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Friday, August 24th, 2007
...Reading on; as of the beginning of Chapter 4 I find myself irreversibly hooked: As I stare at people's faces, I realize many of them believe they're innocent because they haven't yet had the opportunity to snuff out a life. It's hard to believe that most men are more moral or better than me simply on account of some minor twist of fate... wandering the streets of Istanbul for four days was enough to confirm that everyone with a gleam of cleverness in his eye and the shadow of his soul cast across his face was a hidden assassin. Only imbeciles are innocent.
posted evening of August 24th, 2007: Respond
➳ More posts about My Name is Red
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At the beginning of My Name Is Red, I am mostly noticing ways it is different from Snow -- a bad habit and probably not useful. Snow began very vividly and pulled me right in; Red by contrast seems gauzy and amorphous. I am trying to get a handle on the narrative structure -- each chapter is first-person, but it's up to the reader to figure out who is speaking. The dog (or possibly "storyteller impersonating a dog") who narrates Chapter 3 has me grinning and flashing on Mason & Dixon.
posted evening of August 24th, 2007: Respond
➳ More posts about Orhan Pamuk
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I went to the bookstore yesterday and got two new books: My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk, and The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald, she whose name is at the top of this blog. (The latter I got on the recommendation of Matt Weiner, the former on that of Dr. Snarkout.)
posted evening of August 24th, 2007: Respond
➳ More posts about The Blue Flower
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Thursday, August 23rd, 2007
I don't get out to the movies as often as I'd like; one of the things I'm looking forward to about next week (when Ellen and Sylvia are going to be on vacation, in London, and I'll be on my own), is getting the free time to see some movies. Well, imagine my delight when I went to look at The Film Forum's web site, and found that they are screening a film noir festival all week! Looks like I will see Klute and Born to Win on Tuesday evening, and Midnight Cowboy and The Panic in Needle Park on Wednesday evening.
posted evening of August 23rd, 2007: Respond
➳ More posts about The Movies
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Monday, August 20th, 2007
Musing on Snow: I have been doing little else for weeks now, at least here in this space. What about the ending? It must be said, this is a very bleak novel -- a bleak view of Ka's life and of the situtation in Turkey. Fazıl's words in the final chapter do a little to mitigate the sense of bleakness as regards Turkey, and to make it seem like I am having that reaction because I am not familiar with the mores. But: the novel is primarily about Ka -- I think so, and Pamuk at least appears to think so as evidenced by his words in chapter 29. So: a novel about Ka (and possibly about his reflection in Necip and Fazıl), and a fairly depressing one. But the dread in reading it was also a very sweet experience. And the thinking ahead that Pamuk makes me do was also lovely in its way, kind of like solving a crossword puzzle. I'm not sure right now, what I make of chapter 43, the last chapter but one, which did not concern Ka much -- I guess it was sort of directed at wrapping up the story, I don't think in a totally satisfactory way. It's not clear to me whether İpek and Kadife are fully characters in their own right, or foils for Ka like most everyone else in the book; it could be that if I understood the final two chapters better, I would see that they were fully realized characters.
posted morning of August 20th, 2007: Respond
➳ More posts about Snow
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Friday, August 17th, 2007
The first time Ka and İpek have sex, in chapter 28, Ka is detached -- "it was not the act as much as the thought of making love that occupied him." His head is taken up with images from pornography. The second time they have sex, in chapter 34, his experience is much more intense -- "he was outside time, impervious to passion; his only regret was that it had taken him a lifetime to discover this paradise... He forgot the sexual fantasies kept in ready storage at the back of his brain." The third time, in chapter 36, "They made love with such ease Ka could hardly believe it... but they were both aware that their lovemaking was neither as deep nor as intense as the night before." Hmm... something is going on here. I am upset waiting to find out what fate is in store for their relationship.
posted evening of August 17th, 2007: Respond
➳ More posts about Readings
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Saturday, August 11th, 2007
Fazıl's conversation with Ka about atheism in chapter 32 is hilarious, with an edge of tragedy running through it. Some choice passages: "...but you've been to Europe; you've met all the intellectuals and all those alcohol and sleeping-pill addicts who live there. So please, tell me again, what does it feel like to be an atheist?""Well, they certainly don't fantasize endlessly about suicide." ... "Just be yourself." "That's not going to be possible as long as I have two souls inside my body," said Fazıl... "It scares me to have nothing but Kadife inside my head. It's not just because I don't know her. It's because this proves I'm a typical atheist. I don't care about anything except love and happiness. ... And when I think that, my feelings for Kadife become all the more unbearable -- it hurts to know that my only consolation would be to spend the rest of my life with my arms around her." "Yes," said Ka ruthlessly. "These are the sorts of thoughts you have when you're an atheist." And much more. I am beginning to think from little lines like "The pity and annoyance he could see on Ka's face made him blush with shame", that one of the central themes of this book is the experience of being socially at a disadvantage vis-a-vis the person you are speaking with, and the feelings of embarrassment and shame that that gives rise to.
posted evening of August 11th, 2007: Respond
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Wednesday, August 8th, 2007
The hacked-together script which powers this blog is approaching the limits of its capacities. All along it has occasionally deleted a post at random, this seems to be happening more frequently. So, looking forward to the upcoming switch to more reliable technology.
posted evening of August 8th, 2007: Respond
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So this evening, for the first time ever Sylvia told me "I want to ride my bike." -- Til now I have been encouraging her a lot to go out with me and practice riding, but she's been a little reluctant. Well tonight, it was a whole new deal. She's riding! For as long as 6 revolutions of the pedals, by my count, before she put her feet down on the ground to stop the bike. A couple of times she was even successfully stopping using the brakes. So exciting. Update: Some pictures of Sylvia riding.
posted evening of August 8th, 2007: Respond
➳ More posts about Sylvia
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Monday, August 6th, 2007
I created a Flicker set of Sylvia's self-portraits. Am I mistaken or is this the most charming thing ever? I don't think I'm mistaken.
posted evening of August 6th, 2007: Respond
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