The feeling of being seen is now a part of the struggle for existence. Yesterday—if I said yesterday, I mean yesterday far from today—people weren't that visible. Being known in their small circle was enough for them. The mass media brought the things we didn't need to know into our world of curiosity, and also made the faces that we didn't need to see visible. The more people we include in our field of view, the more people we ignore. First of all, ourselves, of course.
Although literature makes the owner of the work known indirectly, its main function is to convey the work itself and its content to people. As the work becomes known, the indirect effect will also be wondered. Although this is something that develops depending on the special effort of the reader, the promotion and marketing of the book today means the promotion and marketing of the author. The work written by the author along with his photograph is also presented to the attention of the crowd. PR studies are carried out.
Appearance is not just about increasing sales today. What is more important than that is that the author leaves a mark in the memories. The author who achieves this enjoys widespread visibility and awareness. Because after that time, there is no longer any obligation to produce better and more qualified products. Because whatever he says or writes, the reader is focused on a psychology that is ready to accept. Because the invisible writer is out of sight, he is also out of the heart. Those who are not on screens, lecterns, halls and squares do not have a place in minds and hearts. Therefore, a poet whose poem is published in the back pages of a literary magazine resents this situation badly. In the literary world, there is such a thing as having the right to appear before everyone else.
Not appearing yesterday was seen as a mystery. So there was an image of not being seen. Moreover, it was a distinctive image. The place of the writers, whose faces we have never seen through glass, with whom we have never met, would have been more immortal in our world. We would pay attention to what they wrote. Nowadays, the last thing that comes to mind of an author in the eyes of those who know him is his works. We can call it the polished image era. But how long can varnish sustain a person? The person whose polish has been spilled succumbs to the times when he lives and cannot live. Of course, the spilling of the polish is not the same as the forgetting of the memory. The memory directed towards the author may forget him after a while. This situation is a weakness of memory, it does not harm the ingenuity of the author. The situation changes for the writer, who is trying to survive with varnish. The image fades, the author tragically dead. The contribution of images and advertisements to an author is like short-term artificial respiration.
In the age we live in, the image has established a makeshift civilization. There is now living proof called "I saw it with my own eyes". It is tried to create a reality that there is no need to look for other evidence or source if the eye has seen it. However, a more effective and authentic witness is required than the eye that will explain what the eye sees and make it comprehend. There is always a need for a source to verify that what two people see is the same thing. Why don't we talk about what we haven't seen? Perhaps if we had seen what we did not see, our opinion of what we saw might have changed. Who can say that we wouldn't have a more pure and clear world if we didn't see most of what we see?
Where should we place Mevlana's saying "The ear is the eye if it understands the truth"? In fact, "seeing" is the common ability of all sense organs that serve comprehension. You can see what you cannot see beyond what you see, with the help of other sense organs. Seeing by smelling, touching, tasting, hearing. In this sense, it would not be absurd to say that the eyes of the blind are on their fingertips. It is even possible to see the mind and heart as organs of vision in a holistic sense.
How sad that man ceases to be a conscious element of appearance and turns into an image. One who looks from afar, sees a mountain, a mass of trees, but cannot reach to see the trees one by one. Transformation of vision into image is what the transformation of sound into noise is. "Do not be deceived by the image" is not said for nothing. Because the image always tries to camouflage itself with others by wearing someone else's dress. However, one should camouflage himself with himself. You have the name of it, let it be embarrassment.