Conversations with History Blog

Orhan Pamuk

 

 

Orhan Pamuk is the 2006 Nobel Laureate in Literature.  He is the author of many novels including The White Castle, The Black Book, The New Life, My Name is Red, Snow.  His works of non fiction include :Istanbul: Memories of a City‎ and  Other Colors: Essays and A Story.  His books have been translated into fifty languages. His new novel is The Museum of Innocence.

  

Orhan Pamuk honed his craft in one of the world’s great cities, Istanbul, and his embrace of that city and the “melancholy of its ruins” is a defining feature of the great artist he has become. He “ builds a new world with words” and draws you into that world. William Faulkner in his Nobel speech reminded us that it is only“the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which make good writing.” Orhan Pamuk lives up to that tradition. His work is imbued with an extraordinary sensitivity to the pain and joy of the human condition.” A master of detail, he captures Istanbul society, especially  the foibles of a middle class that mindlessly mimics the West; he shows us  how men and women become prisoners of their passions and ambitions.

 

But in critiquing his own society, Orhan Pamuk does not reject its culture as he demonstrates in Istanbul: Memories of a City.  Torn between the allure of the West and the weight of tradition, Orhan Pamuk’s artistic journey has mastered and embraced the achievements of the West, its enlightenment, and its artistic forms such as the novel.  But he finds his authentic voice not by rejecting the traditions of Turkish culture but by interweaving its contributions with those of the West. In grappling with this tension, he has created some of the most important masterpieces of our time. As Pico Iyer writes in the New York Review of  Books,  “by drilling with such intensity and obsession into every corner of his own country's insecurities, Pamuk has given voice to nearly every society in the world torn between the longing to be global and to be itself.” 

 

But there is another reason why Pamuk speaks to an even broader international audience today.  As Nobel Laureaute Kenzaburo Oe reminded me in an interview, the great writers write from the periphery, write as the outsider in their own society, but also as an outsider in relation to the centers of world power and culture.  Today, the center of gravity is shifting; the periphery is becoming the center. The sun is rising in the East. We live in a time then where the West itself is facing decline. Just look around.  For that reason, Orhan Pamuk’s achievements will come to have even more meaning, especially for the West.

 

Orhan Pamuk writes “I sometimes think myself unlucky to have been born in an aging and impoverished city buried under the ashes of a ruined empire. But a voice inside me always insists this was really a piece of luck.” I would add, it is Our Luck, too.

The India Pakistan Conflict

As President Obama decides on a future course for Aghanistan policy, his administration would be wise to factor in the broader regional context. The first element of that equation is of course Pakistan. The failure of the Pakistani leadership to consolidate its national identity and to address the social and economic problems of its people lies at the heart of its failure to be a partner that the United States can count on in all dimensions of its security concerns.  For insight into Pakistan's failure to manage its own house see the Conversations with History interview with Tariq Ali

For an analysis of Pakistan's failure to help the United States in solving the Afghanistan problem after 911, see the Conversations with History interview with Ahmed Rashid

Finally, until the serious conflict between India and Pakistan is made part of a regional settlement, President Obama's increasing the number of US troops is unlikely to solve either the Afghanistan war or the deteriorating situation in Pakistan.  For a discussion of the India Pakistan conflict and the challenges posed by nuclear weapons, see the Conversations with History interview with T.V. Paul