STEPHEN KING

 Stephen King, who has more than 50 published novels today, including the ones he wrote under a pen-name, is an important figure in literature and also in cinema with his magical way of writing and uniqueness. If you are a book-lover like me, you probably are already familiar with his exceptional work. Today he’s among the top selling authors of the USA and is also popular all around the world.

 Having more than 50 novels out, King published several of them under the pen-name Richard Bachman. You may think that this is because he’s a mysterious individual just like the characters in his books but it was only because he wanted to see whether or not his novels would sell as much without having his name on them. King, even created a wife named “Claudia Inez Brachman” for his so called “alter-ego” and dedicated his book “Thinner” to her. This is not the only thing his endless imagination created. For instance, the town Maine which most of his stories take place in do not really exist; but he could tell you exactly where and how it is if you asked.

 The complex mind of him, constantly produces thrillers; fictional and fantastic stories that contains mystery and drama all together. And there may be a reason why he creates such lively and horrifying stories. The fact that he saw his friend strucked and killed by a train in his childhood may have inspired him to imagine such traumatizing scenes that he describes so realistically. He is also dealing with a drug addiction and has confessed that sometimes he doesn’t even remember writing the things he wrote the night before.                                                    

 The “King” of thriller’s best selling novel is “Carrie” which was also adapted into a movie in 1976. “Secret Window”, “The Green Mile”, “The Shinning” are just a few other movies based on his novels. I can not exactly tell why his novels are so popular but what makes me like them is the way he describes events so lively that I get goosebumps while I try to envision what I read. If you still haven’t read any of his nolves, give it a try and grab “Carrie” first. After reading that one, it’s a great chance that you will instantly become a fan!

                                                                                          -Öykü Kafalı

Style Network’s “How Do I Look?”

    Have you ever seen the show “How Do I Look?” on Style Network? It’s a show that gives people who have “terrible sense in fashion” makeovers. In each episode, someone who likes to dress in a different style than a %90 of the world does is forced to change their style they actually feel good with by a group of their friends or family members called “accomplices”. Sounds good, right? All people should totally look and dress the same anyway. I mean, who cares about your personality, just wear the things people would like to see you in!

 I’m not going to deny it, every time I come across to this show, I always sit and watch the whole thing. I’m curious of the final result just as everyone else would be.  In fact, while watching the first one or two episodes I ,too, thought to myself “these people need serious help with their fashion sense” but after a few episodes, seeing people cry over their beloved outfits thrown away and hearing some of the stuff the host says started to bother me.

 First of all, their claim is to “tame people down”. Someone who likes to wear stuff with animal prints on or dyes their hair pink is considered a wild animal that needs to be tamed then? To me, this is completely disrespectful and makes no actual sense. Also their motto is “You are what you wear.” Okay, let’s just ignore all of our inner beauty, thoughts, feelings and anything else and just focus on our appearance; let’s label people and judge the ones who doesn’t look ordinary! Isn’t it what they are trying to do?

 In a world where teens who are bullied because of their different sense of style commit suicide, this kind of TV shows just add fuel to the fire. We need to teach people how to accept others the way they are instead of making them cry on TV. I think this excuse of a TV show is no different than the bullies who make fun of you and try to let you down in High School.

 Why can’t we just let people be who they want to be? If someone likes to wear stuff with Disney characters on and feels happy in them, why the hell should they stop? You want to dye your hair pink? Go ahead, be yourself and never let anyone tell you who you need to be!

-ÖYKÜ KAFALI

SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD REVIEW

What would you do if you had only a few weeks left to live? If you have never thought about this, you probably will find yourself thinking after watching Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World.

 Seeking a Friend For The End Of The World is Lorene Scafaria’s debut as a director who previously adapted the critically acclaimed “Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist”. The movie stars award winning Steve Carell (Dodge) and the eye-candy Keira Knightley (Penny). Steve Carell is probably my favorite comedian ever, I love his work. But  I’ve never been a fan of Keira Knightley and I usually don’t watch anything she is in; but you do things you don’t normally do on a rainy Sunday night if you have no intentions of going out and getting soaked in the rain. So I held my breath and pressed play.

 The world is in panic after hearing the news of an asteroid approaching the earth. There’s no way of stopping it and people start to act like there’s no tomorrow. Without second-thinking, Dodge’s wife leaves him. Meanwhile Dodge’s British neighbor Penny leaves her boyfriend and somehow meets Dodge, while crying over the fact that she’ll never get to see her family again. Dodge decides to help Penny go to England and Penny will help him find his high school sweetheart. While they’re on the road something unexpected happens and they fall in love with each other.  

