READIN: Museum of Innocence backstory

(This is a page from my archives)

➻

More posts about:

➻	Museum of Innocence
➻	Orhan Pamuk
➻	Readings

Archives index
Subscribe to RSS

This page renders best in Firefox (or Safari, or Chrome)

READIN started out as a place for me to keep track of what I am reading, and to learn (slowly, slowly) how to design a web site.

There has been some mission drift here and there, but in general that's still what it is. Some of the main things I write about here are reading books, listening to (and playing) music, and watching the movies. Also I write about the work I do with my hands and with my head; and of course about bringing up Sylvia.

The site is a bit of a work in progress. New features will come on-line now and then; and you will occasionally get error messages in place of the blog, for the forseeable future. Cut me some slack, I'm just doing it for fun! And if you see an error message you think I should know about, please drop me a line. READIN source code is PHP and CSS, and available on request, in case you want to see how it works.

See my reading list for what I'm interested in this year.

READIN has been visited approximately 236,737 times since October, 2007.

🦋 Museum of Innocence backstory

I pass by these walls, the walls of Layla
And I kiss this wall and that wall
It's not Love of the houses that has taken my heart
But of the One who dwells in those houses
-- Qays ibn al-Mulawwah

Thanks to Ayse Papatya Bucak of Reading for Writers, for pointing out the connection between Museum of Innocence and the Ottoman story of Layla and Mejnun -- Ms. Bucak calls Pamuk's book a rewriting of the old story, which tells how Mejnun goes obsessively mad after being refused by his love-object.

Interesting! I had never heard of that story but some quick experimentation with Google will demonstrate that its influence is very broad in the Islamic world. The New York Turkmen Institute has put online Sofi Huri's translation of FuzÃ»lÃ®'s version of the story, which appears to be the primary Ottoman version -- it was made into an opera by Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov (produced in NYC just this past Spring by Yo-yo Ma) -- Here are Erkan Oğur and İsmail H. Demircioğlu performing "Leyli Mecnun" from that opera:

posted evening of Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
➳ More posts about Museum of Innocence
➳ More posts about Orhan Pamuk
➳ More posts about Readings

Respond:

Name:

E-mail:
(will not be displayed)

Link:

Remember info

Drop me a line! or, sign my Guestbook.
•
Check out Ellen's writing at Patch.com.

`READIN`

Jeremy's journal

`READIN`

🦋 Museum of Innocence backstory

Respond:

Where to go from here...