Introvert like Marcel Proust, adventurer like Umberto Eco, fantastic like Italo Calvino, complex like Joyce, multi-faceted like Borges, magical like Marquez, and courageous like Dante... Included in the jury of Cannes Film Festival, Orhan Pamuk made headlines once again with two symposiums held in his name.
I remember a time when shelves in supermarkets and bookshops were packed with copies of My Name is Red. As I took one copy of the book in my hands, I faced his image lost in contemplation, directly looking at me from the backcover of the book. Suddenly I thought that this face was so familiar and I was sure he had something to reveal me and he knew something that might bring a change in my life. Although there were a hundred copies around, I was taken by his looks in the photograph reaching to me from behind those thick glasses whispering: “I have so much to tell you”.
Orhan Pamuk took me by the hand and opened the gates of new universes with ‘My Name is Red’. My Virgil from then on, Pamuk took me to a ‘New Life’... I remember a character in this book who was underlining the books while reading. I immediately underlined the sentence and many other sentences thereafter.
Reality and dream intermingled in his books, the borders blurred; characters got into each other... A dark atmosphere dominated and memory was deceptive as ever... Parallel universes were created with puns and riddles... Complex plots followed like corridors of the Library of Babel... The Silent House, The White Castle, Other Colours, Snow... Introvert like Marcel Proust, adventurer like Umberto Eco, fantastic like Italo Calvino, complex like Joyce, multi-faceted like Borges, magical like Marquez, and courageous as Dante... Pamuk’s books suddenly became indispensable to my life.
Understanding Orhan Pamuk
I remember a time when everyone was angry with this man whose books were advertised on billboards. They said, literature should not be popularised. I remember those claiming “A lot of people buy Orhan Pamuk books, but very few read them”. I remember reading statistics stating that “only one person out of ten people can read New Life until the end”. I was watching all these with a certain idea on my mind; they understood nothing of and about Orhan Pamuk.
It was on such a day that I encountered a book prepared by Engin Kılıç; ‘A Guide to Understanding Orhan Pamuk’. The articles in this book were collected with an aim to suggest new readings of Pamuk’s works. No doubt they were written by academics who understood Orhan Pamuk for those who want to understand Orhan Pamuk. Those who do not want to understand Orhan Pamuk did not read this book. Furthermore, they drove him to courts and even burnt his books.
Prizes, as the Nobel, are usually handled critically in literary circles, as it should be. It is widely known that Sartre denied the Prize. However, the aftershocks of Pamuk’s winning the Nobel Prize were quite controversial as many comments had no depth, and therefore no value. Those who invited Pamuk to renounce the prize “like Sartre did” failed to remember something. In the 1960s, Jean Paul Sartre made a series of controversial statements during a public lecture, upon which a group of French conservatives turned to Charles De Gaulle to caution the man of letters. After listening to their complaints, De Gaulle said to them "No way. Sartre is also France".
The most important and appropriate comment on Pamuk’s winning of the Nobel Prize emphasised the significance of the Prize in raising a world-wide interest in Turkish Literature and culture.
Not much later, Pamuk was invited to take a place in the jury of Cannes Film Festival. In its 60th year, Cannes also saw a big promotional campaign on Turkish culture.
Birthday present
Forget those who do not take pains to understand Orhan Pamuk; the city of İstanbul witnessed symposiums organised in name of the writer, for those who wish to understand him better. Kadir Has University organised a conference, entitled ‘the Literature of Orhan Pamuk’, on May 11, 2007. Subsequently Boğaziçi University held a two-day symposium where the works of the writer were discussed on May 14 and 15, 2007.
The conference at Kadir Has University focused on the international readings of Pamuk, with the participation of mainly foreign academics and critics; whereas Boğaziçi University housed many acknowledged Turkish academics such as Murat Belge, Engin Kılıç, and Jale Parla, who have been working on Pamuk’s works for some time. The symposium at Boğaziçi University was launched on May 14 with a ceremony, in which Mr.Pamuk was presented a honorary doctorate. Maureen Freely, translator of Pamuk’s works into English, joined the two symposiums and related the adventure and responsibilities of translating Pamuk.
Pamuk came to İstanbul in order to receive his honorary doctorate from Boğaziçi University and he gave a speech to mark the opening of the conference. “This is the place where I learned that books were not to be scared, or to be worshipped; instead books were to be understood”, he said emphasising the significance of mutual understanding.Pamuk celebrates his 55th birthday on June 7. It seems that the excitement he lived through at Cannes and his native city İstanbul in the month of May have been the best presents for him...
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