The mechanisms of every pandemic are the same

The long-awaited novel "Nights of the Plague" by the Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, a work that he wrote for five full years, brings a vivid panoramic picture of the last days of the Ottoman Empire: from the fear of death to the opposition to the health lockdown, from the Thecian sheikhs to the Greek nationalists, from the pilgrimage ships to the riots against the quarantine, but which also reconsiders the fundamental questions of life , death and love. "Nights of Plague" was translated from Turkish Mirjana Marinkovic, and this is the first translation in the world after the original. The publisher is Geopoetika from Belgrade.

When a plague epidemic broke out on the island of Minger in the spring of 1901 - in the 29th province of the Ottoman Empire - Sultan Abdulhamid sent the chief health inspector Bonkovski Pasha to the island, followed by the young and successful doctor Nuri, to stop the epidemic. The Padishah had just married this young doctor to Sultania Pakiza, the daughter of Sultan Murat V, his older brother whom he kept imprisoned in the palace. Sultanija accompanies her husband on that trip. And on the island are a young nationalist, an Ottoman officer, a provincial governor and fatal islanders. The novel "Nights of the Plague" is a story about the struggle of those people with respect for the quarantine ban, with the plague, with the traditions of the island and finally - with each other and death threats, as well as with their loves.

As Turkish critics note, the most important feature of "Night of the Plague" is the successful interweaving of history and fiction, which makes it difficult for the reader to understand where the real ends and the fictitious begins. Pamuk weaved history and politics into the novel, adding some irony and parody. "Nights of Plague" is a fascinating and at the same time multi-layered novel.

About his novel, which was presented a few days ago in Belgrade, Orhan Pamuk said via video conference that he had been thinking about the novel "Nights of the Plague" for 40 years, and had been writing it for the last five years, recalling that he often touched on the plague in his previous works.

- Every time I write a novel, I ask myself why I haven't already written my novel about the plague? I think I'm not ready yet, I need a lot of research. It took me 35 years to prepare. I wanted to write a historical novel that takes place during the plague in Ottoman times. "Nights of the Plague" is such a novel. But I also wanted to write a novel with more existential themes - said Pamuk.

Pamuk said that the work on the novel led him to the topic of Orientalism, which was developed by Westerners dealing with the East, and fatalism, which they used to characterize Muslims after they noticed during a visit to Istanbul that people faced with infections "were not afraid, they did not take measures and did not run away".

- When the covid-19 pandemic started, I was in America. In a panic, I went to the airport and came to Istanbul. I thought for 40 years about my plague novel. I thought what a coincidence that I now have to finish my novel. And everyone will say that I remembered to write it now that the pandemic broke out - said the Turkish Nobel laureate.

About the similarities and differences between the pandemic described in the novel and our current one, Pamuk says: "There are similarities in all pandemics, namely in the reaction of people: first they deny the existence of the disease, then they come up with conspiracy theories, then they hate the imaginary culprits, fear creeps in and finally opposition government and medical measures, lockdown. But there are also big differences. In 1901, only five percent of the world's population was literate. In today's Turkey, it is 95 percent. About 75 percent of people have access to the Internet. Today we know how things are, and we find out quickly. This is the big difference between today's world and the world in the novel".

Pamuk, he says, researched numerous historical and literary sources in detail, among which he singled out "Verenike" Alessandro Manconi, “Diary of the Plague” Daniel Defoe and one report "Bubonic Plague of 1894 in Hong Kong", written by doctors.

- I realized how difficult it is to impose quarantine on people. The mechanisms of every pandemic are the same, whether the word is plague, corona or cholera. First comes denial, doubt, then depression, the numbers grow. The imposition of quarantines and lockdowns makes the government more authoritarian, and on the other hand it leads to a new order that resists the pandemic. Through the story of the pandemic, I wanted to reexamine the creation, understanding and development of small national states, the development of national mythology. I did not base myself exclusively on the Turkish and Ottoman example, that story is universal. There is currently no freedom of speech in Turkey, there is no complete democracy, some of my friends and many journalists are in prisons and are dying because of their spoken words. Turkey is currently going through an economic disaster, Erdogan's popularity is declining and if he were a democracy his party would lose the elections - said Orhan Pamuk.