The Secret of Ka part 2
http://www.amazon.com/review/RJ1258PRUMDRD/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0547342470&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=
a representative of christopher pikes replied to me and basically made a complete ass of himself. He also called me a "crazy person"! please go look!.
saving these here in case amazon deletes them:
Initial post: Sept. 25, 2010 3:12 PM PDT
Michael Brite says:
Hi, I work as one of Christopher Pike's editors. Please allow me to answer the below questions in order. The remarks contain mostly inaccurate information. Even where the points are technically correct, they are twisted to distort what the author intended.
1. Pike never wrote that Istanbul was the capital of Turkey. I have his original manuscript and he said it was the "largest" city in Turkey. The insertion of capital must have crept into the book during the editorial or copyediting stages. However, Pike should have caught the change to his original document, and he is always willing to takes the blame for what goes in his books. He accepts the blame for this mistake. It is an error he hopes to fix when the book is reprinted.
2. Is Turkey an Arabic country? Is Iraq an Arabic country? If you ask the Kurds in Turkey or Iraq if they are Arabs, they will probably say no, although many might say yes. This is because Iraq, as well as Turkey, are made up of various tribes. In history, Turkey was the home of the great Ottoman Empire, which spread the Arabic culture over much of Europe. Remember, the author must stay true to Sara's level of understanding of Arab culture. She sees the Middle East as largely Arabic, and would be surprised to learn that Iranians often refer to themselves as Persians. But in the course of the book, if Sara went around pointing out such subtle distinctions, no one would believe it. The girl has only just arrived in Turkey.
3. "Hell" is a swear word all over the world, particularly in Islamic countries, where the people do not swear as casually as they do in America.
4. No where does Pike state that bloody wars are being fought outside Sara's hotel. She makes a joke that her father "acts" like battles are being waged outside their Hilton. Most people get the joke and don't take her comment literally. Sara makes frequent jokes throughout the book. .
5. The gentleman who picked Pike up from the airport in Turkey wore a turban. So Pike put it in his book. For that matter, Pike has had met many taxi drivers in London and New York who wear turbans. He mentions turbans only once, and no where else does he refer to people wearing them; thus, he does not try to make the reader believe that turbans are common.
6. Amesh is the main Turk in the book. He has straight hair.
7. When Amesh calls his grandfather "Papi," that is his personal name for him. Otherwise, Amesh is speaking English to Sara, and often calls his granfather "Grandfather." Once again, Amesh is the main Turkish character in the novel and his name is a slight distortion of perhaps the most popular male name in Turkey. The names of all the young villians listed in the book are all Turkish names taken straight out of a book on Turkey. Names are just names -- in America we use names from every culture in the world. Pike used the name Mira for variety. He did not want every Turk to have a Turkish name -- that would not be realistic. But the majority do. Simply count the number of characters -- in the entire book, not the first five pages -- and compare them to a list of Turkish names.
8. Sara and Amesh drive outside Istanbul to reach the desert. Pike does not say the desert is inside Istanbul. But he does go out of his way to point out the sudden change in the terrain after Sara and Amesh leave the city.
9. The construction site Sara visits with Amesh is largely occupied by male laborers. Like in America, it would be odd to have woman doing hard physical labor while building a hydroelectric plant. This is summer, it is hot where these men are working. They would be wearing the least amount of clothing possible, and it is a fact the Turkish people are more conservative than Americans when it comes to sexual matters. It is, after all, an Islamic culture. It is doubtful the men would casually leave a dusty dig site, for lunch, and sit beside a clean Turkish woman. However, Pike demonstrates this is not an unbreakable custom when he has Sara eat with the men!
10. Spielo is the name of a Turkish friend of Mr. Pike's. He wanted to be in the book.
11. Pike never says Turkish women wear veils. Sara meets ONE woman wearing a veil and is immediately suspicious of her because of her dress. In this scene, Pike drops a big hint that this woman is NOT Turkish.
12. As far as the final threat to cut off Pike's hands....Pike is flattered that his book made such a deep impression on you that you would want to go to so much trouble on his behalf. Pike embraces fans of all types, especially the crazy ones.
my reply:
Okay Michael,
You have no idea how incredibly angry and offended I am. I am a Turk and I can guarantee you that I am not an Arab nor are the 7+ million Turks in the world Arabs. You really don't seem to have any sort of clue whatsoever that no Arab would ever consider a Turk an Arab, it's just extremely offensive. You are hitting very sore nerves with that one so don't even go there.
