Your thoughts?

So, have you finished reading the Alchemist? What did you think? Did you like the writing style? The characters? What was your favorite part? How did the book leave you at the end? I will let you answer first and then follow up with my thoughts.

I just finished reading The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok. Jackie& Ray, you have got read this book!!! I think you can get it at the library. Just released end of 2011. Let me know if you read it.

The Alchemist

The next book we have agreed to explore is the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Here is a biography of the author. The book is very short, so we will not be breaking it into chapters. But, I think it will lend itself to some thoughtful discussion. I will be back on December 18th and will be taking the Alchemist with me to read. Let's plan on posting some general comments by December 20th and then we can post some specific questions and answers. I hope this will be a more interesting, less difficult read and more inspiring than My Name is Red!

Biography of Paulo Coelho (1947-)

Paulo Coelho Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 24, 1947. Before becoming the most widely published Brazilian author of all time–publishing close to 100 million books–he worked as a theatre director, an actor and a journalist. In the 1970's, Coelho was also a successful songwriter whose songs were sung by such well-known brazilian singers as Elis Regina, Rita Lee and, most notably, Brazilian psychadelic rock pioneer Raul Seixas. Seixas and Coelho recieved wide commercial and critical acclaim for their songs "Eu Nasci Há Dez Mil Anos Atrás," "Gita," "Al Capone" as well as 60 other songs. Also during this time, Coelho travelled the world as part of the hippy movement and became more and more interested in Eastern religions as well as occultism in general.

Coelho's definitive spiritual turn, however, came when he made a pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, a catholic pilgrimage route in the north-western Spanish state of Galicia. This journey is documented in his book, The Pilgrimage (O Diário de um Mago), released in 1988. His next book was The Alchemist (O Alquimista), a book which he claims is a metaphorical adaptation of his own spiritual journey that he undertook on his pilgrimage. Clearly, the name of the protagonist in The Alchemist is a nod to Coelho's experience on the Camino de Santiago. While sales of The Alchemist were slow at first, it went on to become the highest-selling Brazilian book of all time and one of the most widely read books in the world.

Since publishing The Alchemist, Coelho has gone on to publish other titles including Brida (1990), The Valkyries (As Valkírias, 1992), By the river Piedra I sat Down and Wept (Na margem do rio Piedra eu sentei e chorei, 1994), The Fifth Mountain (O Monte Cinco, 1996), Manual of a Warrior of Light (O Manual do Guerreiro da Luz, 1997), Veronika decides to die (Veronika decide morrer, 1998), The Devil and Miss Prym, (O demônio e a Srta. Prym, 2000), Eleven Minutes (Onze Minutos, 2003), The Zahir (O Zahir, 2005), The Witch of Portobello (A Bruxa de Portobello, 2006) and, most recently, The Winner Stands Alone (O Vencedor Está Só, 2008). In addition to his books, Coelho also has a weekly column which is published in several Brazilian newspapers and is syndicated internationally.

Coelho is not only an internationally acclaimed author, but is also an outspoken activist for peace and social justice. He is a Messenger of Peace for the UN, an Ambassador to the European Union for Intercultural Dialogue, a Member of the Board of the Shimon Peres Institute for Peace, a UNESCO Special Counselor for “Intercultural Dialogues and Spiritual Convergences," and a Board Member of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. He is also a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, the highest honor for a Brazilian author, and is one of the best-known authors to actively support the free distribution of his work.

Paulo Coelho and his wife Christina split their time between Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Saint Martin, Hautes-Pyrénées, France.

Chapters 41-51 Due Monday, October 10

Chapter 41
This is an important chapter which contains descriptions of attributes of the 3 miniaturists--one of whom is the murderer. Read the descriptions of the painters attributes carefully. Master Osman tells us "genuine artists have an instinctive desire to draw what's forbidden!"(p253)

Chapter 42
A contest is devised to entrap the murderer. What is this contest and what will be the clue used to identify the murderer? Black is fearful that he will himself be caught up in the contest. Master Osman reveals his fear that this is the end of an era in Islamic painting. (p272)

Chapters 43, 44, 45
We observe each of the miniaturists drawing the horse. We learn more about each. At the end of each of these chapters, the miniaturists reveal a statement about how they feel about their painted images. These are important statements to help identify the murderer. Anyone want to take a "stab" at who the murderer is?

