A Journey Into “The 40 Rules of Love” With Elif Safak

BN Magazine catches up with Elif Safak the international novelist who was on tour for her new book “The 40 Rules of Love”.

We know your enthusiasm in Sufism, which is also revealed in your latest book “The 40 Rules of Love”. How do you define your interest in Sufism?

My interest in Sufism started when I was a student in college. I do not come from a family of Sufis or anything like that. There was little connection with my life and Sufism at the beginning. I was a leftist, feminist, nihilist, pacifist, and I had no interest whatsoever in spirituality or religious philosophy. But in a strange way I felt this magnetic pull towards Sufism, and especially Rumi. Books were the gate for me. I started to read on this subject and the more I read the more I wanted to read. I wrote my thesis on Sufism and women. Since then for fifteen years I kept reading about Sufism, exploring it with my mind and heart.

When you write your books, do you think about its success?

Every writer wants to be read. I think we should be able to say this to ourselves. However, it is something else to think about success while writing a novel. When I am in the process of writing I think and breathe and live that novel. I do not worry about its sales or reception. I stay inside the story, in my imaginary world. Only when the novel is done and I hand it to my publisher do I start thinking about how well it will be received. But by then the book is finished and there is no going back and changing anything.

I believe it is important to work with a good editor first of all. Not all writers and editors connect well but when they manage to do then a beautiful and productive energy comes out of it. I think it is a blessing for a writer to work with a good team of people. Good agent, good translator, good friends,… you know, the right people. People with positive energy and good insight. It is always a blessing to have such people around.

What is the reason behind you writing some of your books in English?

The main reason is my interest in reinventing myself and my love for language. I write fiction in Turkish and English. I am a commuter, a nomad. I like to travel between languages just as I enjoy travelling between cultures. This is unusual in the Turkish literary scene, but it is not rare in the world. There are numerous world writers who have written in more than one language. I feel connected to each language in a different way. English, for me, is more mathematical. Turkish, for me, is more emotional. Depending on my mood, depending on the story, I choose one or the other. Or perhaps, they choose me.

People who read your book know that it tells us the friendship and love between Mevlana and Ţemsi in 1200s in Konya and how this love emerges in life of Ella Rubinstein in Boston in 2000s. How did you see this connection between different ages, places and people?

For me, writing stories is about building connections. At the heart of literature, especially the art of storytelling lays the concept of “empathy”. To learn to put ourselves in the shoes of another person. I like to tell the story of a Jewish American housewife in Boston is such a way that when a reader in Istanbul reads it she or he feels connected, and vice versa. A reader in Zurich might read the story of a dervish in Konya and feel a connection. These invisible bonds of humanity matter a lot to me.

Did you somehow aim to spread a philosophy located in Turkey to the world?

Rumi lived in Konya and it is important to understand the period and place he lived in. He is a Muslim mystic. Yet at the same time he is a universal voice. His poetry and philosophy is open to all people regardless of sex, race or class. For me it was important to grasp that universal, egalitarian essence.

Or should we see it as a step towards the acknowledgement of Turkish literature by other countries?

There is a growing interest in Turkish literature, true. But at the same time there are difficulties about being a Turkish author. Only 2 percent of the published works in America are translated books. When and if there are translations it is mostly from Spanish, French or Japanese etc. Turkish literature is thought to be neither exotic enough nor western enough. The truth is we Turks read European literature more than Europeans read ours.

Why did you want to share these rules with the audience?

In my novel I dwell upon the spiritual bond between Rumi and Shams. Their personalities were so very different. Rumi was like water. Fluid, flexible, open to change, constantly in move, his heart and mind open. Shams was like fire. Straightforward, full of vim and energy, very critical minded and candid, sometimes to the point of offensiveness. I started writing the forty rules as the story unfolded. Each and every one of the rules is formulated from the perspective of Shams. For me the rules reflect the crossroads where fire and water met.

Do you think you can apply these rules in your personal life?

One of the reasons why I wanted to build this novel upon two time zones is because I wanted to show how the teachings are relevant in today’s world. Therefore it is not a theoretical Sufism that I was interested in. But a living, breathing Sufism.

Would you say the book is depicting a journey or is it a story of self-improvement?

Every novel is an inner journey, I believe. Walter Benjamin used to say “the novel is the loneliest form of art”. The writer is alone while writing and the reader is alone while reading. We each embark on an inner journey. The Forty Rules of Love, is also a novel that encourages the reader into that journey within.

Lastly, what would advise for the all the aspiring writers who want to be at your level of success in years to come?

We like to believe talent is very important in art. If there is such a thing as “talent” I think it constitutes only 25% of the picture. The rest is work, work and work. The only way to improve your writing is to keep writing. I also believe that writers need to be good listeners and remain connected with the pulse of life.

BN Magazine

Issue 5, Aug - Sep 2010

http://www.bnmagazine.co.uk/article4.aspx