About the author of this blog
Elif Batuman was born in New York City and grew up in New Jersey. She now lives in Twin Peaks, San Francisco (near the radio tower).
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| Elif Batuman | Sutro Tower |
“Elif” is the Turkish name of the first letter of the Arabic alphabet (alif, like the Greek alpha or Hebrew aleph). Turkish used to be written in Arabic script until Atatürk’s orthographic reform in 1928. Elif is drawn as a straight line. It has the numerical value of one and the meaning of “upright, slender.” The expression, “Elifi görse direk sanır” (“If he saw an elif he would think it was a post”) means: “He is completely illiterate.”