Chapter 46
The murderer tells us he knows the competition to draw the horse is a trap.

Chapter 47
This chapter is told from the point of view of Satan. An interesting line on p288:
If all men went to Heaven, no one would ever be frightened, and the world and its governments could never function on virtue alone for in our world evils is a necessary as virtue and sin as necessary as rectitude." Do you agree?

Chapter 48
Shekure shares that she suspects Black may be the murderer.

Chapter 49
Master Osman and Black are taken into the Sultan's secret treasury to identify the specific technique that will identify the painter of the horse and hence the murderer. What do you think is Mater Osman's true motive for getting into the Sultan's treasury?

Chapter 50
This chapter told by Two Dervishes found on a painting in the Sultan's treasury. They tell a tale of how they fooled a Venetian painter.

Chapter 51
Master Osman is overwhelmed when he finds and gets to examine one of the rarest paintings in the Sultan's treasury a work by master Bihzad. Master Osman then does a horrendous thing. What did Master Osman do? Why did he do it?

Outside resources:
If you haven't already viewed this, please watch this overview of the book:
http://www.learner.org/courses/worldlit/my-name-is-red/watch/

Wikipedia reference on dervishes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dervish

Chapters 30-40 Comments due 9/19/11

Chapter 30 - Shekure discovers her father's body. This is an interesting chapter describing Shekure's and Hayriye's reactions to the Enishte's death.

Chapter 31 - Written by the color red. A beautiful and imaginative chapter where red tels us it is half serious and half mirthful and also that colors are not know, but felt.(p187)
Have you ever felt a color?

Chapter 32 - Shekure and Black plot to hide Enishte's death.
Can you list one of the reasons they want to do this?
Shekure gives Black 4 stipulations to follow if she agrees to marry him.
What are these stipulations?

Chapter 33 - Black obtains the divorce he needs to marry Shekure and they decide to keep Enishte's death a secret until after the wedding. Shekure adds yet ANOTHER stipulation before she will marry Black.
Can you list this?
We also learn that the murderer stole the last painting from Enishte's house.
Did you find situations in this chapter that were humorous?

Chapter 34- Everyone is feeling guilty and fears being accused of Enishte's murder. In this chapter, Shekure tells us about her fears for her children. Black is confronted by Hasan.
Can you list one of her fears for her children?

Chapter 35 - This chapter is told by a horse. The horse brags about it's beauty and criticizes miniaturists who have never gone off to war and therefore incorrectly depict its gallop.

Chapter 36 - Black mulls over the paintings made for the forbidden book and comes to the realization that they hold the secret of who the murder is. The children are told of their grandfather's death. Black goes to report the death Enishte to the Head Treasurer and turns over the 9 forbidden illustrations. It is noted that the 10th and last illustration, which was to to be a portrait of the Sultan, was taken by the murderer.

Chapter 37 - Enishte returns to us one last time to let us know how it feels to pass through to death and that he is pleased with his funeral. Enishte admits that he desired to have his own portrait painted in the Venetian style, but was frightened and settled on having the Sultan's portrait painted.

Chapter 38 - This chapter is written by Master Osman, who grieves over the fact that the style of paining that he has devoted his life to will now change and become less significant. He is summoned by the Head Treasurer who tells him about the secret book, that his miniaturists were working on it and that Enishte has been murdered, probably because of it. The Head Treasurer tells Master Osman that the Sultan demands two things of him.
Can you name these two demands from the Sultan?
We find out that Olive, Stork, Butterfly and Black are the murder suspects and that there are intentions to torture them to find the guilty party.

Chapter 39 - Esther helps attend to the women while the men are at Enishte's funeral. She learns of the suspicions that Enishte was dead before Shekure and Black were married. Shekure sends Esther to Elegant Effendi's widow to find out why that widow whose husband died under similar circumstances has not sent her condolences to Shekure.
Why did Elegant Effendi's widow ignore acknowledging Enishte's death?

Chapter 40 - Black is summoned to the palace. He is frightened of being tortured by the guards to admit to Enishte's murder and he regrets he hasn't even had the chance to make love to his new wife yet.
On his way to the palace, Black picks up something that he thinks is a token of good fortune sent by Allah.
What is this good luck token?
Black is tortured but does not admit to the killing. The Sultan then orders the torture to be stopped and Black is informed that Master Osman has been given three days in which to interrogate Olive, Stork and Butterfly and disclose the murderer and come up with the missing illustration. Black is to assist him.
What will happen if they fail?

