snow sets in in our minds as pamuk rejoices

it's still early winter. no snow in sight yet. but it snows in our hearts as mr. orhan pamuk, contoversial at home but internationally acclaimed novelist becomes a novel laureate in literature.

grey skies are ridiculing the bright rooftops across istanbul. the city is decaying into the corners of an unknown winter. "what's to become of us" ia a relevant and unending question as people, millions of them, are moving around to get a bus, to catch a ship across bosphorus. minds and discussions are full of eauropean community's tricks and turbulances, upcoming presidential elections and soccer, and soccer and soccer.

literature or mr. pamuk hardly found their way into mainstream networks. only one national news channel broadcasted nobel ceremony as a proud and happy mr. pamuk received the prize from swedish king, accompanied with his daughter.

my first point would be regardless of the artistic value of his work there was this political histeria going on around his views on interviews with various western newspapers and magazines. yesterday, he refused the traditional interview with the swedish academy and bbc on the grounds of a question about the weight of his political views on the prize. he was appearantly sickened by the fact that all individual and "different" views on the state here in turkey is still considered as an unpatriotic act. for the time being he prefers to concentrate on his success as a novelist rather than his political agenda and the turbulance around it.

secondly, apart from a few interviews by other sincere turkish authors, his laureate went unnoticed by the account of jealousy, enmity and hatred against success by his peers and public in general in turkey. he was a person who says things that will make the westerns happy so they gave him money in return, they rationalized their hatred and minority complexes. so the media in general mentioned the prize and the ceremony and that's all. more important things to discuss: the soccer games played on sunday, match-fixing allegations towards a main soccer club, and so on...

but mr. pamuk was genuinely happy as he walked the red carpet yesterday. he was righteously so. as was his daughter. As he mentioned in his laureate speech last week, his "father's luggage" I think was changing hands yesterday. he created a world, an inner one albeit, of egos, counter egos and psychological parallels in people and their environment, which is full of real life streets, neighborhoods and cities even though spme existed hundreds of years ego. his created world is a brilliant one, and his symmetries could be found in everyone here in the east as well as people in the west. he's a tough writer to read but he lurks the neighborhood of past greats like turgenyev or dostoyevsky.

I shall write more on pamuk and 'snow' and maybe on 'the black book' (his masterpieces in my view). but for now, a big congratulations and party mood are in order.

ps. some Orhan Pamuk references:
Orhan Pamuk official website

His interview with The Guardian

'Pamuk's Prize is a Family Affair' from The Guardian

The Paris Review Interview

The New Yorker Article on his NYC Stay

The New York Times topic on Orhan Pamuk