'Culture Means A Mix Of Things From Other Sources'

'And my town, Istanbul, was this kind of mix. Istanbul, in fact, and my work, is a testimony to the fact that East and West combine cultural gracefully, or sometimes in an anarchic way, came together, and that is what we should search for'

Adam Smith

Updated on: 12 October 2006 12:00 am

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Editor-in-Chief of Nobelprize.org

Updated on: 12 October 2006 12:00 am

'Culture Means A Mix Of Things From Other Sources'

Telephone interview with Orhan Pamuk immediately following the announcement of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, October 12, 2006. The interviewer is Adam Smith, Editor-in-Chief ofNobelprize.org.The audio file of this interview is available on the link above.

Orhan Pamuk: Hello.

Adam Smith: Hello, may I speak to Orhan Pamuk please? Hello?

Orhan Pamuk: Hello.

Adam Smith: Hello, may I speak to Orhan Pamuk please?

Orhan Pamuk: Speaking.

Adam Smith: Oh, my name is Adam Smith and I'm calling from the official websiteof the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm.

Orhan Pamuk: Yes.

Adam Smith: We have a tradition of recording very short conversations with newLaureates immediately after the announcements.

Orhan Pamuk: OK.

Adam Smith: So, first of all, many, many congratulations on being awarded ...

Orhan Pamuk: Oh, thank you very much. It's such a great honour.

Adam Smith: I gather you're in New York. What were you doing when you receivedthe news?

Orhan Pamuk: Oh, I was sleeping, and thinking that, in a hour, probably they willannounce the Nobel Prize, and then someone would maybe tell me who won it. Andthen I'm thinking, so what am I going to do, what's today's work? And I'm alittle bit sleepy. And then the phone call, and then I'm "Oh, it's alreadyhalf past seven". You know, this is New York and I don't know the light, soI don't feel pretty ... And I answered, and they said I won the Nobel Prize.

Adam Smith: That's an extraordinary phone call to receive. There was an enormouscheer went up at the press conference when they announced the prize.

Orhan Pamuk: Really, of course, that's great, I'm very happy to hear this. This is great.

Adam Smith: We've recorded it on the website so you can, when finally you getoff the phone you can go and relive the moment.

Orhan Pamuk: And also I saw so many journalists you know, wanted me to have it,so I'm pleased about that. I'm very pleased about all these details. Thank youvery much, sir.

Adam Smith: You're the first ever Turkish writer to be awarded a Nobel Prize forLiterature. Does that give the award a special significance for you?

Orhan Pamuk: Well, unfortunately, that makes the thing very precious in Turkey,which is good for Turkey of course, getting this prize, but makes it more extrasensitive and political and it somehow tends to make it as a sort of a burden.

Adam Smith: Yes, because it's been quite a public year for you.

Orhan Pamuk: Yes.

Adam Smith: So I imagine this will add to that. The citation for the awardrefers particularly to your "quest for the melancholic soul of (your)native city", and there's an extremely long tradition of writing aboutIstanbul, and in praise of Istanbul. Could you describe briefly what it is aboutthe city that has acted as such a strong draw for people's imagination over theyears?

Orhan Pamuk: Well, it was at the edge of Europe, but different. So it was theclosest ‘other'. And it was really both close and, in a way, other.Mysterious, strange, uncompromising and totally un-European in ways, although inits spirit there was such a great place for Europe [words unclear].

Adam Smith: And referring to the phrase "melancholic soul", how wouldyou describe Istanbul to those who've never seen it?

Orhan Pamuk: I would say that it's one of the early modern cities where modernitydecayed earlier than expected. I would say that the ruins of the past gave thecity its melancholy, along with its poverty. But then I would also say that it'snow recovering from this melancholy, hopefully.

Adam Smith: And another facet of your writing that was particularly emphasizedin the citation, from the Committee, is the way that you deal with theinteractions between different cultures. And of course it's a cliché to saythat Turkey lies at the crossroads between East and West, but it does presumablyoffer the perfect vantage point from which to view the cross-cultural interface?

Orhan Pamuk: This meet of East and West and clash of civilizations, this isunfortunately one of the most dangerous and horrific ideas that have beenproduced in the last twenty years, and is now serving for... This fanciful ideais now unfortunately getting to be real, and this theory is serving the clash ofcivilizations and the deaths of so many people.

Adam Smith: Because historically there has really been much more mixing ofcultures than is popularly supposed.

Orhan Pamuk: Culture is mix. Culture means a mix of things from other sources.And my town, Istanbul, was this kind of mix. Istanbul, in fact, and my work, isa testimony to the fact that East and West combine cultural gracefully, orsometimes in an anarchic way, came together, and that is what we should searchfor. This is getting to be a good interview by the way.

Adam Smith: Thank you, that's very kind of you. Many of your characters might besaid to embody multiple cultural influences. I mean your writing indicates thatthey're far from uniformly either Eastern or Western, it's a mix.

Orhan Pamuk: Yes.

Adam Smith: Do you write solely in Turkish?

Orhan Pamuk: Yes. I think I wrote some six or seven articles in English, ininternational magazines, in Times Literary Supplement, in Village Voice.

Adam Smith: So there are presumably ...

Orhan Pamuk: But of course I'm a Turkish writer, essentially, and live in thelanguage. Language is me, in a way. Really, I feel it.

Adam Smith: Right, and there are ideas that you can express in Turkish, Iassume, that would be very hard to capture in other languages?

Orhan Pamuk: Exactly. Because thinking is composed of two things; language andimages, and then yeah, half of thinking is the language. I agree, yes sir,please ask the question.

Adam Smith: Well, could you give an example of a concept that ...

Orhan Pamuk: Wow! I can of course, but not on the day that I have received theNobel Prize.

Adam Smith: That's fair enough, you don't really have to answer any questions onthe day you receive the Nobel Prize.

Orhan Pamuk: Yeah, OK.

Adam Smith: You can say anything you like.

Orhan Pamuk: OK, thank you very much sir.

Adam Smith: So then an easy question. I mean the award will encourage a lot ofnew readers to dip into your work for the first time. Where would you recommendthey start? What would you suggest to people, and also ...

Orhan Pamuk: Oh, depending on the reader of course; the reader who buys booksbecause the writer has received the Nobel Prize should start with My Name isRed. The reader who has already read that book should continue with TheBlack Book. The reader who is interested in more contemporary issues andpolitics should go ahead with Snow, so forth and so on.

Adam Smith: Wonderful, wonderful. And if your readers are lucky enough to beable to read in multiple languages, but can't manage Turkish, do you have arecommendation for which language most excellently captures the spirit?

Orhan Pamuk: Of course English is the world's language now, and that's thelanguage I've been checking my books with, and I'm proud with my translator andI'm also confident. So, basically English translations.

Adam Smith: OK, thank you very much.

Orhan Pamuk: Thanks, as you see I'm a dutiful good boy, I did my homework verywell now.

Adam Smith: Very well indeed! No, I'm thrilled with your cooperation. Thank youvery much.

Orhan Pamuk: Bye, bye. I'm have to hang now because my agent is calling andothers, so many responsibilities that I have to address.

Adam Smith: Of course, quite so, thank you for sparing the time. See you soon,bye, bye.

Orhan Pamuk: OK, bye, bye.