_My name is Red_ by Orhan Pamuk
- From: "veg" <veg@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 26 Dec 2005 00:03:14 -0800
This is also posted at Days Between Stations
http://daysbetweenstations.blogspot.com
which seems to be turning into my literature blog.
This is a marvelous book. Set in the late 1500s in Istanbul, the plot
revolves around a illustrated manuscript being prepared in secrecy for
Ottoman Sultan Murat III, which is to include painting techniques
developed in western Europe, specifically perspective and painting from
life. Great tension develops between the adherents of these imported
styles and traditional technique, with which painting is done in a
manner which has been inherited from Persian artists and depicts
objects in a stylized form, which is how they are perceived by Allah,
and arranges them in a flat space, as though seen from a height.
In Islam, there is controversy arising from any depictation of the
things in the world, as this is seen as an arrogant assumption of the
perogatives of Allah's vision of the world, and thus a heretical
activity. There is a passage from the Koran
The blind and the seeing are not equal "The Creator" 19
which is cited as a defense of the stylized depictation of objects,
but the controversy rages, and as various artists come to realise what
they are engaged in, the view that this is heresy drives one fellow to
the verge of denouncing the effort, bringing it to the attention of a
fundamentalist group who engage in murder of heretics and the
destruction of their work and properties.
The ripening whistleblower is murdered, and the events leading to his
discovery comprise the framework of the novel.
But the clothe draped over the plot is a fascinating account of the
history of Islamic illustration, and the conceptual evolution of style,
ideas about the personal claim to work, vision and blindness. Islamic
illustrations are historically all based on stories, both historical
and fabled, and many of these stories are told. This makes the novel a
bit clunky at times, but the chunks are like diamonds and precious
artworks, a joy to read and very thought provoking.
This is a great novel, well worth reading.
Orhan Pamuk is a popular Turkish writer.
He is on trial for alleged violations of the 301st article of Turkish
Penal Code, which includes this text:
"a person who insults Turkishness, the Republic or the Turkish
parliament will be punished with imprisonment ranging from six months
to three years."
His trial has been postponed. Turkey seeks membership in the European
Union, which frowns on these proceedings. Recent news articles lead me
to think that Turkey will try to sidestep the EU's disapproval by
dropping the trial, and moot the issue of the law.
I support freedom of speech and the press, and believe that societies
are strongest when individuals can speak freely and without fear.
Vaguely worded injunctions against hard to define concepts are
particularly abhorrant. I urge the Turkish authorities to drop the
charges against Orhan Pamuk, and the Turkish people to eliminate this
draconian and ill-conceived law.
.
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