Orhan Pamuk

this evening i went to a talk by Orhan Pamk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. it was pretty good and luckily in english (with translations in Romanian). its really really hard trying to make sense of what people are saying if its anything other than everyday situations.

having sat through his discussion, i want to read something of his. maybe not the Nobel book, cause that may be too important for my little brain. he discussed nationalism and its use as propaganda to incite those lacking in education to fully make sense of the issues and preying on their fear while providing them with nothing. he also made the distinction between what we expect nationalism to be and the political manifestation or people selling their vision under the heading of but usually being devoid of any of the positive and/or definitive aspects of the culture it supposedly is saving/preserving. or maybe am putting my words in his mouth.

before i went to the presentation, one of my turkish students stated that many people in turkey hate him because he wrote about the armenian genocide. That student also stated emphatically that he was a liar that it was really the Kurds who did that. a fine example of children restating, believing, and propagating what they hear and the unlikelihood of anything changing that viewpoint

Pamuk also explained that part of his contract is to vet book covers in the countries his books are translated and published in because of the prevalence of the desire to place a mosque on all covers. given how important he is (am assuming that he is well respected in the literature world given that Nobel prize) its a little surprising that the lowest common denominator and cliches win.