İlhan described these as poems written "out of spite." When criticized for writing love poems, he wrote more about love; when accused of escaping social responsibility through travel poetry, he doubled down on writing about ports, distant cities, and sailors. Loneliness and Rebellion:
Parallel to this, we meet , a young Turkish intelligence agent working for the CIA-backed Seferberlik (Mobilization) Bureau, who is tasked with surveilling Agâh. The novel weaves between their perspectives, showing how the state and its dissidents mirror each other in paranoia and loneliness.
