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Friday, January 18th, 2008
I still have not gotten to the beginning of the inner story of The White Castle and already the layering of fictions is seeming intensely complicated. The book is dedicated to "Nilgun Darvinoglu: a loving sister (1961 - 1980)" -- I read this when I first opened the book and thought, Pamuk's sister lived such a short life! Then I started reading the preface (in which the outer story is begun), and leafed to the end of the preface to see it was signed "Faruk Darvinoglu". Hmm, think I, he attributes the preface to his brother-in-law. Perhaps that is meant as further tribute to the lamented sister. But then I read, at the end of the last paragraph of the preface,
Readers seeing the dedication at the beinning may ask if it has a personal significance. I suppose that to see everything as connected with everything else is the addiction of our time. It is because I too have succumbed to this disease that I publish this tale.
That totally knocked me for a loop. Does Pamuk have a sister who lived for the stated dates, who he is dedicating the book to? And if so, is that her name? Or is the dedication completely part of the fiction, the outer story -- or indeed part of the inner story that has taken over the life of the narrator, extruding itself into the outer story?
 Update: more info here.
posted evening of January 18th, 2008: Respond
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Thursday, January 17th, 2008
At first I didn't quite know what I would do with the book, other than read it over and over again. My distrust of history then was still strong, and I wanted to concentrate on the story for its own sake, rather than on the manuscript's scientific, cultural, anthropological, or 'historical' value. I was drawn to the author himself.
Like The New Life, The White Castle opens with its narrator finding a book to which he reacts strongly, and reading it over and over. It looks like this book is going to move in a very different direction than that one did; but it seems worthwhile just to note this commonality. Running through Pamuk's work you see a mystical importance attached to books and to stories.
posted evening of January 17th, 2008: Respond
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This is the epigraph in front of Orhan Pamuk's The White Castle:
To imagine that a person who intrigues us has access to a way of life unknown and all the more attractive for its mystery, to believe that we will begin to live only through the love of that person -- what else is this but the birth of great passion?
Marcel Proust, from the mistranslation of Y.K. Karaosmanoğlu
This seems really intriguing to me: Pamuk is quoting a mistranslation into Turkish of a French text (and presumably a real, historical mistranslation), which has subsequently been (who knows, possibly mis-?)translated into English! (This book is translated by Victoria Holbrook, a new name to me -- it will be interesting to see how her rendering of Pamuk's work compares with that of Maureen Freely and of Erdağ Göknar.) I'm not familiar with Proust and have no way of knowing what the correct translation of the quoted bit is -- not really something I can look up via Google. I wonder...
posted afternoon of January 17th, 2008: 1 response
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No posts for a couple days now, that means my mind is slowing down, that means I need to find another book to get the gears rolling again.
posted morning of January 17th, 2008: Respond
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Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
Here are two records that would be sure-fire gift ideas: The Music Of Kentucky: Early American Rural Classics 1927-1937, vol. 1; and The Music Of Kentucky: Early American Rural Classics 1927-1937, vol. 2. Update: Also this one would be most welcome: Blue Grass Favorites by the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers.
posted evening of January 15th, 2008: Respond
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Monday, January 14th, 2008
It's worth pointing out just how great the bonus tracks on the CD of Black Snake Dîamond Röle are. I wrote a couple of months ago about how much I like "All I Wanna Do is Fall in Love" -- "A Skull, a Suitcase, and a Long Red Bottle of Wine" and "It Was the Night" are similarly great (although "It Was the Night" seems like a lousy title to me). And there's much more! The take #2 of "I Watch the Cars" (take #1 is maybe my favorite song on the original record) is not so good however.
posted evening of January 14th, 2008: Respond
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I was just looking at the jacket of While Thatcher Mauled Britain and noticed a cartoon of Hitchcock's. A little bit hilarious in the context of these past few days. 
posted evening of January 14th, 2008: Respond
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No snow... They said there would be snow... Where's my snow damn it? Well, the weather people still think there is going to be snow today and tomorrow, not sure I trust them at this point though.  Update: (this evening) -- seeing a little slush now, which is not a satisfactory substitute for snow. Quite the contrary.
posted morning of January 14th, 2008: Respond
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Sunday, January 13th, 2008
Hmm, so I was walking along today and realized there's only one track out of 24 on my mix tape that's by a female artist, and two more with female backup musicians. That seems kind of improperly balanced, I ought to make an effort to listen to more women musicians.
posted evening of January 13th, 2008: Respond
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Just thinking about this song. Quick and simple to write, the theme allows for a huge amount of improvisation. It is written out with a straight, even rhythm but is should be slightly "swung", assuming you can do that with waltz-beat music and that it means what I am thinking it does by extension from the meaning of "swing" applied to four-beat music. ABAC structure seems to work pretty well for me, and not to be as limiting as I was thinking it might. (Not sure why the B line always ends on Re -- the C line of course ends on Do and the A lines usually also end on Do.)  Update: There is a lot of room for variation in rhythm when playing this song. Keeping the same time signature you can play it very straight, very "swung" (with above caveat), or in between, and put the accent on various beats. Change what is legato and staccato a-and etc.
posted afternoon of January 13th, 2008: Respond
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