My Name is Red (March/April)

[Terry]

I just ran across this article and thought some of you who also read My Name Is Red might find it interesting.

[Natacha]

Barbara wrote: "Natacha wrote: "Barbara wrote: "Natacha wrote:


Hi Natacha,

Your post is VERY interesting and your curiosity about the passage between the two lovers is definitely understandable. There are SO M..."

Hello there, no worries! I hope you are okay and that the health issues get resolved asap. Thanks for reading and I look forward to reading your response!

[okyrhoe]

Western movies depicted as Eastern miniatures !

[Niledaughter]

okyrhoe wrote: "Western movies depicted as Eastern miniatures !"

This looks strange for me !


BTW, I havn't finish this novel yet , I hope I can get back to it soon .

[Sue]

okyrhoe wrote: "Western movies depicted as Eastern miniatures !"

I found them fascinating but was also struck by the fact that they are primarily violent movies. The likenesses are really good.

[Matt]

I finished a couple of days ago. I really enjoyed "My Name is Red." Loved the murder mystery set in 16th century Constantinople/Istanbul. I'm a little late in coming to the discussion and I'll be brief.

I loved the mystery and I found myself examining each of the three miniaturists in an attempt to figure out which one had the most to gain by murdering Elegant. I even suspected Osman at one point.

I even more enjoyed the conflict between the Frankish style and the Islamic/miniaturist style. I really empathized with the miniaturists as each came to their own conclusions about the expansion of Frankish style and perspective and the lessening of miniaturization, at least in the near east.

And for some reason, I thought that setting the novel in the winter time added to the imagery of the scenes. something about his description of the snow falling and the covering of tracks captured my imagination.

[Niledaughter]

Matt , you are not late , I have not finish the novel yet .

I attend to come back to this book but after finishing some stuff about Turkey first , I feel that I am missing a lot about" the Ottoman Empire" and I needed to know -where in time line for that Empire-I am to go on .

The period of this novel is right after the Golden era and in the same time before tulip era , I think the sultan is Murad III, I am wondering why did Pamuk chose that era .

Matt wrote: "And for some reason, I thought that setting the novel in the winter time added to the imagery of the scenes. something about his description of the snow falling and the covering of tracks captured my imagination...."

that is an interesting point about choosing winter, why did Pamuk chose winter to be the background , now I remember reading Snow for him .

[okyrhoe]

Today I discovered the existence of Nouvelles policières du monde abbasside, a collection (in French&Arabic) of crime stories dating from the Abbassid era. Interesting to learn that My Name is Red may be "contemporary" in its format and style, but that it is at the same time reviving old literary genres.

[Philippa]

okyrhoe wrote: "Today I discovered the existence of Nouvelles policières du monde abbasside, a collection (in French&Arabic) of crime stories dating from the Abbassid era. Interesting to learn that My Name is Red ..."

That definitely sounds interesting! I really loved the format and style of My Name is Red, I'd never read anything quite like it.

[Amgad]

Can't believe I missed this :o(

[Melanie, Marhaba Language Expertise]

You didn't miss it! Feel free to post to this discussion whenever you like. It's never too late :)

[Tamara]

I finished My Name is Red. I'm sorry I missed the discussion. I enjoyed reading the posts and loved the book.

My review on goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Melanie, Marhaba Language Expertise]

Glad you liked it! Great novel!

[Niraj]

Hoping to read it this year! I'll come back to this thread then...

[Steve]

I took me two full 3 week loans and an email saying we're about to start discussing the next book to get me to finish it. Why? I’m a fast reader. This is an author who made me fall in love with Melvet, the Boza seller. Why couldn’t I stay with this book? Was there a message I didn’t want to hear?

I have been of the mind that much that is wrong with the East can be blamed on the West. Exploitation, colonialism, hegemony, militarism, orientalism, Sykes-Picot, the Balfour Declaration, the Mordad Coup, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and other forms of meddling have been in my diet.

Now a little known Turkish art historian, Orhan Pamuk (who also writes books) has opened the door marked c-d. Cognitive dissonance. Pamuk introduces us to the world of the Islamic court painters. It’s 1576. Suleyman the Magnificient had laid siege to Vienna and had captured Baghdad from the Persians. Istanbul was at its heights, but a cultural war was raging. Whose art was best? The Franks (Venetians) on the left, or the Persians on the right? Pamuk is very crafty-- he studied to be an artist after all. And like the professor who preys on college sophomores, he makes us fall in love with Islamic miniature art. This is art history in words. He shows us no paintings. Our fellow travellers will supply… or google it. And we do fall in love.

While a murder mystery goes on in the background, we see a society of artists, dominated by faith, confront their enemies of the easel. Because we are in love, we are greatly sympathetic. Pamuk the subversive! We do not see the work of Leonardo or Raphael or Michelangelo. No one supplies it! But we do get the local reactions; to Bellini and Titian and the portrait artists of Venice: the infidels who:
“...had discovered painting techniques with which they could distinguish any one man from another—without relying on his outfit or medals, just by the distinctive shape of his face.”

As we trace the murderers of Black Effendi, the architecture in the story gradually deteriorates, and so too does our perception of Islamic art. While Persian art may be better, Italian art is of a different, more advanced nature. There is no competing with Renaissance man, freed from the strictures and politics of religious belief.

[Sue]

Perhaps I will give this another go, Steve, at a time I feel my concentration skills are acute and energy is high. Thanks for your summation of the many strands at play.

[Steve]

I’m reading Robert Mucil’s The Man Without Qualities. In the forward, I found an explanation of why it’s so hard to write about this book: “It would be useless to attempt a synopsis of .... because the real action lies not on the surface, and what the characters do (though that is often dramatic enough), but within, in their states of mind, the fluctuations of their emotions, their theories, and the counterpoint between the thoughts and behaviour of them all, in themselves and in relation to each other, especially to the (narrator) himself.”