The Silent House (novel) - The Interpretations of Orhan Pamuk On The Silent House

The Interpretations of Orhan Pamuk On The Silent House

Orhan Pamuk's observations about the novel is very significant in terms of the novel's analysis. All of the quotation are taken from the first edition of his book "The Other Colors" in which he brings his various writings together.

• The author's approach to the novel

I know that young people like The Silent House most among my books. Maybe it is because there is something about my youth and my spirit in it... Each of the young characters in The Silent House was me. In each of them, I tampered a different aspect of the youth. ( p.132)

• On the families in the novel

I understand these families as I grew up in the neighbourhoods similar to this and as I knew grandmothers like this and to some extend, yes, as it was easy for me. (p.131)

• On the birth of The Silent House

One of the inspirations of The Silent House is the letters that my grandfather wrote to my grandmother... My grandfather goes to Berlin to study law in the beginning of the 20th century. before he goes, they engage with my grandmother, Nikfal. My grandfather writes many letters to his fiance in Istanbul while he studies in Berlin. The attitude of these letters are like Selahattin Bey's teachings of Fatma Hanim. I know that my grandmothers' attitude to these letters are of sin, forbidden things and indifference. When I tried to dream about their unhappy relationship i had started to fictionalize The Silent House.

• On the young people in The Silent House

The details and the environment of the youth in the novel, their car racing, their getting drunk in house gatherings, their going to discos and going to the beach and killing time are from the real stories of my friends in Sahil neighborhood in the early 1970s. We went there some time during summers. I remember those young people who would take their father;s cars and racing with their friends. i was among them and while I was writing this novel I remembered them with a smile on my face. (p.132)

• On the characters of The Silent House

... Today there are less people who aim to change his country radically with culture. The encyclopedic grandchildren of Selahattin Bey cannot write their own encyclopedias like he did. I think today, we are not as radical as Selahattin Bey even as an idea importer. As a result, I don't want anybody to think that I look down on people like Selahattin Bey. (p.131)