Optional reading:
An article on the Tower of London torture chamber:
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/torture.htm

Wikipedia citation on the beautiful Turkish horse. Were fed an interesting high protein diet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkoman_horse

Chapters 19-29 Comments due Monday 9/12/11

Ch 19 is one of my favorites so far. Written from the point of view of a gold Venetian coin, I found this perspective to be both creative and amusing. I seem to remember seeing a movie once about a dollar bill--following it's travels through the hands of many people with insight into their stories.
How many times did the coin change hands in during it's last 7 years in Istanbul?

Ch20 Black has an excellent discussion with Enishte about why the new art of portraiture is so frightening. They also talk alot about "shadow."
Can you list a few of the fears they expressed about this new type of painting?

Do you know of any other examples from other cultures/countries/religions that prohibit taking or making human images?

Ch 21 Enishte feels the approach of his own death. He can imagine his death at Black's hands (p112). He fiddles with e Mongol inkpot Black gave him as a present. (p111) He tells Black that the last picture contains a depiction of death. Enishte makes Shekure promise that if he dies, she will make sure the book is finished.

Ch 22 Black reignites his desire for Shekure and realizes that he must come to terms with her sons if he is to marry her.

Ch 23 The murderer begins to feel the sinister ache at the back of his throat. On pg 125, the murderer follows Black and gives us some very revealing information/clues.....

Read the three paragraphs starting with As I watched Black walking..." and complete this sentence......COULD THE MURDERER BE___________________.

Ch 24 A chapter written by death itself. Tellingly, death says the miniaturist who drew him now believes he's become what he has drawn. (128)

Ch 25 Esther tells us (p131) one of her motives for encouraging the love triangle.
What would that be?

How hard a life could you image it would be for a aged widow without family in those times?

Ch 26 Hasan writes Shekure a letter in which he tells her he is going to bring her back to his house. (p136) Shekure agrees to meet Black in the house of the Hanged Jew (p139). Shevket tells his mother that he thinks Black killed his father (p143) Shekure arranges for her sons to be taken out of the house for the day (145). During their meeting in the house of the Hanged Jew, Black finally gets to embrace Shekure (p148)

Ch 27 Shekure ups the ante on Black in their game of love chess.

Shekure wants Black to do 4 things before she will marry him. What are they?
Ch 28 The murderer comes to Enishte's house with forethought and intent (p155) and receives signs that Allah approves of what he is about to do. He gets further encouragement to carry out his task by remembering an interaction with Enishte that happened long ago (p164). The murder admits to Enishte that he killed Elegant (p165).

Ch 29 Enishte is murdered.

Chapters 10-18 Hey, We're Going to Move Ahead

If it is OK with the group, we will cover more pages of reading, (chapters 10-18) for this week. That way we can move ahead quicker in our discoveries in this novel. I bet Ray has already past these chapters :) Your comments are due Monday, September 5.

Chapter 10
One of the most creative writing inventions Pamuk employes in My Name is Red is to write chapters of the story from the point of view of inanimate objects. In chapter 10 "I am a Tree", Pamuk explores what a tree from an illuminated page has to think and say. The image of the tree has been separated from it's book and is now alone.
Do you think this has caused the tree to lose or to expand it's meaning?

Chapter 11
Black meets Master Osman and they discussed how the Venetian style differs from the Islamic illuminations. They also talk about how the Islamic illuminations are changing.
Can you list a couple of those changes?

Black asks Master Osman what "separates the genuine miniaturist from the ordinary" (p.60)
Master Osman replies that to determine this, he would ask a painter three questions. Black is going to use those questions to interrogate the miniaturists to help him identify Elegant's murderer.
What are those questions?

