 Okan
Bayülgen and Alien Limb Syndrome
By the time you read this article, one of the most
important figures of modern Turkish philosophy, Hülya Avşar, and a
problematic media phenomenon, Okan Bayülgen, will have taken part in the
conference "Marka DNA'ya İşlerse" ("If the Brand Sinks into the DNA").
During the conference, Avşar will be claiming that she's already a brand,
while Bayülgen will
deny that a "living being" can be a brand.
In fact, the discussion has already taken place, during an
interview with both of them published in Milliyet Pazar (Nov. 25, 2005),
where Avşar and Bayülgen ended up agreeing. The conference will simply
provide a spectacle for the viewers--nothing different from theater. But
the problem under discussion doesn't disappear even if Okan Bayülgen and
Hülya Avşar understand each other perfectly. Isn't Okan Bayülgen aware
that neither he nor Hülya Avşar is a "living being"? Can't he see that
both of them are nothing but two differently named collections of light
playing on a TV screen?
Probably, he can't. There's a disturbing similarity
between the relationship a famous person has with his/her media image
and that of a brain with its body. When a brain, a mind and, finally, a
mouth say "me," it's supposed to mean the whole entity's personality and
body. Similarly, when Okan Bayülgen uses the word "me," it would be an
unhealthy way of thinking for him to forget the extensions he has
throughout the media. But nobody should blame him: it would be
impossible to expect him to observe the situation from inside.
Let me get back to the interview I mentioned at the
beginning. When we call them the brains of two different "media-bodies,"
their words can be seen in a different way. The brain of Hülya Avşar's
media-body claims that she is already a brand. While saying this, it
conceives of itself as the representative of the body, just like any
other healthy brain. On the other hand, the brain of Okan Bayülgen's
media-body shows some symptoms of an extreme case of "alien limb
syndrome."
In an ordinary case of alien limb syndrome, the mind
becomes alienated from some part of the body. In the case of Okan
Bayülgen, he (the brain of his media-body) is completely alien to the
body. The brain claims itself as an independent personality, which is
completely untrue. Here we see the tragedy of fame: an identity lost as
someone is caught between being a normal person living in a traditional
body, and a media-brain trying to run a completely transparent media-body;
a hate created by a (media-)mind towards a (media-)body he/she can never
control properly.
İsmail O. Postalcıoğlu (POLS/III)
ismail_orhan@yahoo.com
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