Upon Finishing "My Name is Red"

My professor once said "It's not like Orhan Pamuk's books that require you to be knowledgeable in order to understand the message," as oppose to a book that we were reading. I was not sure if I understood clearly what he said until now.

I've been reading "My Name is Red" for quite some time. It took me so long to finish this book: 1. Because it's so complicated. Pamuk uses a lot references from Persian classical literatures such as "Leila and Mejnun" and "Husrev and Shirin."; 2. He mentions so many influential names from Ottoman eras, which requires us to do some research so that we can feel the excitement of reading. As readers this is something that we sometime ought to do, so that we (readers) won't feel like an alien.; 3. This book focuses on the world of miniatures or paintings in general. It took me awhile to understand what "Frankish style" and "Venetian style" mean. Orhan Pamuk also mentions some other styles invented in Eastern world; 4. And the part that amazes me the most is its narrative style. Orhan Pamuk uses "multiple narrators" style to tell the story; which means that the whole story from chapter 1 to the end will be told by various narrators. It also means that readers will be able to examine the degree of truth of each story by looking closely at the way one character tells its part.

So, now I think I am entitled to say that I love this so much - it teaches me how to be a responsible reader. I know that we are just 'tabula rasa' but it doesn't mean that we should be fed all the time. Instead, we should find our own food and feed it to our own mouths, not the other way around.