 We see Steve Carell playing a lonely, charming man unlike the other movies where he is “the funny and clumsy guy”. He definitely pulls it off, but still after seeing him in so many comedy movies it was a bit distracting to see his hilarious stare and take it serious. On the other hand, it was totally painful to watch Keira Knightley’s dreadful performance. I’m no movie critic or anything but as someone who has seen hundreds of movies, I think I have right to put my two cents in. She tries to seem like an adorable girl next door but she can’t go further than being irritating.

 Still, the storyline and the concept of the movie drags you in and you actually enjoy the 101 minutes you spend watching it. Even though the ending is not what I expected it to be, I can say that it’s a movie worth watching and if you’re sitting in front of the DVD player not knowing what to watch, Seeking a Friend For The End Of The World is a great option!

                                                                                              -ÖYKÜ KAFALI

A JOURNEY FROM NORA’S DOLLHOUSE TO BAĞDAT’S PALACE

Eleanor Roosevelt once said :  “A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water.” and the three plays I’ve recently seen showed me  that this is completely correct.

 This year, the plays of the National Theatre  is all about women and I got to see three of them already.  Nora (Bir Bebek Evi), Bağdat Hatun and Keçiler Adası all had women in focus and their struggle in different parts of their lives. The main characters were not similar with each other and each play examined different kinds of women with different types of personalities. 

 The first one I saw was Nora (Bir Bebek Evi).  The play was written by Henrik İbsen in 1879 and was staged in various countries such as Australia, USA and Germany where it caused a lot of controversy back then. Nora is the name of our main character who is trying to achieve her freedom and independency. This was a first for the time period it was written in and therefore the play got so much negative reactions that the writer had to change the ending were Nora leaves her husband and kids to a scene where she stays and obeys her husband. Nora is a fragile, naive woman who’s main concern is having a happy life without any difficulties.  But someday her husband falls ill and she borrows some money from a man who later blackmails her for it, to take advantage of Nora and her husband’s late found  wealth.  When Nora’s  husband finds out about this, he blames her with being deceitful and careless then bans her from educating their children. But Nora, unexpectedly, rebels and objects this decision and leaves her husband.

 Watching Nora discover the power within her while figuring out more about the life out of her comfort zone and finally taking a stand in the end was really astounding. What impressed me the most was the final scene where she talks to her husband for the last time saying that she won’t be under his yoke anymore. With all the impressive decor and costumes and of course the performances of the actors, it was a great play overall. And I was glad I brought my cousin who had never been to a play before along with me since now she’ll be willing to watch other ones.

The second one was Bağdat Hatun which  I actually watched a couple of days after Nora. If I have to describe our main character, Bağdat, I can easily say that she has a character totally opposite to Nora’s. This Ottoman woman is passionate, powerful and she knows exactly what she wants, which is to have more privilege and a higher social statue . So she causes her father and seven brother’s death just to be able to marry the Hakan and become his wife.  Even when she achieves her goal, she is not a tad bit satisfied; she wants more. And when the Hakan marries a girl younger than her, she decides to kill him and does so thinking that she’ll take his place. But things doesn’t go the way she wants them to and a man who knows her whole plan tells people everything. This causes her death.

 The character, Bağdat, brings the saying “All women are devils.” to our minds. Which can be considered true looking at her case. But even this power-hungry woman is desperate for love and lives in sorrow knowing that she caused the death of her entire family.

 Last but not least, ‘Keçiler Adası’ was the last play I saw this month. The story follows not one but three women this time; three women that are in love with the same man.  The always competitive sister-in-laws Agata and Pia gets more aggressive when this stranger claiming to be with the Professor (Agata’s husband and Pia’s brother) when he died gets into their lives. These lonely woman are not able to resist strangely charming Angelo. And Agata’s daughter, Sylvia is no exception. She’s a young, naive girl with a fragile heart and it’s not a surprise that she falls for him too.

Throughout the play,  we witness these three women with completely different personalities turn into the same person who is ready to do anything and everything for love.  It’s heartbreaking to see a vulnerable young girl get to a point where she tries to use a gun to kill somebody without second-thinking.  With the exceptional performances of the actors,  I can say that this one was by far the best out of all three that it brought me to tears. I would definitely go watch it again if I could.

Focusing on violence towards women and their place in a male-dominated society, these three plays all successfully reflects different kinds of women who all are passionate, brave and strong but with a vulnerable side in them. They go through stuff that sometimes force them to change the way they look at life and when they do take a stand for themselves, you get surprised to see the power they had been holding in that you could never imagine they had. These all, once again, bring me to the wise words of Eleanor Roosevelt that I’ve mentioned in the beginning : “A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water.”

Make sure you try and see at least some of these plays.  You can find more information about the actors and everything else on http://www.devtiyatro.gov.tr/ and buy tickets on http://www.mybilet.com/

                                                                                            -ÖYKÜ KAFALI