Silent House (48 page)

13. Ömer Selâhattin Kantar (1878–1949) was a noted Turkish archaeologist, museum director, journalist, and playwright. Considering Pamuk’s renown as a journalist, novelist, and museum founder, how might the Nobel Prize–winning author be viewed as a cultural archaeologist? Do you view the respective archival and encyclopedic projects of Faruk and the fictional Selâhattin as misguided or worthy projects? Through these two characters, what might Pamuk be saying about the difficulties and motivations behind any historical or archival project?

14. Although Faruk and Selâhattin claim to be fiercely secular, how does religion strongly impact both men? Do you see anything religious about their obsessions?

15. In
chapter 28
, “Faruk Watches a Belly Dancer,” Faruk states: “I wanted to escape from my own awareness, to wander freely in a world outside my own mind, but understanding now that I would always be two people, I realized that I’d never be able to let go” (
this page
). Why do you think Faruk has this reaction to the dancer’s interaction with the Western tourists? What does the belly dancer signify to him? How might Faruk’s “double-consciousness” reflect Turkey’s cultural and political identity? Could such a dual identity apply to those from other cultures?

16. Earlier in the novel, Faruk converses with a Turkish man who resembles the American actor Edward G. Robinson and who is berated by his own family for not looking more like the actor; “can’t a person just be himself,” the man complains. Faruk replies that “they’d have just found some other famous original and criticized your inadequate resemblance to him” (p.235). Do you see any connections between Faruk’s reaction to the belly dancer and his conversation with this man?

17. The last sentence of the novel states: “You can’t start out again in life, that’s a carriage ride you only take once, but with a book in your hand, no matter how confusing and perplexing it might be, once you’ve finished it, you can always go back to the beginning; if you like, you can read it through again, in order to figure out what you couldn’t
understand before, in order to understand life” (
this page
). How do you interpret these last lines? What does Fatma seem to understand about her life?

18. Consider Fatma’s recollection of what Selâhattin tells her is “the most important article” in his encyclopedia: “The source of all knowledge is experimentation” (
this page
). How might a work of fiction like
Silent House
be an example such experimentation? Can a novelist “trick you with his literary skill” (
this page
) and still produce a work of historical truth?

SUGGESTED READING

Orhan Pamuk,
The Museum of Innocence
; John Banville,
Ancient Light
; Salman Rushdie,
Joseph Anton: A Memoir
; Herta Müller,
The Hunger Angel
; Richard Ford,
Canada
; Ian McEwan,
Sweet Tooth
; Alice Munro,
Dear Life
; A. M. Homes,
May We Be Forgiven
; Orhan Pamuk,
Istanbul
; Yashar Kemal,
Memed
,
My Hawk
; Martin Amis,
Lionel Asbo: State of England
; Karen Thompson Walker,
The Age of Miracles
.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

O
RHAN
P
AMUK
won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006. His novel
My Name Is Red
won the 2003 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His work has been translated into more than sixty languages. He lives in Istanbul.

ALSO BY ORHAN PAMUK

The Museum of Innocence

Other Colors

Istanbul

Snow

My Name Is Red

The White Castle

The Black Book

The New Life

A NOTE ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

R
OBERT
F
INN
has been the Ertegun Visiting Professor of Turcology and Lecturer at Princeton University and is the author of
The Early Turkish Novel: 1872–1900
. He was the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Tajikistan.