2023-11-28 09:39:00
Released in bookstores by Einaudi Memories of distant mountains, a book in which Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk publishes for the first time some parts of his private notebooks and the drawings he makes on a daily basis. The promotional tour is an opportunity to visit various Italian cities, including Genoa, to which the writer is very attached.
Palazzo Ducale Foundation for Culture was at maximum capacity for the arrival in the city on November 16th Premio Nobel Orhan Pamuk, always very attached to Genoa. It is no coincidence that you asked to be able to do an in-depth visit during your stay, before flying to other destinations, including Book City of Milan. Pamuk is in Italy to present his latest book Memories of distant mountainspublished by Einaudi in a larger than normal format, fully illustrated. It is in fact a particular volume, within which the Nobel Prize has selected and collected some pages of his notebooks, consisting of thoughts and drawings. He himself explained in Genoa, after the introduction of the Mayor Marco Bucci and in dialogue with colleagues Marco Ansaldo and Andrea Canobbio, the genesis of this special work: “I have been painting since I was a child, but for a long period I stopped doing so to concentrate first on my engineering studies and then on my novels. After over twenty years of writing I realized that the painter in me had never really died, so one day I went to buy colors and started drawing again. I make small sketches every day, which illustrate my moods, my memories and mostly the landscapes I observe, especially from my home. In this book I chose some notes and a series of paintings: writing and painting, the two activities that make me happy.”
In Genoa the much appreciated meeting with the Nobel Prize took place as part of the initiatives for Italian Book Capital and was hosted by the Palazzo Ducale Foundation for Culture, in collaboration with the Municipality of Genoa and the Einaudi publishing house. It was no coincidence that Andrea Canobbio, his Italian editor, and Marco Ansaldo, a journalist who has been sent and consultant to Istanbul for Turkey, the Middle East and the Caucasus for years, were called to interview him. According to both, there is a close link between Genoa and Istanbul due to the commercial exchanges of the past, so much so that in the beautiful Turkish city – which Pamuk very often describes in his books – there is even a Genoese neighbourhood. “There are visual writers and language writers – explained the Nobel while still describing the origin and development of his new work Memories of distant mountains – I have always been part of the first category, in the sense that images form in my mind and only then do I look for the words to describe the scenes as best as possible. On the other hand, great literature also teaches us this: Tolstoy, Proust, Nabokov are visual writers, while Dostoevsky is narrative: he wasn’t interested in showing us the colors or accurately describing a dialogue by going into the details of the environment, but rather in studying the interiority and psychology of the characters”.
The Bosphorus is often the protagonist of Pamuk’s paintings, partly because he observes it almost every day, in its different shapes and colors, from the balcony of his home, partly because of the love he feels towards it. He remembers, in fact, that since he was a child the Bosphorus has always had a calming and positive effect on him: when he was sad or nervous he would observe its unmistakable landscape and immediately feel better. “I discovered the power of words very early, while it took me longer to understand how much strength there is in landscapes, capable of changing a person’s mood. I always thought that writing was the noblest and most complete art, but over the years I have understood that when a landscape is pure it does not need lyrics, like music. Its function for human beings is to inspire and console, that’s why most of the paintings I chose for this book express a feeling of happiness. This does not mean that I am an always happy and serene man and artist, I am not at all; however in this case I made a precise choice that tends towards joy.” According to Pamuk, it was the Japanese and Chinese who discovered the importance of landscape and its intrinsic link with literature before anyone else, so much so that several contemporary oriental authors maintain a strong trace of the dreamlike and metaphysical within their works : one among many, Murakami.
So, through an act of extreme openness towards his public, the Nobel writer and painter has decided to reveal to everyone the contents of his private notebooks, to which for years he has entrusted the story of the day’s events, his most sincere reflections on current affairs and politics, the emotions and sensations that the world offers with its landscapes, when “our true place in the universe” is shown to the eyes. In this regard, Orhan Pamuk confided at the meeting at Palazzo Ducale in Genoa: “Writing satisfies me when I realize that I have given life to a beautiful sentence, a well-described scene or a particularly significant page, and obviously when I finish a operates thinking that he has done something of value. However, I am often under the pressure of having to write even when I feel like I have nothing left to say, because now most people see me as a successful writer and this is what everyone expects from me, from publishing houses to agents up to the public itself. Painting, on the other hand, is a spontaneous action without ulterior motives, which for this very reason always makes me as happy as a child. It’s a spontaneous exercise during which I feel all my creativity and I really like it”.
Since the exhibition is underway in Genoa Calvino Cantafavole always at Palazzo Ducale and in Italy numerous initiatives are held on the occasion of centenary of his birth, it was inevitable to address the topic during the meeting at Palazzo Ducale. The question about the influence Calvino had on both Pamuk and Italian literature was asked by Marco Ansaldo, who also took the Nobel Prize winner to visit the exhibition, accompanied him on a long walk in the city and made a connection between this book and his other predecessors, above all The museum of innocence, Neve and obviously Istanbul, which won him important international recognition. “Calvino is an author who influenced me greatly and seeing these carefully crafted tributes to him moves me – said Pamuk in Genoa – Even today, many years later, I continue to read his books and let myself be inspired. THEor I believe that he changed the very heart of the novel, especially the historical one: if before we adhered scrupulously to the facts and the news, with Calvino the fantastic entered history and literature. His most important lesson is precisely his introduction of fantasy into the realm of realism, which might seem like a paradox, but it isn’t.” A bit like Memories of distant mountainswhere the narrative fragments and images always have a basis in truth, arising from the author’s daily life, but then become detached from reality to proceed on the level of imagination, of the possible, of memory and of an optimistic hope that conditions the reader himself, directing him towards powerful and profound reflections on the world, on life, on the meaning of existence.
In the morning I sometimes go to the beach alone, very early. Before entering the water I look at the sand, the distant hills, haloed with mist. Powerful metaphysical impression: why am I here, what does this presence mean? Sensation of rediscovering, as if thanks to so much yellow color, the meaning of the world and of men – of time and space. Nobody!
Genoa Italian capital of books is now ready to welcome other guests of international caliber, including the 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer Jhumpa Lahiri in 2024, which is an exceptional ambassador of the title won by the Ligurian capital. Mayor Bucci summarized the spirit of the ongoing initiatives thus: “We undoubtedly want to be a seaside city and a meeting place between peoples, but also a place that is remembered for literature. Many other authors will therefore arrive, demonstrating the fact that here in Genoa we are second to none in various areas and we certainly don’t want to be second to none when it comes to culture”.
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