Orhan Pamuk: The Art of Fiction no. 187
"I was underlining the clerical nature of the novelist as opposed to that of the poet, who has an immensely prestigious tradition in Turkey. To be a poet is a popular and respected thing...After Western ideas came to Turkey, this legacy was combined with the romantic and modern idea of the poet as a person who burns for truth. It added extra weight to the prestige of the poet. On the other hand, a novelist is essentially a person who covers distance through his patience, slowly, like an ant. A novelist impresses us not by his demonic and romantic vision, but by his patience."
I've never read anything longer than an essay by Pamuk, so I'm not familiar with him as a novelist. And besides its being the interface between middle eastern and western culture, I don't know much about Turkey. Then again, I'm relatively immersed in Philippine culture (or some pretense of it) and I have yet to read something written by a Filipino writer (who isn't a friend, a relative, or Nick Joaquin).
(Mr. Pamuk is pretty hot though. If my economics 102 prof from Ateneo and Richard Gere had a son about 50 years ago, I bet he'd look something like this.)
I've never read anything longer than an essay by Pamuk, so I'm not familiar with him as a novelist. And besides its being the interface between middle eastern and western culture, I don't know much about Turkey. Then again, I'm relatively immersed in Philippine culture (or some pretense of it) and I have yet to read something written by a Filipino writer (who isn't a friend, a relative, or Nick Joaquin).
(Mr. Pamuk is pretty hot though. If my economics 102 prof from Ateneo and Richard Gere had a son about 50 years ago, I bet he'd look something like this.)