Güler Şebnem Uralcan, who is also known for her academic identity and has many best-selling books published by well-known publishers in her field, has had the second and third volumes of her Aşk ve Müzik Sonsuza Dek (Love and Music Forever) duology published together by Yeniinsan Publishing after the release of the first novel, Deliliğin Büyüsü (The Magic of Madness). Yeni Bir Ben (A New Me) is featured on one side of Aşk ve Müzik Sonsuza Dek II, while Döngü Çemberleri (Cycle Circles) is on the other side. These two volumes were printed together as a single work to address the complaints of those who had read Deliliğin Büyüsü and were eagerly waiting for the release. After reading Deliliğin Büyüsü, it is necessary to read Yeni Bir Ben first, then to read Döngü Çemberleri, written by Itzamna and read by Ahu during her trip to Mexico on the plane, together with Ahu, and to return to where you left off in Yeni Bir Ben after finishing the work.
The music, poems, and sayings included in Yeni Bir Ben (A New Me) and Döngü Çemberleri (Cycle Circles) are just as enchanting, alluring, and thought-provoking as those in Deliliğin Büyüsü (The Magic of Madness). What does it mean to be in love with a woman from eternity? Is it possible for Yenidendoğan to search for the woman written in his heart at his creation? What does it mean to say “I found the love I was looking for?” The answers to these questions are brilliantly reflected in the verses, notes, or statements of many philosophers, musicians, and poets, ranging from Yunus to Goethe, Bryan Adams to Ali Ekber Çiçek, Hayyam to Karacaoğlan, Pir Sultan Abdal to Hacı Bektaşi Veli, as well as scientific findings from the beginning of the works. The work draws the reader into its world with a chain of events that drive curiosity to madness in the carnival of love and music, taking them along for the ride and keeping them in suspense. As one reader reflected, “Curiosity and excitement accelerate me, yet I don’t want the book to end,” such feelings can be experienced.
The work presents captivating, thought-provoking, and mind-bending theses and antitheses on one side set in 10th century Mexico-Chichen Itza and Yucatan, while on the other side in modern-day and in our country. While reading about the cycles of creativity in the universe in the most rational way, we also learn about the inscriptions, research, and evidence related to the Mayans, Uyghur Turks, and the continents of Mu and Atlantis that sank during the Great Flood. And there is an unimaginable universal reason behind all of this… Hidden in our subconscious…
The absolute sense of trust that Sungurlalp feels next to Ahu, his unconditional surrender, the limitless attraction of love, are identified with the feelings that Amarath had evoked in his heart a thousand years ago. His love, inscribed in his heart, calls out to him from the depths of time in a way that drives him crazy… As Goethe said, “At that moment the music rises, with the vibrations of angel wings/ Like a fabric made up of millions and millions of melodies/ It begins to seep into every fiber of one’s being/ Filling it with an endless beauty/ … The double happiness of music and love has been experienced.”
Sometimes, roads stretch out and lead a person into a dead end, not knowing where the end will be; just like it took time for Ahu and Sunguralp to reunite with each other…
Sunguralp, like a wingless bird, constantly oscillates between the “finite” and “infinite” universes in his life. Throughout the novel, he tirelessly and unrelentingly tries to convey to Ahau that the universe is intertwined with love, that cycles create a “new self,” and that melting in the immortal circle of love and being reborn again is possible with all sincerity, transparency, and scientific approach…
“Death is a resetting, it is the zero point of renewal.”
The whirlpools, drifts, disappearances, struggles in dead-end streets, mythological identities, and hallucinations of Ahu and Sunguralp turn into an unstoppable flood, roaring like water cascading from a waterfall from the pen of Uralcan. The events become a torrent of happenings… In “The Spell of Madness,” the author distills all the unfinished answers into paper through a long and mystical journey that extends from Istanbul to Chicken Itza. He sheds light on the mist curtains of the past that obstruct the journey of two people finding each other and presents them to the readers with a harmonious universe of language.
“How can one describe the melting sensation in the attraction of a reunion after a thousand years?”
To those who are enchanted by the limitless madness of love; to those who believe in the eternal reflection of the universe, love, and music…
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Güler Şebnem Uralcan
As an academician, Uralcan has been conducting education, research, and social awareness activities in the fields of business, risk management, insurance, and finance for many years in both public and private universities and organizations. He has published numerous articles, papers, and books in his research areas and has also hosted weekly television and radio programs. In 2011, he was awarded the ‘Academician of the Year’ award. Uralcan, who has had an interest in literature since childhood, has been publishing his stories, poems, essays, conversations, and memoirs in various magazines, newspapers, and online platforms since his secondary education. Recently, his story titled ‘Nature Gone’ was published in the book ‘Turkey Tells Stories’, and another story titled ‘A Good and Bad Day’ was awarded the 2021 Academy Special Award by the Anatolian Folklore and Culture Association in memory of Yaşar Kemal. ‘The Enchantment of Madness’ is his first novel, which is the first book in the Love and Music Forever dilemma. ‘New Me-Cycle Circles’ is the final book in the Love and Music Forever dilemma.
