Nihal for the character ask. I know you talked about her but I just have to ask.
I would LOVE to do Nihal!
Favorite thing about them: she's a very vivid character, and lots of the novel take place in her mind despite her not being really relevant to the plot. She could have been the naive young girl who is a secondary character in someone's else story, instead she is a deconstruction of this type of character. Yes, she is naive, neurotic, and frail: but she's also intelligent for her age, petty, possessive, manipulative. Yes, she has not an important role for the plot; but most of the plot is narrated through her eyes, so we know a lot about her rich inner world and her personality. Let's just say that reading about Nihal confirmed what I already though about the whole "strong female character" rhetoric: it's not about how stereotipically strong (physically or emotionally or mentally) a female character is, but about how respect the author uses in writing her. It's about female character having a complex inner world that often in the past was granted only to male protagonist. I was pleasant surprise to a Turkish novel written in early 1900 feature a decostruction of a clichè like Nihal (I was less surprised about Bihter, even if I like her character too, because the deconscruction of the trope of the seductress/fallen woman was and still is more common in literature. But the naive girl is usually just a naive girl, or sometimes a naive girl that becomes wise with life and trauma, but rarely a decostruction of the trope.)
Least favorite thing about them: As a character? Not too much. As a person, is far from being flawless, but she is also very young and she has years to improve. I like that the narrative voice is comprehensive of her issues and doesn't blame her excessively, but at the same time doesn't picture her as 100% innocent and naive only because she is very young and with a poor health.
Three things i have in common with them:
I don't like changes. Especially inside my family or house.
I idealize the first twelve years of my life as a perfect period.
I was often sick as a child and my mother has always suffered of poor health.
Three things i don’t have in common with them:
I'm not blonde.
I live in a different country, in a different culture and in a different time period.
I am not so codependent to my father- I have always been more attached to my mother.
Favorite line: when she told to her father that she will never marry.
brOTP: with her brother and Madamoiselle.
OTP: with no one. I like that this novel subvert the idea that the young girl character becomes grown-up when she started being interested in love and boys. Nihal forces herself to be interested in those things, but it's not something that she really wants to do, it's more the result of the influence of the adults around her.
nOTP: with Behlül.
Random Headcanon: she will make peace with Bihter's ghost. She will never marry. Today she would be diagnosed with what the doctors call, with a bit of ableism, high functioning/low needs autism.
Unpopular Opinion: I was surprised to know that some people don't think she is an important character in the novel.
Song i associate with them: "I will never marry" sung by Joan Baez is the first one who reminds me of her. "I will never marry, I will be no man's bride" is basically what Nihal tell her father in the iconic marriage chapter. Joan Baez sang this song when she was very young (I think in her late teens) so the general vibe of the song fit Nihal well. "Gli uomini non cambiano" (Men don't change) sung by Mia Martini, the one that I translated for you, is another song that in my opinion fit Nihal well, especially for the first verse about being in love with your own father as a child and feeling betrayed and neglected by him. The one sung by Joan Baez reminds me of Nihal in the first part of the book, when she is inexperienced but conscious about what she wants (and what she doesn't want). The one sung by Mia Martini reminds me of Nihal at the end of the book, after the failed betrohal to Behlül and the disillusionment that follows it.
And there are others two italians songs of the same period (60s/early 70s) that in my opinion give the impression of a young girl who is a bit naive, slightly neurotic and a bit sheltered from the world, but then her golden world of childhood end violently because of a traumatic event: "Gioco di Bimba" by Le Orme, and "Ophelia" by Guccini. Both songs are sung by male singers so in my mind it fit more the narrative voice that speak about Nihal, or her father who thinks of her daughter, rather than Nihal speaking about her feelings like the others two songs. In both of these songs, it's implicit than the girl, rather than growing up after this traumatic experience, remains stuck in an eternal and etereal childhood that can be a synonim of death ("Ophelia") or madness ("Gioco di Bimba", that means Child's Play or maybe it's better to translate it with Little Girl's Play, because the word "child" is gender neutral while "bimba" is a female noun, so it's obviously that they are speaking about a young girl.) If you want I cant translate all the lyrics for you tomorrow.
Favorite picture of them: I don't have one.
@faintingheroine
