At about 2 am a couple
of days ago I
pulled out a book on Egyptian mythology
from the shelf where it sits with
many other books about ancient Egypt. As
you know if you're a regular visitor
here, I feel an intimate familarity with
ancient Egyptian culture, art and ambiance,
even though I have no actual connection
to Egypt. It's one of those déja
vu things,
if you believe in reincarnation, or simply
affinity if you don't. Anyway I suddenly
wanted to re-read about the Ka.
In art the ka was
portrayed in several ways: a person identical
to the person whom it was associated
with, as a shadowy figure, as a person
with two upraised arms on his head.........The
ka is a manifestation of vital
energy........The ka could also be seen as the conscience
or guide of each individual, urging kindness,
quietude, honor and compassion......In
images and statues of the ka,
they are depicted as their owner in an
idealized state of youth, vigor and beauty......The
ka is
the origin and giver of all the Egyptians
saw as desirable, especially eternal
life.
EventuaIly
I went to bed and had this dream: I
was watching a panel of critics discussing
a book which was either called SNOW or
had that word in the title. The people
on the panel were very c0mplimentary
about it but one of them began
arguing vehemently. She was a gnarled
old woman with a prominent nose
and mouth and dusky skin colour.
She was sarcastic about
books and films portraying Jewish subjects
in banal ways and I thought she meant that SNOW was
one of these. But her tone suddenly changed
and she began to praise it warmly, saying
it wasn't like any of the others.
That's all I remember
but the dream was extremely
vivid, as if I'd been watching a live debate
on television. When I woke up I immediately
turned on the computer and googled snow to
see if there is a book by that name. There
is: it's SNOW by
Orhan Panuk.
I'd never heard of it (shame on me) so
I read a summary of the plot:
Pamuk's hero is
a dried-up poet named Kerim Alakusoglu,
conveniently abbreviated to Ka: Ka
in kar in Kars. (The
word for snow in Turkish is Kar).
Though most of the
early part of the story is told in the
third person from Ka's point of
view, an omniscient narrator sometimes
makes his presence known, posing as a
friend of Ka's who is telling
the story based on Ka's journals
and correspondence. This narrator sometimes
provides the reader with information
before Ka knows it or foreshadows
later events in the story.
As if that wasn't enough
synchronicity, I wanted to find out if there
was yet another link in the dream to ponder,
so I googled snow together with Jewish .
I got Phoebe
Snow (real name Phoebe Ann Laub)
a jazz/blues singer, best known for
her 1975 hit The Poetry Man, a
video of which I found here .
Pamuk's character
in SNOW is a 'poetry man' - Phoebe
Snow is Jewish but changed her name
(her double, her KA).
What are all those
dream and real connections trying to tell
me? What do you make
of this sequence of serial synchronicities:
1. Ancient
Egyptian KA or
double> 2. dream:
discussion about book called SNOW> 3. dream: old woman
with dusky skin dismisses banal Jewish productions>4. in reality SNOW is book by Orhan Panuk
>5. main character is poet called KA>
6. in
the book KA has a 'double' called
Orhan Panuk >7. Turkish word for snow is Kar >8. singer Phoebe SNOW is
Jewish, her real ('double') surname is Traub
9. another doubling: she has become a Buddhist>
10. her skin colour is dusky: people have
thought she is black>11. her hit song was The
Poetry Man.
I have, of course,
ordered Panuk's book SNOW.
