One of the members from our intensive sent out a note this morning about “My Father’s Suitcase” by Orhan Pamuk, who won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. Out of curiosity (since I didn’t know what My Father’s Suitcase was), I did a Google search. The first item that came up was this link.
It’s a blog that includes an excerpt from My Father’s Suitcase (which is Pamuk’s Nobel lecture) that talks about why Pamuk writes. The first comment to his blog is the poem, “So you want to be a writer,” which QuoinMonkey sent out to us some time last year. (Is that the right title? The poem in the blog comment doesn’t have the title, but I recognized the words immediately.)
Thought you guys might be interested in this connection.
Yeah, that’s that Charles Bukowski poem, I think it is “So You Want to Write.” Can’t remember for sure though. I sent it out to this group sometime last year. I love that one. I asked her to send Orhan Pamuk’s article to me and she mailed it. Some good stuff in there, too.
Why do we write? It’s a good question for all of us to answer.
Thanks for the link.
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Here’s the link to the whole Nobel Lecture by Orhan Pamuk. It’s worth the time.
Orhan Pamuk
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2006
Nobel Lecture
December 7, 2006
My Father’s Suitcase
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2006/pamuk-lecture_en.html
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Ah, yeah. You are right about the title of that Charles Bukowski poem. Here’s the link from Poets.org to his poem, so you want to be a writer?:
so you want to be a writer?
by Charles Bukowski
from sifting through the madness for the Word, the line, the way, 2003
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16549
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wow, this guy is one ice cold bucket of water.
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When I read the poem the first time my immediate response was, Egads, I don’t have what it takes. I think I even wrote about it, and maybe QM did, too. Word’s note about a bucket of ice water made me laugh out loud.
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Yeah, he was a cold fish. You know what I love about him? If you read his history you can see that he almost gave up on the writing – 10 years of heavy drinking after a lack of publishing success. But then, he didn’t – he found it in him to keep going. And was very prolific. I admire his tenacity. And irreverence. I always think when I read him, “hey, I wish I could write with that much irreverence. And really just let it out.” In the end, he had no mercy. He really went through it to be a writer. And it seems in the poem, kind of tells it like it is. I bet he would have been quite a harsh teacher. Watch out, ego.
Here’s a link to his bio and bibliography on Poets.org:
Charles Bukowski – Bio & Bibliography
QM
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