Baldwin’s not learning Turkish produced a critical silence that sharpened his vision

Evidence

Despite living in Istanbul off and on for close to a decade, Baldwin never learned the language. He moved about the country, its teahouses and bookshops, in relative silence, except when he was with people who could translate conversations for him. Istanbul became Baldwin’s elsewhere: It allowed him the critical distance from the deadly dynamics of American life. The silence enabled him to hear his own language and, I suspect, feel his own grief more deeply. That distance gave him a different angle of vision not only on the United States but on himself apart from the lie that suffocated him and much of American life. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 398

Categorization

• XREF: Ties directly into the reader’s established theme of silence as a positive, enabling presence (from One Square Inch of Silence and Deep Listening).
• QUESTION: Interesting: does ‘not learning the language of one’s refuge’ function generally as a way to preserve distance, or is this unique to Baldwin?