The KA of Me

One of my favourite books I read as a child, if not the favorite one is "Morning Star" by Henry Rider Haggard. In Turkish the name of the book was translated as "The Daughter of the Pharaoh". Today I started rereading it after so many years. The last time I read it was when I was in Boston, because I had carried the book with me all the way to Boston from here then. Somehow I lost this copy I had as a child, probably while I was in Boston.

Only today it occurred to me to look it up on the internet and there I found it on several free-classics web sites. One goes like this:

http://www.classicreader.com/book/1543/

I wanted to share it with you. I don't know if you guys will be able to read it through a child's eyes, I dont know when I reread it, if I will still appreciate it as much as I used to do so as a kid. For me, this was good literature then.

This is not one of Haggard's well known books. The most famous one he wrote was "She", which is also available on free-classics e-book websites for those who wish to read it. I had looked the book up on the internet some years ago to see what the original name of the book in English was. I probably entered poor keywords that I was not able to find it until today. Seeing the name of the book as being "Morning Star", I was really startled:

When I was 9 years old, I wrote a book on sci-fi , entitled "The Queen of Venus". When I was 6 years old or so, I was a huge fan of the TV series Battlestar Galactica and from that point on never gave up on appreciating good science-fiction. Thanks to BSG, I became addicted to reading and learning anything on space. I even had dreams of becoming an astronaut.

Well as years went by, I felt more "grounded" yet when the cyberspace, the internet got into my life, Galaxy (the name I had used for my heroine in Queen of Venus) became my cyberspace nickname. I had a special interest in the planet of Venus, for the sole reason that it was rotating around itself from west to east, unlike all other planets in the solar system which rotate from east to west. This major difference was good enough to distinguish it as a special planet for me. Of course I also had not missed the fact that Venus, the morning star was the brightest celestial object after the moon in our dark skies.

I always thought that it was thanks to my interest in sci-fi that I developed this obsession with Venus. Yet, today seeing the book Morning Star, I remembered that although the name of the book was translated differently into Turkish, inside the book, one could still find the mention that Neter-Tua (daughter of the Pharaoh) was the Morning Star.

To make a long story short, today I figured out that probably it was thanks to this book that I discovered Venus and made it the planet I wanted to possess, for it was the brightest seen from the Earth. It was thanks to this book that I created this alter ego for me as a child. Neter-Tua had a Ka to rely on when she got into trouble. I had Galaxy!!!

Having refound the book today surely lit up a dark mood and I got very very very happy.

It has been years since I last read it. Although I read it a zillion times before and although I remember the story in its entirety, I dont remember if the language of the book was a good one. I will know once I reread it again. I also never read it in English before and this time I decided to read it in the original language, despite that fact that the Turkish translation book is still in print in Turkey.

As I mentioned above, the thing I loved about the book was the existence of the Ka, the Double soul of Neter-Tua given to her by the Gods. When Neter-Tua no longer has to deal with a life that has gotten ugly, she calls her Ka, to replace her, while she will go seek solace elsewhere. Ka, is the perfect grantor of justice, teaches all the villains the lessons they are supposed to learn and is ruthless while she does so. Ka is so strong, so wise, so clever, so witty that I wanted to be her, rather than the soft sided Neter-Tua herself.

I don't think I became the Ka as I grew up. I am now making a plea to myself and calling my own Ka, the Galaxy I kow, to set things right in a war I have been figthing for some time. I will retreat to some inner corner while I will let my own Ka do her magic. I dont know if I will restart writing sci-fi tales (sagas?), yet I know my Ka will be more noisy on the paper.

Enjoy the book!

Love,

Miss Evliya Celebi
(Galaxy)