28 April 2011
“We are building the canal of the century, a project of such immense size that it can’t be compared to the Panama or Suez canals,” says Turkish president Recep Erdogan. “Water sports will take place on the Bosphorus, transport within the city will be established, [and Istanbul] will return to its former days.”
12 June 2008 | Philadelphia City Paper
A sense of loss pervades these Bosphorus hills. Pamuk calls it a “black mood shared by millions of people together.” But he explains that it’s consumed and projected by Istanbullus with pride and honor. “Hüzün does not just paralyze the inhabitants of Istanbul; it also gives them poetic license to be paralyzed.”
13 November 2007
Pamuk leads us carefully through the intellectual history of Istanbul—it’s in this effort as a writer of Philadelphia’s streets, I feel some affinity. He allows us to see the intersection of the physical and the metaphysical—made magic by the personal act of walking, thinking, reflecting, and composing.