What Said said.

The other night I was out looking at posters and postcards for sale and kept coming across odalisques... This is where my mind went.

Wiki insert: An odalisque (Turkish: Odalık) was a female slave in an Ottoman seraglio. She was an assistant or apprentice to the concubines and wives, and she might rise in status to become one of them. Most odalisques were part of the Imperial Harem, that is, the household of the sultan.

Orientalism is an concept that fascinated me ever since I first saw Ingres's Le Grand Odalisque in my art history class.



Orientalsim is how the West interprets the East.. So naturally, accuracy is minimal.

Istanbul.
The city that bridges the East to the West - How cliche of me.
But there is truth to it. Besides just literally, with two Bridges that start in one continent and end on another.

Side note: I never will cease to be fascinated that ferry boats here are used as just another form of public transportation. Example: My friend from work, Ekin (like many other Istanbulites) lives in Asia but commutes to Europe on a daily basis. All very doable.

Istanbul. Ex-residence for sultans and concubines.

Istanbul. Desperate to enter the EU.


One of the strange things the confusion of Turkish society my mother once explained to me:
When I would go to the deli in Etiler (a posh district of Istanbul) I would have to ask specifically for the the non-ham products (being a Muzzie and all). And the man working would give me a look, like he was looking down on me. Though he would never eat any ham himself (being a Muzzie and all), he would be looking at me like I was of lower class. It was okay for him to accept his Muslim-ness but for an upper-class westernized woman, it wasn't. The elite try so hard to occidentalize that they end up denying their religion, their language, and their traditions. Our society is turning into something very strange.


Then there are places like the Grand Bazaar which self-orientalize.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Bazaar,_Istanbul
A tourist trap.
The only people to actually go to the Grand Bazaar (other than the people who work there) are tourists. It's just where Westerners go to look at what they have imagined Turkey to be for so long. Spices and belly dancing costumes.
The Grand Bazaar seems to embrace the heritage of the east, perhaps solely for attracting some $ or €.

Push west. Pull east.

A confused people.