The World's Literature in Europe discussion

From Chapter 30 onwards of My Name is Red.

This next part brings in how Shekure and the children will be safeguarded from returning to her missing-husband's family as well as in how to hold a new wedding with a foul, moldering body at the ceremony. Through all that the reader gets a glimpse of a wedding procession and an origin for "Here comes the bride".

Besides narrating chapter 31, Red wears others hats, being the color painted on details of illuminations and illustrations and the color of the Sultan's vast Treasury/museum, as well as being the title My Name Is Red of this novel.

"What is it to be a color?
...
I'm so fortunate to be red! I'm fiery. I'm strong. I know men take notice of me and that I cannot be resisted.
I do not conceal myself: For me, delicacy manifests itself neither in weakness nor in subtlety, but through determination and will. So, I draw attention to myself. I'm not afraid of other colors, shadows, crowds or even of loneliness. How wonderful it is to cover a surface that awaits me with my own victorious being! Wherever I'm spread, I see eyes shine, passions increase, eyebrows rise and heartbeats quicken. Behold how wonderful it is to live! Behold how wonderful to see. Behold: Living is seeing. I am everywhere. Life begins with and returns to me. Have faith in what I tell you.
Hush and listen to how I developed such a magnificent red tone..."

Beloved Uncle's chapter 37 observes his soul's passage in death. Red is the substantive color of the universe.

"The whole world was made up of color, everything was color. Just as I sensed that the force separating me from all other beings and objects consisted of color, I now know that it was color itself that had affectionately embraced me and bound me to the world. I saw orange-hued skies, beautiful leaf-green bodies, brown eggs and legendary sky-blue horses...I died surrounded by this festival of color...
Within a short period, red imbued all. The beauty of this color suffused me and the whole universe...
The red approaching me--the omnipresent red within which all the images of the universe played--was so magnificent and beautiful that it quickened my tears to think I would become part of it and be so close to Him."

The plot thickens with another murder due to a rumor about the miniaturists' illustrations. More is narrated in greater depth about the differences between Persian and Venetian painting. The story of why and who committed the murders drives the mystery to its solution. Similar to Holmesian detective skills, Master Osman and Black seeking a nondescript detail with a magnifying lens à la Sherlock Holmes.

So far, some themes--blindness, memory, imagination as a perfected image.

Master Osman's character leaps into the novel's limelight with his responsibility to determine whether Olive, Butterfly, or Stork murdered Elegant Effendi and Beloved Uncle/Enishte Effendi. More than pinpointing the correct assassin, he displays great knowledge of the old painting masters, of the Chinese influence on Persian painting, and of artistic differences.

More Ottoman Turkish letters:
Lam=L
Mim=M

Master Osman's point of view takes center stage in the climactic Chapter 51, encompassing his life as an apprentice then as a master painter who is rewarded with entrance to the Sultan's hoarded collection of history--the cold, musty Royal Treasury.

I liked the I, Satan chapter. I mean Satan has a point, not every wrong in this world should be pinned to his tail (if he had any). Some people are vile on their own that they come as an amazement to Satan.

Marwa,
I plan to reread the I, Satan chapter to respond to your post; the I am a Woman chapter engenders a lot of suspense before one reaches an Aha! moment. How do you like the setting in the Royal Treasury and its artifacts of Asian culture past entombed in cold, dusty, red, velvety light?

Asma wrote: "Marwa,
I plan to reread the I, Satan chapter to respond to your post; the I am a Woman chapter engenders a lot of suspense before one reaches an Aha! moment. How do you like the setting in the Roy..."

I envy those kings for having such treasuries of books. Actually I envy the whole setting of the novel where binding a book was such an art. Every border, every illustration and every cover was a state of art. The Royal treasury itself is heaven. I mean heaven should be some kind of library. I haven't got to I Am A Woman yet, for I'm stuck with Master Osman. But I'll make sure to note that down.

Marwa,
For me, the Sultan's Royal Treasury preserves the history of Western/Central Asian civilization. My Name Is Red says that those artefacts are the spoils of victory, which moved into the possession of each subsequent conqueror. Everything taken, past and present, transferred to the new ruler.

Like you mention above, the vast, atmospheric space of uncountable treasures is just the place Master Osman, whose workshop developed the Ottoman style, wants to take his last breath, such happiness the untold albums of legendary, illustrated stories bring him.

Asma, at the end of the chapter 51 where master Osman used the needle to go blind, it was so touching the devotion he had for his craft. I was befuddled myself in that scene that at the end of it I didn't know whether he was describing "going blind" or "falling in love". Maybe both were synonyms to each other.

Marwa,
At the book's conclusion, Osman's and Bihzad's blindness is attributed to blood's clotting after their eye piercings. That blood clots signify the gift of their seeing those illustrations at every moment, which you refer to, in contrast to another artisan whose eyes are pierced without the clotting and blindness. Going back to the book's beginning, some miniaturists lose their eyesight in the course of creating a lifetime's worth of intricate miniatures. Their blindness carries a positive meaning like Osman's and Bihzad's self-blindings.

Chapter 57: Olive seems an unreliable narrator because Stork was wearing the metal armor--"Olive, the backside of whose armor was white with flour, was courageously forging into the heart of the dervish lodge, lamp in hand." Another instance, same chapter, is Butterfly's stated absence from the group and his stated presence.

Chapter 58: Murderer is full of action, intention/unintended, reasoning, and a surprising twist of events.

Several objections to the perspectival method of painting--"...objects weren't depicted according to their importance in..." to "...his face in all its detail!"

Olive's longwinded and puzzling paragraph outlines Elegant Effendi's and Enishte Effendi's motivations and loyalties.

Finished the final chapter 59 (Shekure) and glanced over the dates and events of the chronology. There is a factual basis to the story--"The conflict between the methods of the old masters of Herat and the Frankish masters that paved the way for quarrels among artists and endless quandries was never resolved"--and to a few characters (Bihzad; Ottoman Sultan Murat III; Osman the Miniaturist; Velijan aka Olive), to background events (Timurid schools of miniature painting; Ottoman-Safavid wars; Queen Elizabeth I's clock), and to books (Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings; Books of Skills, Festivities, Victories). Might the Sultan's Royal Treasury be the Topkapi Palace Treasury? Shekure's two wishes in her interior monologue was a satisfying ending.