In the 17th century, a young Italian scholar sailing from Venice to Naples is taken prisoner and delivered to Constantinople. There he falls into the custody of a scholar known as Hoja--"master"--a man who is his exact double. In the years that follow, the slave instructs his master in Western science and technology, from medicine to pyrotechnics. But Hoja wants to know more: why he and his captive are the persons they are and whether, given knowledge of each other's most intimate secrets, they could actually exchange identities.
Set in a world of magnificent scholarship and terrifying savagery, The White Castle is a colorful and intricately patterned triumph of the imagination.
From a Turkish writer who has been compared with Borges, Nabokov, and DeLillo comes a dazzling novel that is at once a captivating work of historical fiction and a sinuous treatise on the enigma of identity and the relations between East and West.
In Orhan Pamuk's novel The White Fortress, the Ottoman Empire is introduced and Istanbul is the focus. For some reason, all empires follow the same path of development. They seize foreign lands, rob the population, take them captive, get richer at the expense of others and develop for some time. But there is another way - the development and application of science and technology. I am not a historian, but this is my opinion. The sciences had no practical application in the Ottoman Empire in the novel. The authorities do not use the knowledge of their scientist Hoxha for the good of the country, and another scientist, an Italian, is captured.
The narrator of this story, our prisoner, believes that the captivity changed his life, and it was all predetermined. The Italian, even under pain of death, did not accept Islam. Hoxha saved the Italian. The question arises: why saved? According to Hodja, the prisoner must teach him everything he knew.
The owner and the prisoner read books for which Khoja paid a lot of money. Together the scientists wrote a treatise and other books, but they could combine minds to create something more grandiose during this time.
But there was no important social order, so something on the little things. Khoja called people in the palace fools.
From boredom and longing, the Italian began the game with the question: "Why am I - this is me?"
Scientists wrote their memoirs and shared them with each other. During the game, the Italian very subtly manipulated Hodge and brought him to such a state that he lost confidence and self-respect for himself: he is free." The Italian shook the foundations of personality, the enemy felt uneasy, but resisted.
But the plague that began in Turkey changed everything. Hodja take it and say: "You are afraid of the plague, because you are a sinner." And again he gained strength and superiority.
“Khoja declared that he could see the world through my eyes; now he, they say, understands how "they" think and feel.
The memory game was an important event in their destinies, it shook them up and enriched them. “Khodja excitedly talked about what he would do when it was not him, but I who let him go free and he, having become me, would return to my homeland.”
One detail - scientists outwardly similar to each other.
Somehow the thought came to me that every person dreams about what is connected with his personality, fate, which may well come true. Not everyone will dream of creating a collection of the rarest butterflies or climbing Everest. Hodja's dreams have also come true. He entered the service of the Sultan. They both served him faithfully. As he grew older, Vladyka became a wiser man. The Sultan realized that each of the scientists has one half of his personality, and the other half - his partner in scientific designs.
The Lord returned to Hodja's dream and ordered the creation of a miracle weapon. The campaign with new weapons to the West was a defeat for scientists, but opened the way to another dream of Hoxha.
The beautiful white fortress is the personification of the West, it is a temptation. The fortress did not fall. Hoxha sought to save the empire so that it would be self-sufficient, prosper, and not bow its head to another civilization and imitate it. But it didn't work out.
And yet, Vladyka puts an end to this whole story: "...isn't the best proof that people all over the world are the same, their ability to change places?"
This is a philosophical novel about the relationship between the West and the East, similar to a fairy tale. Those who love riddles will love the book by Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Prize winner. Cholerics by temperament will be uncomfortable with a book, although who knows.
This article was sponsored by Adam Geller
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