There is an important discussion in this chapter about blindness. Master Osman tells Black that "blindness is silence" and "it's the farthest one can go in illustrating: it is seeing what appears out of Allah's own blackness." (p 60) In chapter 14 (p80) Pamuk tells us that an artist that is blind paints by memory and is not distracted by the world.
Do you think blindness would make an artist better? Answer this question after you have reviewed the following 2 outside sources:

1) A video about a remarkable blind painter from Turkey.....Esref Armagan
http://www.armagan.com/

2) The story of a painter, Benodebehari Mukherjee, helps us explore the concept of whether blindness is a virtue and can make an artist better
http://humanitiesunderground.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/the-blind-art-of-the-concrete/
Some of the artwork of Mr. Mukherjee can be viewed here:
http://www.artfact.com/artist/mukherjee-benode-behari-jsudm51tks

Chapters 12, 13, 14
In these chapters, Black visits the three miniaturists (Butterfly, Stork and Olive) and poses the questions Master Osman has suggested. He uses the questions as a ploy to observe the painters to pick up any signs of guilt of Elegant's murder. All three miniaturists are on to Black's motive for visiting them.

Butterfly answers Black's question about style and signature. He also boasts he is the best painter because he earns the most money (p68) and also that he didn't murder Elegant ( 66). But he also says he feels like lowering an inkpot onto the skull of this buffoon Black for suspecting him of Elegant's murder.

Stork answers Black's question about painting and time. Stork tells Black a tale with the moral that "time ends for the one who forsakes the perfect life and perfect illuminating leaving nothing but death." (p75)

Olive answers Black's question about blindness and memory. One of Olive's stories (p79) reveals some of the "eternal anxieties about going blind shared by all miniaturists."
Can you list some of these anxieties and the conditions that caused these anxieties?
Chapter 15
In this chapter Esther heightens the drama of the love triangle between Shekure, Black and Hasan.
How does Esther stir things up?

In this male dominated society, it would appear that a women holds power over men the most when she is desirable for marriage.
Do you think this might be a reason Shekure is playing Black and Hasan against each other?

Chapter 16
We learn more about Shekure's thnking. She tells us: "It wasn't aging, losing one's beauty or even being bereft of usband and money that was the worst of all calamities. (p87)
What does Shejkure is more horrible?

Enishte is afraid Shekure will divorce, remarry and abandon him. He is also afraid he too will be murdered.

Chapter 17
Enishte goes to Elegant's funeral with the knowledge that Elegant's murder is present there.
At the funeral he talks with Olive, Stork and Butterfly. He recalls Stork criticizing Elegant's gilding work as being inferior (p92). He notes that Olive was the "one who most believed in my book. (p92). He has a fiery discussion with Butterfly in which Butterfly accuses Olive and Stork with starting rumors that he is the murderer because he had bad relations with Elegant. (p93) Looking into Elegant's grave Enishte again fears his own demise.

Why do you think Enishte tells Butterfly to let the others know that he is calling off the project of the secret book?

At this point in the story, who do you think the murder is?

Resources for optional discovery

An interesting history of gold coins:
http://www.nationalcoinbrokers.com/rarecoins/gold-in-your-ira/history-of-gold-coins/

Author Pamuk describes some of the paintings referred to in "My Name is Red"
http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/pamuk/desktop1.html

Chapters 7-9 due Monday 8/29/11

I'll be camping for about the next 10 days, so you get an few extra days to read and analyze these chapters---comments please by Monday 8/29/11.

Chapter 7 we get deeper into the romantic intrigue between Black and Shekure and find it really is a love TRIANGLE. On pg 35 we learn that Shekure sent a message to Black via Esther which contains an illustration that Black made for her years ago. Was Shekure's message meant to encourage or discourage Black's advances?

Chapter 8 we meet the interesting character of Esther. What do you think Esther gains from manipulating the lovers the way she does?

Chapter 9 we meet Shekure. What do you think Shekure gains from manipulating Black?

Remember you can answer all or some or none of the questions posed above. They are only discussion starters. If you have any comments about parts of the story that interest you, please share them with the group.

OPTIONAL READING AND RESEARCH
Here are some interesting pictures of womens' costumes in 16th century Turkey: http://home.earthlink.net/~al-qurtubiyya/16/kultur-16.html

Here is an actual pattern you can purchase to make a 16th century Turkish woman's outfit.....check out those platform shoes!!!! Actually the clothing looks pretty comfortable and the colors are fantastic, but was probably very warm in summer--all those layers!
http://www.reconstructinghistory.com/products/rh406-ottoman-turkish-woman-1

And finally a little Turkish-English poem about love and marriage!
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/will-you-marry-me-turkish-english/

I look forward to your comments.......Happy Reading!