#3 Turkey is a SECULAR COUNTRY. And yes people curse just as freely these as they do here. Why are you talking to me like you actually know anything about Turkey? Have you ever lived there? I have!
#4 "If you could believe my father, bloody wards were being waged outside out hotel every night." That really doesn't sound like a joke to me.
#5 London and New York have a large population of Sikhs who wear Turbans. Turkey does not have Sikhs, also Sikhs are not Muslim. Total culture fail.
#6 that's fine but why does he have an Indian name and why does the book say that a majority of Turks have curly hair when they do not?
#7 AMESH is not a slight variation of anything remotely Turkish. These excuses are really insulting.
#8 WHERE IS THIS DESERT? FIND IT FOR ME ON A MAP. Because I lived in Istanbul for many years and never knew there was one. In fact I'm looking at the map right now, there are no deserts anywhere nearby.
#9 again you have no idea what you are talking about but thank you for trying to explain my own culture (extremely inaccurately and offensively) to me. it is not an unbreakable custom BECAUSE THERE IS NO SUCH CUSTOM.
#10 ok whatever, its still not a Turkish name and veils are a HUGE no-no even for tourists.
#11 calling me "crazy" and claiming that I am making "threats" for pointing out all the inaccuracies in his book is really not endearing him to me whatsoever.
You guys should really be ashamed of yourselves. Instead of trying to fix mistakes you're trying to explain to a Turkish person that you guys know more about her culture than she does. Bravo, ignorant arrogance hits a new low.
The sad part is, if you guys had only asked, i would have helped you fix all the errors for free.
oh my god i am so angry right now~~~
EDIT - As it turns out Michael Brite is actually Christopher Pike himself. I am amazed.
someone on the amazon thread found this is a different discussion:
In reply to an earlier post on May 26, 2010 2:59 PM PDT
Michael Brite says:
"This is Pike,
This is the real Christopher Pike, ignore the name this response appears under. I use many names online. The Eternal Dawn is a sequel to the other books. Sita is alive and well and the book explains in detail why Seymour portrayed her as dead at the end of the sixth book. Seymour is in the new books, although he does appear until half way through the first book. I feel the new ones are stronger than the old ones. Thirst 3 will be about 400 pages. I'm finished writing the main story but I'm in the editing stage. Yours, Pike "
a representative of christopher pikes replied to me and basically made a complete ass of himself. He also called me a "crazy person"! please go look!.
saving these here in case amazon deletes them:
Initial post: Sept. 25, 2010 3:12 PM PDT
Michael Brite says:
Hi, I work as one of Christopher Pike's editors. Please allow me to answer the below questions in order. The remarks contain mostly inaccurate information. Even where the points are technically correct, they are twisted to distort what the author intended.
1. Pike never wrote that Istanbul was the capital of Turkey. I have his original manuscript and he said it was the "largest" city in Turkey. The insertion of capital must have crept into the book during the editorial or copyediting stages. However, Pike should have caught the change to his original document, and he is always willing to takes the blame for what goes in his books. He accepts the blame for this mistake. It is an error he hopes to fix when the book is reprinted.
2. Is Turkey an Arabic country? Is Iraq an Arabic country? If you ask the Kurds in Turkey or Iraq if they are Arabs, they will probably say no, although many might say yes. This is because Iraq, as well as Turkey, are made up of various tribes. In history, Turkey was the home of the great Ottoman Empire, which spread the Arabic culture over much of Europe. Remember, the author must stay true to Sara's level of understanding of Arab culture. She sees the Middle East as largely Arabic, and would be surprised to learn that Iranians often refer to themselves as Persians. But in the course of the book, if Sara went around pointing out such subtle distinctions, no one would believe it. The girl has only just arrived in Turkey.
3. "Hell" is a swear word all over the world, particularly in Islamic countries, where the people do not swear as casually as they do in America.
4. No where does Pike state that bloody wars are being fought outside Sara's hotel. She makes a joke that her father "acts" like battles are being waged outside their Hilton. Most people get the joke and don't take her comment literally. Sara makes frequent jokes throughout the book. .
5. The gentleman who picked Pike up from the airport in Turkey wore a turban. So Pike put it in his book. For that matter, Pike has had met many taxi drivers in London and New York who wear turbans. He mentions turbans only once, and no where else does he refer to people wearing them; thus, he does not try to make the reader believe that turbans are common.
