Had a wonderful time this morning ... woke up it was a Sunday morning and tuned into The Swedish Academy's Permanent Secretary
Horace Engdahl's
interview with
Mr. Orhan Pamuk the winner of the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 2006 for Turkey .... is it the first time Turkey won! Remains an issue I guess, but Doris Lessing won this year in 2007 and Lessing is 88 and is the oldest woman ever to win this particular prize ... so well done Doris and I assure you I will discourage anyone from writing begging letters to Doris Lessing as she has complained "upfront" on this issue ...
Back to Pamuk .... The Black Book is one of the favourite books highlighted in this interview with Horace Engdahl and Mr Pamuk and they together in conversation shed some light on it ... Mr Pamuk lived in childhood in Istanbul and the book is story after story rather like a parable form about Istanbul and the bookshops and streets of Pamuk and Istanbul ...
Interesting connections for the viewer .. but the Interviewer raises the issue of Islamic mysticism and it seems to grab hold of the writer's pysche and much is made of the importance of this notion in this particular context .. Mr. Pamuk lived in America when his wife was doing her Ph.D and he had a room at a library in the ... University where he formed the writings known as the Black Book .... for all of it ... the need for the teacher is a relevant one ...
Class plays a pivotal role in Pamuk interview with Horace Engdahl Permanent Secretary of The Swedish Academy and references are made to the class sytem in Pamuk's Turkey of Upper Class Society there which he evokes .. eloquently!
Excellent stuff ... we are never out of a job in dealing with great literature and its important to stress that the author has to make room for the reader ... i.e. ME and YOU!
Great stuff at the Swedish Academy 2006 on yahoo.com .. keep on blogging...