Alev lytle croutier biography samples

They have the same salty buoyancy that renders easy transition between the two worlds. My first cry, my lungs open, and I feel the slapping of my feet—of the waves. The window looks out to the Sea, and before I can focus my eyes I see the blue—a greenish, glassy blue like no other. The smell of decaying plankton and history fills my lungs.

When I can crawl and climb up to the windowsill, the constant lapping of the waves against the stilts that hold the old house, the constant gliding of all sorts of ships—hypnotic.

Alev lytle croutier biography samples

Through the fog Anthony and Cleopatra pass, floating on a golden barge, lost in horrid ecstasy. It returns me to that moment, sitting by the window of our house in Izmir Smyrna and counting ships while my mother reads The Odyssey in Greek. She tells me about the sea monsters: Scylla and Charybdis, Cyclops, and Circe. This is also where Homer was born.

And Virgin Mary died—and the Classics were born. The sea of great narratives, battles, and drama. No sea like the Mediterranean—the internal fringe of the world. The amniotic fluid of civilization. My grandfather used to say that only Mediterranean fish tastes good because of the content of salt in their flesh. The first water I swallowed, so utterly saline that my vocal chords stuck and my voice trapped.

I think I floated freely until fear arrived—maybe it was a distant scream. My lungs were filled with this saltwater. I learned drowning in the Mediterranean and the pain of resuscitation. Birth of Venus. Taking the Waters: Spirit, Art, Sensuality 3. La Poupee 2. La Jeune Fille au portrait 3. Night Life: Realm of Dreams really liked it 4. Les femmes de Smyrne it was ok 2.

The League of Gen The Challenge Fac Around the World Wanderlust Challe Delirious Expatri Career [ edit ]. Film [ edit ]. Writing [ edit ]. Media [ edit ]. Awards [ edit ]. Books [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved Milliyet in Turkish. We also learn who the sultanas were, the princesses and the relationships between them all, the organization of the harem, the social relationships between the various levels of harem hierarchy, pregnancy and accouchement within the harem, and the handling of childbirth.

The Grand Harem in the Topkapi Palace was one thing, in which many, many women lived in luxurious surroundings. These were the kinds of harems so much written about by western commentators, whose descriptions Croutier uses very often and quite colorfully. But one of the most interesting chapters in the book for me because it was the least expected is titled "Ordinary Harems".

A Turkish Muslim man of modest means could still marry four women legally, and they were his harem. The situation for these women was far more workaday and closely familial than for those in the royal seraglio, and Croutier's description of the customs involved are very special My grandmother was promised to her father's best friend when she was merely a child.

When they eventually got married, she was fourteen and my grandfather was forty. In this chapter, we see how a proper husband should treat his wives for example, "Good husbands were diplomatic. They abided by the Qur'an and gave the impression of treating all their alev lytle croutier biographies samples equally The husband alternated nights in the bedrooms, spending Friday nights exclusively with their first wives.

She describes what the relationships among the wives could be like, what was required for household upkeep, the treatment of odalisques i. This chapter on ordinary harems was unusual for me because I had not realized that a harem was a reality in almost every level of the society that Croutier describes, and not intended solely for the sultan and others of the upper-class.