Thursday, December 20, 2012

Orhan Pamuk on why he set his novel 'Snow' in Kars

Taken from The Paris Review.

INTERVIEWER
Why did you set it in the small town of Kars?
PAMUK
It is notoriously one of the coldest towns in Turkey. And one of the poorest. In the early eighties, the whole front page of one of the major newspapers was about the poverty of Kars. Someone had calculated that you could buy the entire town for around a million dollars. The political 
climate was difficult when I wanted to go there. The vicinity of the town is mostly populated by Kurds, but the center is a combination of Kurds, people from Azerbaijan, Turks, and all other sorts. There used to be Russians and 
Germans too. There are religious differences as well, Shia and Sunni. The war the Turkish government was waging against the Kurdish guerillas was so fierce that it was impossible to go as a tourist. I knew I could not simply go there as a novelist, so I asked a newspaper editor with whom I’d been in touch for a press pass to visit the area. He is influential and he personally called the mayor and the police chief to let them know I was coming.

As soon as I had arrived I visited the mayor and shook hands with the police chief so that they wouldn’t pick me up on the street. Actually, some of the police who didn’t know I was there did pick me up and carried me off, probably with the intention of torturing me. Immediately I gave names—I know the mayor, I know the chief . . . I was a suspicious character. 
Because even though Turkey is theoretically a free country, any foreigner used to be suspect until about 1999. Hopefully things are much easier today.

*

Sounds to me like he was there mid-late '90s. I passed through Kars in April 1990, travelling east on a bus with a fellow Australian; both of us female, her very blonde, me more pooh-brown. All I remember is how desolate it was; isolated and grim and grey. We stopped for a break, got off the bus, tried to ignore the staring, then tried to find out waht was happening when an unconscious man with blood on his head was carried past and bundled into a car to be driven away.

'What happened?' I gesticulated to a man nearby. (I had no Turkish then.)

He replied with a stream of words, made the shape of a gun with his fingers and said something else which I took for 'bang bang'.

18 comments:

Steve Capelin said...

I was in Istanbul in 1977 (nearly wrote 1777 - with Captain Cook?)It was wonderful. Quite sophisticated after Afghanistan and very friendly after Iran. I'd like to go back. I have a friend who toured there for 4 weeks in September. She said it was great. She didn't merntion any guns, but I'm sure they're there.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Spammers are just getting ridiculous now, aren't they?

I've seen some rough things in some rough towns, but I doubt it's even a blip compared to anyone who's spent time in places like that. Pretty sad for the people who have to grow up there, no?

Melba said...

Yeah Alex, it would be rough but also, I reckon that wherever, whenever, people are often able to laugh and love a little if not a lot. If you can laugh and love a little then things aren't the worst they could be.

Speaking of laughing and loving, next post coming up of the greatest love of all time: Sienna Miller and Jude Law, along with the opportunity to discuss and disagree.

Anonymous said...

I'm still here, lurking occasionally!

Just reading 'Snow' now and loving it. (Dostoevsky for beginners! Like the Russian but not so loonnng and boring, right?)

Other recent recs: Motherless Brooklyn (Jonathan Lethem), How Fiction Works (James Wood), How Should a Person Be? (Sheila Heti), Leaving the Atocha Station (Ben Lerner).

Affectionately,

BookMoth in Brooklyn

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
hajjandumrah said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
hajjandumrah said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

I love your site! You will be in our prayers and thoughts! Nice and informative post
on this topic thanks for sharing with us.Thank you

POLISHED CONCRETE | CONCRETE RESURFACING | FLOOR LEVELLING | CONCRETE REPAIRS | EPOXY COATINGS | CONCRETE POLISHING
Atta ur rehman