Hello Gentle Reader
Youth is a time of reckless behaviour, stupid behaviour, experimentation, and learning – and sometimes that learning and education comes at, some very high costs and prices, with some consequences that are less than kind. It is a time of hedonism, and impulses driven by both pleasure, and a desire to impress – impress for and by standards, as well as impress to show romantic strength and courtship. Falling in and out of love; alcohol and drugs, racing cars, and a feeling of entitlement. It’s a time like no other – and a time that no one can ever have back; and reminiscing one feels that youth is truly wasted on the young; yet in the end secretly we all think back at those time of youthful stupid adventures, with a small smile pulling at the corners of our lips.
This youthful energy is equally placed, in the text that is written on the pages of this book. The use of words, is at times, placed in a manner that reminds one of a young author, yet to reach their mature or prime stage. There is just a vehement feeling, in the use of the words. Not quite polished to perfection, and edited and placed in an order that can be seen in later works (or will be seen in later works), but the words vibrate. The author is doing their best, to contain the excitement of telling the tale, or sharing their ideas – the act of communication is such a new and profound experience for the authors is just difficult for the author to contain and withhold.
Orhan Pamuk, had reminisced about this novel, in his essay collection “The Other Colors,” he points out that of all his books, younger people like this novel out of all his books; and further points out his own place and his youth within this novel:
“Each of the young characters in The Silent House was me. In each of them, I tampered a different aspect of the youth.”
All aspects of youth are completely on display in this novel. Nilgun and Hasan’s political and idealistic convictions – though polished and heartfelt lack wisdom and perception; but are also very clever on how they point out the divide of the time, in Turkey between the Communists and the Nationalists, and a curious love story (however doomed) is played out; again in youthful fashion of impulsiveness and an almost unbearable feeling of passion! There is, Metin’s reckless desires for money and a longing for America, all mixed up in youthful passion and then of course love, and subsequent heartbreak.
Much of what would entertain many of Orhan Pamuk’s later works are, all on display here in their rough forms. At this phrase in the author’s career, one can just see the early obsessions and themes that will haunt the author moving forward. Impossible love affairs; or a dance of courtship that may be difficult; a game of identity being lost or taking on a new identity or persona; enclosed spaces – or rather a short time period that within the authors use of different characters and perspectives allows for a feeling of more time being moved when in reality and subtle hints, it has yet to move past a day ;fragmented narratives and at times a very avant-garde but readable postmodern style – all of which can be seen in Orhan Pamuks later works like “The Black Book,” and “My Name is Red.”
“Silent House,” is also a good example of the author slowly itching his way into his own skin. There are noticeable references and influences of other authors like William Faulkner in this blend of gothic Turkish novel. However the fragmentation of the novel and the delightful play of identity if not yet as extreme as his later works, it is a taste of what is to come; which of course is anti-climactic because one already knows what the author achieved in later years.
The bare bones of this novel takes place over a week, in nineteen-eighty. The air is tense with the oncoming military coup, which would restore balance to the country after the onslaught of anarchy caused by the rival factions of the left leaning Communists and the right leaning Nationalist. The air is thick of this divide; but also the divide of east and west is also displayed. Fatma wrestles with the haunting of her memories and of her late liberal thinking modern doctor Selahattin Bey, and his rotten alcoholism and obsession with his encyclopedia, which has rotted his insides, and tortured his wife dearly. His self-obsession and martyrdom of a scientific and revolutionary thinker in Turkey, takes its toll on Fatma and her jewellery box, and also on her well-being as a human being; and in the form of a dwarf who is also her servant, and in that physical form Fatma is left with the remnants of her husband, and his rotten life, which she continues to wrestle with. His proud proclamations that there is no God like Nietzsche; his desire to free all of mankind of its bondage to the physical world, by traditions, superstitions and values, and open their minds up to rational and analytical thinking of science and theories like Rousseau and Voltaire had attempted. These same heroes, Selahattin admired also allow him and in his own mind persuade him to do aspects that damaged Fatma beyond repair.
