Ece Temelkuran is a journalist, writer and political thinker. Her novel Women Who Blow On Knots (originally published in Turkish as Düğümlere Üfl eyen Kadınlar in 2013) won the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival First Book award. The ERB’s Sander Pleij texted with her about envy.
SP
Hi Ece, your website says: « she is still wandering the World and collecting stories. » Any fascinating stories lately?
ET
Perhaps it is because I am thinking a lot about two concepts — humility and envy — I tend to spot related stories. The other day, I was at a small dinner party where an 85-year-old Dame, a theatre actress, quoted Shakespeare. A line from Iago in Othello. « He hath a daily beauty in his life / That makes me ugly » Is envy coming from a sense of ugliness? To be honest, I started the conversation by saying that envy is the least studied subject in art. I guess it is because it is the most shameful thing to admit. Ironically, it is also the emotion that has the most impact on our lives. I do not believe those who say, « I have zero envy ». But then, is it an emotion? Or is it possible not to have envy?
SP
Literature lays bare, but what if daily social life did? I find envy a difficult concept: nobody will judge me for being envious of the better health of others. And does it humble me? I am not sure, maybe with shameful envies, in the sense that admitting to vices humbles. When would envy become malicious?
ET
Why do we associate envy with malice? I don’t think we should, because envy is malicious, first and foremost, to the envious one. It is a form of self-poisoning. Most of the time, the one who is envied is clueless, living his or her « beauty » nonchalantly. Perhaps I was or still am envied, and I am unaware of those poor souls. I wish I could tell them, « I am not as fancy as you think. » Someone healthy would probably say the same thing to you. I had a massive spine operation when I was fifteen and laid down for six months. I hear you when you talk about being envious of the healthy. I was jealous of those who could walk.
ET
How easy it is for a therapist or a guru to tell people not to compare themselves to others! But then, how can one rise above the fundamental unfairness of life? Envy stems from that random injustice. It is a form of hurt. And we hurt ourselves to heal the hurt. Envy is the salt that we put on our wounds. Especially for those who cannot commit malice on others, envy is a form of slow suicide.
ET
It kills the initial beauty we have. Envy orphans our beauty more than anything else.
SP
The way you put it makes envy seem less… bad. I like that — also the salting the wound, that forces you to face it. I still feel like I don’t envy others, not even their health (I have all these other privileges, so it’d be pretty despicable). My vice is begrudging people!
SP
Is there a book, movie or series that brought you to envy?
ET
Succession. Incredible script writing. Razor sharp! My previous envy was for Mad Men’s script writers.
