possibly between the colonialist global north and impoverished global south.

Luke: The other area of your book that is commenting on society is the role of women in Turkish society. Why was this a theme that you chose to focus on?

Aslı: The feminist movement in Turkey is very strong because its origin goes back to Ottoman women’s rights activists. After the War of Independence, the young republic recognized the rights of women, gave them the opportunity to have a profession, to be equal citizens, and to dress as they like. But fundamentalism and toxic masculinity remained. Women’s independence and well-being is always at stake and an important field of struggle. 

Luke: Can you recommend some books that have been important to you in your artistic journey?

Aslı: I do not want to single out any book. In general, modernist writing is very important to me. Faulkner, Woolf, Beckett…That kind of writing affects me most. And some Turkish writers like Reşat Nuri Güntekin, Refik Halid Karay, Ahmet Mithat Efendi gives me a feeling of affinity in quite a different way.