Other Encounters

In fact, 'Other Encounters' does not only consist of essays and references about cities, but an urban sensitivity that has permeated between the lines of independent texts makes itself felt deeply and constantly. Perhaps the secret of this should be sought in the climate of imagination to which that first word, which gave the book its name, took us to its shore. Because the magical world of the word 'other' always brings to mind a walk towards 'love', with what it reveals to the outside as well as what it hides inside. As Adalet Ağaoğlu said, "There are places that we remember with shivers within us. Places that make you want to be there again at that moment, because of a photograph, a breeze, a shutter opening and closing, any word. A city, a bridge... " In places where familiarity turns into love, doesn't the memory of those "as if they came from another world" give us chills?
It is not just about the chill felt by the city's districts with names that suit the Bosphorus shores, such as Yeniköy, Büyükdere, Beykoz, Tarabya, Rumelifeneri and Emirgan. Yes, they are an integral part of Adalet Ağaoğlu's texts, of course, but we can also include Paris, London, Athens, Florence, Madrid and of course Vienna, in this word that includes love. to the field of meaning. From this perspective, 'Other Encounters' seems to call us to an underlying resistance. A resistance in the name of literature, in the name of love, in the name of freedom.
Because it is none other than our author who says "If we live long, we live because of long deaths"...