Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red (1998) | Book Review and Analysis — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:12Hello, my friends. Welcome to my corner. It was  almost 20 years ago that the Turkish author Orhan
2. 0:18Pamuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.  Let me read you the citation. The Nobel Prize in
3. 0:24Literature 2006 was awarded to Orhan Pamuk, “who  in the quest for the melancholic soul of his
4. 0:31native city has discovered new symbols for the  clash and interlacing of cultures.” I remember
5. 0:39when that Nobel Prize was awarded, because I  it had just been a couple of years before that
6. 0:44I had decided to start reading at least one book  by each of the Nobel laureates. Now, back then,
7. 0:50when the time came to read Pamuk, I decided to  go with The White Castle, and that was for two
8. 0:56reasons. The first one, I'm going to be perfectly  honest with you, was because it was a brief novel,
9. 1:01okay? This is one of his shortest works. And the  other reason, I would say equally importantly,
10. 1:08is that it deals with a doppelganger kind of  theme, and as you may know, I am absolutely
11. 1:13in love with that kind of theme in novels. So, I  was like, “Okay, it's a win-win situation.” Now,
12. 1:20here's what happened. I believe that I did not  really understand that novel, and as a result,
13. 1:27I did not really enjoy it. So, this time  when it came to making a video about Pamuk,
14. 1:32I decided to go with a different work instead of  rereading The White Castle. I had many options.
15. 1:38There was one that I was really, really excited  about, The New Life, because it's about somebody
16. 1:43who reads a book and it changes completely this  person's life. But then I read reviews about it
17. 1:49and that people were not that enthusiastic about  that particular novel, so I thought, “Okay,
18. 1:53let's go for the big one,” okay? And to me, the  big one, reading about it, was Benim adım Kırmızı,
19. 2:01which means of course, My Name Is Red. This is one  of the novels by Pamuk that many people consider
20. 2:07to be his masterpiece, or at least one of the  books that led to his being awarded the Nobel
21. 2:14Prize in literature. So, this novel was published  in the year 1998. It is Pamuk's fifth novel,
22. 2:22okay? The one that I showed you before, The White  Castle, this one is his second novel, but it's the
23. 2:26first one that is available in English. So the  one that was published before this is the only
24. 2:31novel by him that has not, at least not yet, been  translated into English. This, the one that we
25. 2:38are looking at right now, is 413 pages in length,  and the action is divided into 59 brief chapters.
26. 2:46This is a polyphonic, multi-perspective novel. So  you get very different types of narrators, most of
27. 2:53whom are directly related or directly concerned  with the events that are narrated, but also
28. 3:01some secondary characters, and some of them, the  narrators, very interesting. For example, a gold
29. 3:07coin, a horse, a tree, okay? And many of these  are painted. They are representations of these
30. 3:14things. Not a real horse, but a representation  of a horse. Satan is also a narrator. Death,
31. 3:22okay? And here's the thing. Listen to how the  novel begins, okay? Because this is one novel that
32. 3:27kind of, you know, grabs your attention from the  very beginning. It's gripping. And chapter one,
33. 3:32which is titled “I Am a Corpse,” begins like  this: “I am nothing but a corpse now, a body
34. 3:38at the bottom of a well. Though I drew my last  breath long ago and my heart has stopped beating,
35. 3:44no one, apart from that vile murderer, knows  what's happened to me.” I mean, with a beginning
36. 3:50like that, how can you help… you know, just… I  couldn't… I couldn't stop reading after that. It's
37. 3:55one of those novels, few cases that this happens,  that from the very first sentences I was like,
38. 4:00“Wow,” you know, “I really want to know how this  story continues and what is going to happen.” So,
39. 4:05what is My Name Is Red about? Here's the thing:  the sultan has commissioned a group of artists,
40. 4:12these are painters, miniaturists, to put together  a book, illustrate a book that reflects his glory.
