horn intro

Haberi okurken kafamdaki arka plan muzigi Modest Mouse’un “Good News…” albumlerine giris parcasi Horn Intro’ydu. Boynuz Jose Tomas’a girerken, onlar da zihnime o kulak tirmalayici kornayla giriverdi. Elim ise okuma esnasinda ve uzunca bir muddet sonrasinda, kasigimda kaldi. Karizmatik matador Jose Tomas, Meksika’daki arenada belasini azgin bogadan bulmus, boynuzu on santimetre kadar kasigindan iceri buyurmus. Baya baya olumden donmus. Yogun kan kaybi yasamis, kani neredeyse komple degismis.

Ne zaman bu konuyla ilgili bir seyler yazacak olsam aklima “bize medeniyet dersi verenler…” , “kurban kesmeyi vahset gorenler…” tandansli, isin ahlaki ozunden soyut, rekabetci kontratak yorumlar gelir, vazgecerim. Bu kez haberin de vesilesiyle parmaklarim momentum kazandi. Bu dupeduz vahsetin, bir ayini andiran bu adaletsiz rituelin boylesine olagan bir eglence anlayisi olarak sunulmasini, dogmatik bir kulturel kod olarak kabul gormesini aklim hicbir zaman almaz. Hele giyim-kusamdan romantizme, kitlesel ilgiden gucun sembolune etrafinda sekillenen zengin kulturun varligi vahsetin ta kendisiyle yurek kaldirmaz bir tezat olusturuyor. Bu hayvanlar intikam bilir mi, toplumsal bir bellekleri var midir bilmiyorum ama arada unlu olup arenayi kan golune cevirmeyi bir sekilde beceriyorlar. Buna son vermek ne otoritelerin, ne de katliam istahli binlerce vahset taniginin sagduyusuyla gerceklesecege benzemiyor. Hicbir insan evladinin yasami yitsin istemem; zaten Tomas’a komaz, yirtmis kefeni, ama olumcul olmayacak sekilde bu hadiselerin sayisi artsin da genc matadorlar rahatsiz olsun, sapkalarini onune koyup “bu is tehlikeli mi olmaya basladi?” deyip kendini baska meslek kollarina yoneltsin diye “wishful” dusunmuyor degilim.

Bu cehalete ve otekiye/ucubeye karsi zafer eylemini doyumun merkezine alan sozde sporu en iyi, 1960li yillarda cekilmis Kanada yapimi bir belgesel olan “Le Sport et les Hommes”a yazmis oldugu tekstle, Roland Barthes acikliyor sanirim. Internette var mi acaba diye aratmaya tenezzul etmeden ve usenmeden, elimdeki kitapciktan buraya buyuk bir zevkle geciyorum. Bir nevi yazarak calisiyorum ki kafama daha iyi girsin.

What needs have these men to attack? Why are men disturbed by this spectacle? Why are they totally committed to it? Why this useless combat? What is sport?

Bullfighting is hardly a sport, yet it is perhaps the model and the limit of all sports: strict rules of combat, strength of the adversary, man’s knowledge and courage; all our modern sports are in this spectacle from another age, heir of ancient religious sacrifices. But this theater is a false theater: real death occurs in it. The bull entering will die; and it is because this death is inevitable that the bullfight is a tragedy. This tragedy will be performed in four acts, of which the epilogue is death.

First, passes of the cape; the torero must learn to know the bull –that is to play with him; to provoke him, to avoid him, to entangle him deftly, in short to ensure his docility fighting according to the rules.

Then the picadors; here they come, on horseback at the far end of the ring, riding along the barrier. Their function is to exhaust the bull, to block his charges in order to diminish his excess of violence over the torero.

Act Three. The banderillas.

A man alone, with no other weapon than a slender beribboned hook, will tease the bull: cal out to him… stab him lightly… insouciantly slip away.

Here comes the final act. The bull is still the strongeri yet certainly die… The bullfight will tell men why man is best. First of all, because the man’s courage is conscious: his courage is the consciousness of fear, freely accepted, freely overcome.

Man’s second superiority is his knowledge. The bull does not know man; man knows the bull, anticipates his movements, their limits, and can lead his adversary to the site he has chosen, and if this site is dangerous, he knows it and has chosen it for this reason.

There is something else in this torero’s style. What is style? Style makes difficult action into a graceful gesture, introduces a rhythm into fatality. Style is to be courageous without disorder, to give necessity the appearance of freedom. Courage, knowledge, beauty, these are what man opposes to the strength of the animal, this is the human ordeal, of which the bull’s death will be the prize.

Furthermore what the crowd honors in the victor, tossing him flowers and gifts, which he graciously returns, is not man’s victory over the animal, for the bull is always defeated; it is man’s victory over ignorance, fear, necessity. Man has made his victory a spectacle, so that it might become the victory of all those watching him and recognizing themselves in him.