Ka is a Gemini. Ka is a journalist and a poet, an cynical intellectual who yearns to be more earnest
Ka is a Gemini. Ka is a journalist and a poet, an cynical intellectual who yearns to be more earnest, to not constantly feel as though he has to interrogate his every emotion. Snow, by Orhan Pamuk is a duplicitous novel that follows Ka as he navigates his experiences. “Geminis are supposed to tell lots of lies, but I’m not so sure.”Navigating “truth” is a difficult thing. Navigating sincerity of feeling is even more difficult. Ka frequently flips from opinion to opinion, often agreeing with whichever person he spoke to last. He’s unsure what to think, what to believe. He feels pressured by those around him, not to merely outwardly agree with what they are saying, but to fundamentally believe it. All he really wants it to be happy and all he thinks he needs is a beautiful woman to love him. He doesn’t realize that the woman he chases is just as capable of internal contradiction as he is. Ultimately, Snow is a book about cognitive dissonance, about the unfulfilling nature of truth. We can get so wrapped up in capturing reality and being right that we forget to remember that reality is subjective. Our personal reality is defined individually.Snow leads us to this conclusion, never answering whether solipsism is our ultimate fate. It’s a difficult book to get a grasp on. In my opinion, it captures the fruitlessness of chasing existential angst to death. If you like well written books that make you ponder the human nature, Snow is definitely for you. -- source link
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