The relationship between Fatma and Selahattin comes from Orhan Pamuk’s own life. In the early twentieth century, Orhan Pamuk’s grandfather had travelled to Berlin to study law and constantly wrote to his grandmother. Though his grandfather had already been corrupted by Western ideas and thoughts. This corruption showed up in his letters. This is reflected when Orhan Pamuk reminisces about the novel in the essay collection “Other Colours,”:
“The attitude of these letters are like Selahattin Bey's teachings of Fatma Hanim. I know that my grandmothers' attitude to these letters are of sin, forbidden things and indifference. When I tried to dream about their unhappy relationship I had started to fictionalize ‘The Silent House.’”
The relationship between Fatma and her late husband and the smoothness of the prose, is wonderful and the most experimentation that one gets out of this book in its most bold way of the author. For the most part, Orhan Pamuk played it relatively safe, in his dealings with interior monologues, that came or across as first person narratives with slight of track detours into psychological zones, but only went so far as to point out how one felt or the emotional implications behind a motive or action. So the breath of fresh air of a true bold step, as Selahattin becomes a character in his own right – even though he is dead; and has his ghostly fibres sewn deep into Fatma’s psyche, makes the work delightfully interesting, as the two represent Turkey’s conflict with modernity, and contemporary times, as the air has become blue with television lights; and the melancholy atmosphere of a resort being created from a former port town, and al the disturbances it brings – but silence is ever present.
Selahattin has both a compatriot and foil in his grandson Farruk a fellow intellectual, and self-loathing intellectual; who unlike his vanity seeking brother of great and grand triumphs as he returns from America. Farruk a historian only sees history and its interesting intellectual facts as fun stories, but other than that and their entertaining value they are ineffectual and do not resonate in reality or have any physical exchange; and so drowns himself with pleasure, in ‘raks’. Though at moments one can see Farruk truly wake from his almost lame slothful alcohol induced slumber, and enjoys the pleasures of history once again, and reading and discovery and contemplates writing much like his grandfather; though this small glimmer of Selahattin’s intellectual curiosity is always pushed to the side, in favour of something more substantial – if only it rots his insides; like the stories in his mind like withering worms.
This is a really interesting piece of work by Orhan Pamuk. It displays a diverse if yet small group of characters, at war with themselves, each other, and others around them. It touches on subjects of the modernization of the east, and its often complicated relationship of the east and west; where idealistic intellectuals like Selahattin failed in awakening the country, and placing it alongside other countries of the west that had achieved such intellectual superiority like Germany, France, the United Kingdom – where the disappearance of God is a openly discussed subject, and not looked upon with disgust or the hushed and almost paranoid whispers of people being ‘infidels,’ or atheist with a negative connotation, but rather simply someone who is not out of the norm, nor in a norm, just an individual lost in a rationalized society. Where superstitions and shamanistic thought process and mystical beliefs are scoffed and looked down upon, as child’s play and imaginative thinking; and concerns with the body and health, and maladies and malaise are tended too by doctors and nurses. In this piece of work Pamuk does not take sides of whether or not people like Selahattin are right in their radical ideals, and trying to change the country through the power of books; nor does he take the side of Fatma who holds on to her raised beliefs, religious traditions and values and has since looked at the work of the modernization with indifference and if looked at all with any keen interest with disgust and contempt. Rather it almost feels like Pamuk takes a step back, away from both and allows the reader, to see both sides of the issue – from both a westerns point of view but also from the easts traditional point of view.
It still cannot compare to “The Black Book,” but it is still a good book of Pamuk’s repertoire. Its short confined space, and small time period, that moved through history and memory and the internal functions of the characters, allowed for a rather neat literary treat. Though the “The Black Book,” has one up on this book, for the authors more comfort with his own style, but also how the city of Istanbul had become a character in its own right, represented by the numerous characters and populated names that came up throughout the book. Still this narrative and book was very interesting. Though anti-climactic if you have already read later works by Orhan Pamuk, it is well worth the read.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong*
M. Mary