41. 4:20Problem: illustration goes against the teachings  of Islam, because the only one who creates is
42. 4:28God himself, Allah himself, right? So there we  have the conflict, and the actual story begins
43. 4:33when one of the miniaturists is murdered, maybe  because of this conflict, maybe not. That is one
44. 4:39of the things that we are going to try to find out  as we read. The guy is known as Elegant Effendi,
45. 4:45and most of the clues as to who the murderer of  this guy is are to be found in the art that was
46. 4:52produced. So it's a really, really interesting  premise. Tightly connected to that… so, we have
47. 4:57that thread, right, about the miniaturist who  was murdered… and very closely related to that,
48. 5:02we have another story, and this is the story  of Shekure. She is a woman with two sons,
49. 5:08who are named Orhan and Shevket, just as in real  life: Orhan Pamuk and his brother Shevket. And
50. 5:15this woman's husband has gone to war, but he  has not returned. So there's a guy named Black
51. 5:21who wants to marry her. That is the other thread  that we find in the novel. In other words, you
52. 5:28could say that this novel intertwines a narrative  thread that deals with art and another one that
53. 5:33deals with desire. That is the word that I'm going  to use for the purposes of describing the story
54. 5:39right here. Now, there are several subgenres  at play, if you ask me, in My Name Is Red. So,
55. 5:46this is, obviously, right, at the most “basic,”  quote-unquote, level, a historical novel. It is
56. 5:52set in the 16th century, in the year 1591, to be  absolutely precise. But this is also a mystery
57. 6:00novel, okay? Because the first thing that we find  out, as I told you, you know, and as we heard
58. 6:05with the first lines of the novel, is that there  has been a murder, and the thing is, as we read
59. 6:10the text leads us to believe that in due time the  identity of the murderer is going to be revealed,
60. 6:17right? So, that's the other part, another subgenre  right there. And let's not forget Shekure’s story,
61. 6:24right? Her story is that of a woman who's being  courted while her husband is away at war. She's
62. 6:30hoping that this guy will return. So, I would  not go as far as to say that this is a romance,
63. 6:35or a love story, but it is definitely a novel of  manners in the sense that it tells us a little
64. 6:40bit about how that aspect works, you know: this  idea, waiting for this guy to see if he's alive,
65. 6:46and this idea of whether you should get a divorce  or not, and marry another person or not. Now, the
66. 6:52way that I wanted to approach this novel, because  it could be a pretty complex one, is through three
67. 6:57themes that I wanted to emphasize, and that's  the way that we're going to go about it. The
68. 7:03first one is the role of art, okay? Especially  when considered in conflict with religion, or at
69. 7:09least with the interpretation of certain religious  teachings. So, that is probably theme number one.
70. 7:17But if we go deeper, the issue at hand here, with  this idea, right, still with the idea of the role
71. 7:22of art, is the good old tradition/modernity  dichotomy, okay? So it's a representation
72. 7:29also of that, and that is a crucial theme in  Turkish history, and as a result, of course,
73. 7:35also in Turkish literature. Actually, you can  see it in another classic of Turkish literature
74. 7:40that I have talked about before. This is not the  first time that we approach Turkish literature. So
75. 7:45if you're interested in my review on Ahmed Hamdi  Tanpınar's The Time Regulation Institute, that's
76. 7:52another very important work, admired, by the way,  by Orhan Pamuk, in which you can see this idea,
77. 7:58you know. Tradition, modernity, the clash between  those two things. So, My Name Is Red kind of takes
78. 8:05up that clash, that dichotomy right there, those  two concepts. So, that was theme number one. The
79. 8:11second one, I would say that just as important,  is the notion of style, okay? And here by style
80. 8:18we mean the personal type of style, the personal  thing, kind of like a signature that you may put
81. 8:24to a work of art. Is personal style an asset or  a flaw? That is one question that this novel is
82. 8:31going to raise. Should the artist sign his or her  work or should they work for a higher purpose? And
83. 8:39this is kind of difficult, you know, at least for  me, because the kind of culture that I come from,
84. 8:43to us it's like art equals self-expression,  right? That's the way… that's the… art is how
85. 8:49you express yourself, you know? It's… you put your  soul into the painting, you put your heart on the
86. 8:55on the page when you're writing, or anything like  that. So, it's kind of like a given. But to me,
87. 8:59this novel asked me, “Okay, consider other  views,” okay? Maybe art, self-expression,
88. 9:05that's not the only thing that art can be, right?  So, that's one thing that I feel that this novel
89. 9:10helped me to consider. So, at the center of  this idea, right, the signature, what we have,
90. 9:16I think, is art and the problem of vanity. I think  generally speaking this idea of a personal style,
91. 9:24of a signature, is something that we associate  primarily as a product of the Renaissance,
92. 9:29because you have that focus on the individual,  the focus on man as opposed to the divine,
93. 9:35maybe egocentrism even. Now, there was something  that I was reminded of when I was reading this
94. 9:40novel. It's a personal experience that I wanted to  share with you that I think illustrates this idea
95. 9:44of style, personal style, signature, you know,  producing art for another purpose. When I was in
96. 9:51high school, I was like 14 years old. I went with  one of my history classes to the city of La Plata,
97. 9:57okay? So, as you may know, I was born and raised  in Buenos Aires, Argentina. La Plata is just
98. 10:03about an hour away from Buenos Aires. And we were  talking about architecture. So we visited the La
99. 10:09Plata cathedral. And at one point, I remember we  were looking at the dome, right? We're inside the
100. 10:14cathedral and we're looking at the dome, and you  can see that up there, way up there in the dome,
101. 10:19there are sculptures, right? And the teacher  told us: “Those are 12 sculptures, one for
102. 10:26each of the 12 apostles. But they are up there in  a place where nobody can get close to, nobody can
103. 10:34really admire the detail and the artistry right  there, because,” she said, “the artist produced
104. 10:40these sculptures so that they were meant to be  seen and appreciated only by God.” I was like,
105. 10:46“Wow,” you know, like, I would not be able to do  something like that. If I spend time working on a
106. 10:52piece of art, I want other people to see it and to  admire it, right? I mean, you can call me selfish,
107. 10:58but that's my approach. To do something like that,  to work, you know, to spend your time on something
108. 11:03and then put it up there where it cannot be seen  by other people, that's a different level, right?
