The Nobel Prize winner from 2006 has previously been accused of violating “Turkey’s national honor”. In “Pestnetter” he delves deep into the power game in the Ottoman Empire in the decades before modern Turkey came into being. He is unlikely to receive infringement complaints this time. Nevertheless, it is unwise not to think about politicians of Erdogan’s caliber: those who love power and put a lot of energy into keeping the opposition and the free press down, possibly behind bars. It is also close to associating with the pandemic we have behind us, as the plague hits the tiny, fictional island of Minger where the action takes place. But even if Pamuk on the surface depicts sultans in the sunset and different approaches to the plague, this is a novel with many layers. “Pestnetter” becomes more interesting the deeper you go. If one reads slowly. This novel takes time. NOBEL: Pamuk received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006. Here he receives the medal from Sweden’s King Carl Gustaf during the ceremony in Stockholm. Photo: REUTERS Rumor exchange under censorship One dark night in 1901, a ship docked on the tiny, idyllic island of Minger. On board are the plague doctors Nuri and Bonkowski, and the Ottoman princess Pakize who is married to Nuri. Plague has broken out on the island, but neither the sultan in Istanbul nor the governor of the island is interested in it getting out. It can create unrest among people, and foreign countries will understand that the authorities are not in control. Their errand still comes for one day, and stirs up latent conflicts on the island: between Greeks and Turks, Christians and Muslims, elite and people, Western medicine and traditional cures. The governor tightens his grip on the press, the rumor mill heats up and the plague doctor Bonkowski is murdered. USED AS A WEAPON: Persons with bad intentions spread the plague by throwing infectious rats over the walls of areas where people live. Photo: REUTERS Long live the flag! An attempt to calm the mood degenerates into a highly improvised palace revolution, and this opens the rabbit hole down to another theme, which can best be illustrated by an anecdote: An apothecary who sold creams and perfumes had a banner embroidered with the well-known Minger rose which motive to have in the window. The banner was confiscated and ended up in the palace. During the palace revolution, an old caretaker delivers this perfume advertisement to the revolutionary hero, who waves it from the balcony. Viftinga transforms the advertising banner into a flag for the Mingar state after its demolition from the Ottoman Empire. In all paintings of this national liberation scene, the guard is replaced by two young Minger women who give the flag to the bloody revolutionary hero. When the pharmacist later gets to make a copy of the advertising poster/flag to hang in the window, he is imprisoned for showing contempt for the flag. History becomes myth, and myth bites history in the tail. Pamuk offers a number of such episodes which in the revolutionary year of 1901 were quite random, but which later became the glue in the new nation, reinforced through school curricula, history books, visual arts and national rituals. Freedom hero, flag, blood and soil are necessary materials for those who will build a nation, and on this day Minger was served everything on a balcony. Despite the fact that Pamuk allowed himself a cool postmodern laugh about Minger nation-building, he is not there to ignore the power that lies in signs, rituals and symbols. Communities live by signs. When Western, slightly arrogant school doctors snatch the amulets from religious people because they have no effect against the plague, they get no sympathy from Pamuk. But signs can be abused, and they will be in this novel. SIMILAR: Sultan Abdülhamid 2 has a lot in common with the sultan in “Nights of the Plague”. But otherwise there is much in the novel that does not exist outside of fiction. True my words. Photo: Picasa Afterthought at the end of the labyrinth When I take Pamuk above as an income for meanings that appear in “Pestnetter”, I was a little too quick. Although he has written this labyrinthine novel, he hides behind two women: First, Princess Pakize, who writes letters to her sister about everything she, and especially her plague doctor husband, experience from day to day. These letters from 1901 then form the basis for the novel the Minger historian Mina Mingerli writes 116 years later. Mina constantly emphasizes how the events of the year of plague and revolution have become the material on which the nation exists. But where is Pamuk behind these two women? The answer is far from obvious. But the author, who has never made it easy either for himself or for the reader, here reaches a new level. He is so verbose that he forces us into a calmness that few of us have, and gives a rich text for reflection in return. I admit with shame that at times I wished he had cut the novel in half. The book actually gets better after reading it. news reports Photo: Gyldendal Title: “Plague Nights” Author: Orhan Pamuk Translator: Ingeborg Fossestøl Genre: Novel Publisher: Gyldendal Number of pages: 681 Date: 26/05/2023
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“Nights of the Plague” by Orhan Pamuk – Reviews and recommendations
