The Museum of Innocence

FYI, I cry at everything. Sad movies, sad books, happy movies, happy books. I'm serious. I cried at the end of the Gossip Girl book series. So it should come as no surprise that I cried during Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence. But, actually, "cried" doesn't quite cover it. I bawled/sobbed/wept uncontrollably and unabashedly. So it should also come as no surprise that I cried walking through the real-life museum based on the book. And it started immediately with this first box.

The museum, designed by Pamuk himself, parallels the protagonist's museum in the novel. Each box represents a chapter and has an accompanying audio track the viewer can listen to with rented headphones. The box pictured above has a small earring and represents the first chapter, which begins with the following sentence:

Seriously, go read this book. I don't want to give spoilers, but here's a quick synopsis: 1960s-70s Istanbul. Kemal is from a rich family and falls in love with Füsun, a poor, distant relative, but he's already engaged to Sibel, who is also rich and a perfect match—according to everyone else. The story tells of his burning love for Füsun and his intense heartache:

The reason I love this book so much, thought about it nonstop for weeks after finishing it, continue to agonize over it today, and recommend it to everyone I meet is that Pamuk's writing is so amazing and beautiful and true that I have never related to a book more. (The guy won a Nobel prize for literature, for goodness' sake.) During one of the audio tracks for one of the boxes, Pamuk says how getting the details of the book exactly right was very important to him. However, he soon realized that visitors to the museum don't remember the details so much as the emotions they felt reading the novel. As I looked at the exhibits, I remembered the details, and I definitely remembered the emotions.

I don't want to describe the contents of these pictures because, really, go read the book. But the museum wasn't only about the book. It also shows Istanbul's culture, which I did not understand or appreciate while reading the book since I had never lived in Istanbul. But after looking at the boxes and listening to the audio, I realized that the story takes place in Nişantaşı and Harbiye, which is where R and I lived! And the food and sights were entirely familiar.

The map on the left shows Harbiye and Nişantaşı, and the map on the right shows Istanbul.

The characters eat halva and drink çay.

These carts of men selling simit, cotton candy and roasted chestnuts were around in the 60s, and they haven't changed at all.

Also, as promised (though I doubt you're still reading/scrolling), here are some images of the underground Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, built by Justinian during the 6th century A.D. My camera is real terrible, so you should probably just Google pictures instead.

If you squint and also know what to look for, you'll see a bunch of columns standing in about a foot of water with lights at the bottom. Enjoy this slightly better yet still crappy video:

According to the audio guide and brochure, the cistern underwent several renovations in the last couple hundred years, the most recent being in the 1980s when paths were built above the water, and it was opened to the public. There are 336 columns in neat rows. Some are carved in the Corinthian style while others are carved in a plainer, Doric style.

This truly wonderful photograph attempts to show one of the bases of two columns, which had carvings of Medusa, the snake-haired giantess of Greek mythology. Since legend has it she can turn people to stone with her stare, neither Medusa is upright. One is upside down, and the other is turned on its side. As this picture clearly and brightly shows, this is the sideways Medusa. Her eye is in the middle of the photograph and her nose right below that. The audio guide said perhaps they were brought to protect the large structure, as was custom at the time.

This column has teardrop shapes carved on it to commemorate all the slaves who died constructing the cistern.

Anyway, since my study abroad program is due to start in two days, I owe you a lot of blogs in a short period of time. Hopefully I can get them all done!!

XXOO