109. 11:08It's a different kind of approach. Same thing  with writing, right? If I spend, I don't know,
110. 11:12two, three years of my life producing a novel, I'm  not going to say, “Okay, I'm just going to put it
111. 11:16in the drawer so that God can admire it.” I'll be  like, you know, I want other people to read it,
112. 11:21you know, so maybe I'm not as advanced as other  artists, but I think that is what is at play here
113. 11:28with this idea of the personal style or the  signature. So that's theme number two. Now,
114. 11:33the third one, representation, okay? We're looking  at things and the symbols that represent them.
115. 11:39That is basically, at the basic level, what art  or visual art is. So, the artist senses something
116. 11:46and then presents his or her interpretation  of that thing, which may be an object or not,
117. 11:52to other people, or to God, in this case that we  were talking about before. But I wanted to raise
118. 11:57a question that I feel that the novel addresses,  or at least that the novel inspired in me, and
119. 12:03I think this is it, you know. At this point, and  even at the point when the novel was… the story is
120. 12:10set in the novel, so we're talking, you know, 16th  century: is art a representation of reality, or is
121. 12:17it a representation of previous art? You know, I'm  talking about something that is self-reflective,
122. 12:23that is self-referential. You can think about  a golden age when you had the beginning of art,
123. 12:28you know, the first person who decided, “Okay,  this cow,” you know, “let's produce an artistic
124. 12:33representation of that cow.” But after you  have that art, after that, art is also based
125. 12:38on previous art. So you could say maybe it's a mix  of both, right? But it's something to consider,
126. 12:44you know: is a representation of a horse really  a representation of a horse or a reflection of
127. 12:48the representation of horses that has been  produced for years and years and years? That
128. 12:53is another theme that recurs through this novel.  And of course, you can take it to the realm of
129. 12:58literature, right? This is something that is,  you know, really… for those of us who write,
130. 13:04we think about this all the time. Writing is based  on previous writing, you know, not so much on real
131. 13:11life sometimes; it's based on something that was  written before, and you're working based on that.
132. 13:16It's just very difficult to produce an original  work of art, or even something like an original
133. 13:23action. Many of the things that we do in life,  we have seen them before in a movie or read about
134. 13:27them in a book. So, it's not something original  that we're producing. I always give this example,
135. 13:32you know: think about your first kiss. How did you  know what to do? You had seen hundreds of kisses
136. 13:39in movies, right? So, it's not something original  anymore. It's… you're just kind of replicating
137. 13:44something that happened before. And you can… you  can expand that to any… to any kind of aspect of
138. 13:49life, you know? It's like going on a date. What  do people do? You go for coffee, you go for…
139. 13:54I don't know, a movie, dinner and a movie. And  it's always kind of the same thing. Nobody says,
140. 13:58“Oh,” I don't know, “let's go to the supermarket  and let's look at the products as if we were in
141. 14:03a museum.” Nobody does that, right? So, why does  everybody always do the same thing? Because it's
142. 14:08kind of like the thing that's done, right? What we  have seen or what we have read about in articles
143. 14:13or what we have seen in a movie. So, that's the  kind of thing that I'm talking about here. By the
144. 14:18way, if you try that thing with the supermarket  and it works, give me credit for it, okay? And if
145. 14:23it doesn't work, don't blame me for it, it's not  my fault. But anyway, the issue of representation
146. 14:28here is what I'm talking about, and we have to  add to that the issue of reference, especially
147. 14:33within the context of art. So that is the other  theme that I wanted to highlight. Now, I cannot
148. 14:39talk about My Name is Red without mentioning  the notion of digression, and I would say this
149. 14:45is probably the mode of the novel. Digression  is something that abounds in this novel. Now,
150. 14:52I want to say, not the kind of digression that you  find, for example, in Tristram Shandy, okay? That
151. 14:57is the epitome of digression. But here you do have  a story, you know, but the digression is present
152. 15:04there. You're going to find that much of what you  read about in this novel, you're going to think,
153. 15:09“This could have been left out.” And that is  obvious, okay? The author is not trying to hide
154. 15:13that. It's obvious that a lot that we read about  here could have been left out, but that is part of
155. 15:19the beauty of the novel, that there are all these  tangents and all these stories, most importantly,
156. 15:24within the story, just as you may find them in the  1001 Nights… video from Jorge’s Corner, of course,
157. 15:32many videos about it if you're interested…  or in Don Quixote, right? Video from Jorge’s
158. 15:37Corner coming up sometime, okay? I can't promise  when, but at one point you can be sure that if I
159. 15:42can I am going to speak about Don Quxiote. So, in  a murder mystery, let's think about it this way,
160. 15:48you expect the style and the narration to be more  direct, okay? I want to find out who it was that
161. 15:55committed the crime. But in this case, what we  have here is kind of like a post-modern approach:
162. 16:01we have a literary work that plays with the tropes  of the mystery novels or other popular subgenres.