6. Amesh is the main Turk in the book. He has straight hair.
7. When Amesh calls his grandfather "Papi," that is his personal name for him. Otherwise, Amesh is speaking English to Sara, and often calls his granfather "Grandfather." Once again, Amesh is the main Turkish character in the novel and his name is a slight distortion of perhaps the most popular male name in Turkey. The names of all the young villians listed in the book are all Turkish names taken straight out of a book on Turkey. Names are just names -- in America we use names from every culture in the world. Pike used the name Mira for variety. He did not want every Turk to have a Turkish name -- that would not be realistic. But the majority do. Simply count the number of characters -- in the entire book, not the first five pages -- and compare them to a list of Turkish names.
8. Sara and Amesh drive outside Istanbul to reach the desert. Pike does not say the desert is inside Istanbul. But he does go out of his way to point out the sudden change in the terrain after Sara and Amesh leave the city.
9. The construction site Sara visits with Amesh is largely occupied by male laborers. Like in America, it would be odd to have woman doing hard physical labor while building a hydroelectric plant. This is summer, it is hot where these men are working. They would be wearing the least amount of clothing possible, and it is a fact the Turkish people are more conservative than Americans when it comes to sexual matters. It is, after all, an Islamic culture. It is doubtful the men would casually leave a dusty dig site, for lunch, and sit beside a clean Turkish woman. However, Pike demonstrates this is not an unbreakable custom when he has Sara eat with the men!
10. Spielo is the name of a Turkish friend of Mr. Pike's. He wanted to be in the book.
11. Pike never says Turkish women wear veils. Sara meets ONE woman wearing a veil and is immediately suspicious of her because of her dress. In this scene, Pike drops a big hint that this woman is NOT Turkish.
12. As far as the final threat to cut off Pike's hands....Pike is flattered that his book made such a deep impression on you that you would want to go to so much trouble on his behalf. Pike embraces fans of all types, especially the crazy ones.
my reply:
Okay Michael,
You have no idea how incredibly angry and offended I am. I am a Turk and I can guarantee you that I am not an Arab nor are the 7+ million Turks in the world Arabs. You really don't seem to have any sort of clue whatsoever that no Arab would ever consider a Turk an Arab, it's just extremely offensive. You are hitting very sore nerves with that one so don't even go there.
#3 Turkey is a SECULAR COUNTRY. And yes people curse just as freely these as they do here. Why are you talking to me like you actually know anything about Turkey? Have you ever lived there? I have!
#4 "If you could believe my father, bloody wards were being waged outside out hotel every night." That really doesn't sound like a joke to me.
#5 London and New York have a large population of Sikhs who wear Turbans. Turkey does not have Sikhs, also Sikhs are not Muslim. Total culture fail.
#6 that's fine but why does he have an Indian name and why does the book say that a majority of Turks have curly hair when they do not?
#7 AMESH is not a slight variation of anything remotely Turkish. These excuses are really insulting.
#8 WHERE IS THIS DESERT? FIND IT FOR ME ON A MAP. Because I lived in Istanbul for many years and never knew there was one. In fact I'm looking at the map right now, there are no deserts anywhere nearby.
#9 again you have no idea what you are talking about but thank you for trying to explain my own culture (extremely inaccurately and offensively) to me. it is not an unbreakable custom BECAUSE THERE IS NO SUCH CUSTOM.
#10 ok whatever, its still not a Turkish name and veils are a HUGE no-no even for tourists.
#11 calling me "crazy" and claiming that I am making "threats" for pointing out all the inaccuracies in his book is really not endearing him to me whatsoever.
You guys should really be ashamed of yourselves. Instead of trying to fix mistakes you're trying to explain to a Turkish person that you guys know more about her culture than she does. Bravo, ignorant arrogance hits a new low.
The sad part is, if you guys had only asked, i would have helped you fix all the errors for free.
oh my god i am so angry right now~~~
EDIT - As it turns out Michael Brite is actually Christopher Pike himself. I am amazed.
someone on the amazon thread found this is a different discussion:
In reply to an earlier post on May 26, 2010 2:59 PM PDT
Michael Brite says:
"This is Pike,
This is the real Christopher Pike, ignore the name this response appears under. I use many names online. The Eternal Dawn is a sequel to the other books. Sita is alive and well and the book explains in detail why Seymour portrayed her as dead at the end of the sixth book. Seymour is in the new books, although he does appear until half way through the first book. I feel the new ones are stronger than the old ones. Thirst 3 will be about 400 pages. I'm finished writing the main story but I'm in the editing stage. Yours, Pike "