Istanbul based editor and book critic Seçil Epik answered my three question investigation on the coronavirus effect. She sends a weekly newsletter on the books she "wishes more people to read". To subscribe to the newsletter here What does Epik read these days, really?
How are you affected?
I was at home already for a while when the pandemic measures and the quarantine process started. I left my full time job, after three years, in November. It was a period I was trying to manage my own time after all the intensity at work. So it didn't feel like a total lockdown at once. Therefore, I think it made me luckier than many. It seems that it is no longer possible to express the effect of the pandemic in a single and straightforward definition while leaving the 60th day of quarantine behind. For example, I didn't read a single page for the first few weeks, and then I started devouring book after book.
When I look back, as an activist, I was involved in some solidarity campaigns launched for my friends in the LGBTQ community, who were most affected by this process. This showed me how much the solidarity reflex that we have developed over the years has worked in times of crisis that have affected the world.
What will change in your country or the world?
To be honest, the more equal new world order, that many of us dream of, cannot really happen in an instant after a global crisis. For me we already learned this from past wars, epidemics or crises in the world. The difference of the pandemic we live today is that it took place at a time when we watched everything “live”.
We have seen the already existing injustices more clearly during the process. We realized the consequences of our consumption habits on earth more clearly. But still I am not sure if it means we will take a step together to change them.
On the other hand, as people working in the arts and culture field, it feels like we have more training for fighting crises than other sectors. Because we are aware that we are always amongst the first to be discard in the event of downsizing.
What do you hope to change?
Although I do not believe that great changes will remain from this pandemic crisis, I would like to believe that there will be smaller changes in the world of art and literature in terms of thinking and producing practices.
Some of us, who had the chance to take a break, and who could have thought and produced without feeling as if they have to keep up with something, hopefully we will be able to slow down the world around all together, when we return to “normal” life; just like we did during the quarantine.