163. 16:08And that's why you have the connection with,  for example, Borges or with Calvino that many
164. 16:13critics have made. As a matter of fact, I think  it was John Updike… yes, he was. It's back here.
165. 16:18So, he compares Pamuk to Calvino and Borges,  “philosophical artificers of boxes within boxes,”
166. 16:26you know. So it's very apt comparison right  there. And I would also add Umberto Eco, okay? So,
167. 16:33you have that kind of approach right here with My  Name Is Red. Now, before we conclude, I wanted to
168. 16:39share with you some quotes, in particular about  this idea, this notion of art and its purpose,
169. 16:44because I think that way you'll get a sense of the  style of Pamuk in this novel and also an idea of
170. 16:52the kind of philosophical discussion that goes on  in this novel, okay? So, for the first one, we're
171. 16:58going to go to page number 58, and this is what  it says: “It is indeed important that a painting,
172. 17:04through its beauty, summon us toward life's  abundance, toward compassion, toward respect
173. 17:11for the colors of the realm which God created,  and towards reflection and faith. The identity
174. 17:17of the miniaturist is not important.” So, as I was  telling you, that idea of the personal signature
175. 17:23is something that is considered right here. For  the next one, we're going to go to page 263.
176. 17:33And it says right here; this is an artist  speaking: “What exposes us is not the subject,
177. 17:39which others have commissioned from us—these  are always the same anyway—but the hidden
178. 17:44sensibilities we include in the painting as we  render that subject. […] When a painter renders
179. 17:50the fury and speed of horse, he doesn't paint his  own fury and speed; by trying to make the perfect
180. 17:56horse, he reveals his love for the richness of  this world and its creator, displaying the colors
181. 18:03of a passion for life—only that and nothing more.”  So, here we have maybe that idea of producing art
182. 18:10for a higher type of purpose. And then for the  last um quote, which is one of my favorites,
183. 18:17actually, we’re going to go to page number 368.  And this is what it says right here: “An artist's
184. 18:25skill depends on carefully attending to the beauty  of the present moment, taking everything down to
185. 18:31the minutest details seriously while, at the same  time, stepping back from the world, which takes
186. 18:37itself too seriously, and as if looking into a  mirror, allowing for the distance and eloquence
187. 18:44of a jest.” Okay? “Allowing for the distance and  the eloquence of a jest” because “the world takes
188. 18:50itself too seriously.” And the reason, one of  the many reasons, why I like that quote so much
189. 18:54is because I believe you can take that quote as a  kind of introduction to this whole novel itself.
190. 19:00So if you decide to read My Name Is Red and it's  your first time, I would suggest considering that,
191. 19:05you know, before you read this novel, because  that, I believe, is one of the good ways to
192. 19:11approach it in the first place. Bottom line:  My Name is Red is truly impressive, and this is
193. 19:18coming from somebody who is, as I have said before  in other videos, not really that much of a big fan
194. 19:25of historical fiction, okay? It's not my cup of  tea, but I read this one and I enjoyed it very
195. 19:30much. This is a very engaging story about the last  days of representative painting in this culture,
196. 19:38and it also explores the roles that art may play  in our lives, but at the same time, it's a really
197. 19:45thought-provoking allegory of the clash between  modernity and tradition, right? As I was saying
198. 19:52before. So, that is most of what you're going  to find in this novel, but there's also much,
199. 19:57much more than that. Now, based on this reading  experience that I had this time of Orhan Pamuk,
200. 20:02which by the way was much better for me  than my experience with The White Castle,
201. 20:07there are three adjectives that I would use  to describe Pamuk. I would say he is erudite,
202. 20:13he is meticulous, and last but not least, very  importantly, probably most importantly for me,
203. 20:18he is playful. So that's the way that I would  describe him. Do you have any questions,
204. 20:24comments, recommendations, recipes?  Please let me know. I'm always here,
205. 20:28always listening. Those were my two cents  on My Name Is Red, by Orhan Pamuk. I hope
206. 20:34you enjoyed this video. Thank you so much  for stopping by, and have a wonderful day.