My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamik
Sunday, December 25th, 2005
This is a marvelous book. Set in the late 1500s in Istanbul, the plot revolves around a illustrated manuscript being prepared in secrecy for Ottoman Sultan Murat III, which is to include painting techniques developed in western Europe, specifically perspective and painting from life. Great tension develops between the adherents of these imported styles and traditional technique, with which painting is done in a manner which has been inherited from Persian artists and depicts objects in a stylized form, which is how they are perceived by Allah, and arranges them in a flat space, as though seen from a height.
In Islam, there is controversy arising from any depictation of the things in the world, as this is seen as an arrogant assumption of the perogatives of Allah’s vision of the world, and thus a heretical activity. There is a passage from the Koran
The blind and the seeing are not equal “The Creator” 19
which is cited as a defense of the stylized depictation of objects, but the controversy rages, and as various artists come to realise what they are engaged in, the view that this is heresy drives one fellow to the verge of denouncing the effort, bringing it to the attention of a fundamentalist group who engage in murder of heretics and the destruction of their work and properties.
The ripening whistleblower is murdered, and the events leading to his murderer’s discovery comprise the framework of the novel.
But the clothe draped over the plot is a fascinating account of the history of Islamic illustration, and the conceptual evolution of style, ideas about the personal claim to work, vision and blindness. Islamic illustrations are historically all based on stories, both historical and fabled, and many of these stories are told. This makes the novel a bit clunky at times, but the chunks are like diamonds and precious artworks, a joy to read and very thought provoking.
This is a great novel, well worth reading.
Orhan Pamuk is a popular Turkish writer.
He is on trial for alleged violations of the 301st article of Turkish Penal Code, which includes this text:“a person who insults Turkishness, the Republic or the Turkish parliament will be punished with imprisonment ranging from six months to three years.”
His trial has been postponed. Turkey seeks membership in the European Union, which frowns on these proceedings. Recent news articles lead me to think that Turkey will try to sidestep the EU’s disapproval by dropping the trial, and moot the issue of the law.
I support freedom of speech and the press, and believe that societies are strongest when individuals can speak freely and without fear. Vaguely worded injunctions against hard to define concepts are particularly abhorrant. I urge the Turkish authorities to drop the charges against Orhan Pamuk, and the Turkish people to eliminate this draconian and ill-conceived law.
