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Dictionary of the Khazars
A national bestseller, Dictionary of the Khazars was cited by The New York Times Book Review as one of the best books of the year. Written in two versions, male and female (both available in Vintage International), which are identical save for seventeen crucial lines, Dictionary is the imaginary book of knowledge of the Khazars, a people who flourished somewhere beyond Transylvania between the seventh and ninth centuries. Eschewing conventional narrative and plot, this lexicon novel combines the dictionaries of the world's three major religions with entries that leap between past and future, featuring three unruly wise men, a book printed in poison ink, suicide by mirrors, a chimerical princess, a sect of priests who can infiltrate one's dreams, romances between the living and the dead, and much more.
338 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
586 people are currently reading
16560 people want to read
About the author
Milorad Pavić
182books543followersMilorad Pavić was a Serbian poet, prose writer, translator, and literary historian.
Pavić wrote five novels which were translated into English: Dictionary of the Khazars: A Lexicon Novel, Landscape Painted With Tea, Inner Side of the Wind, Last Love in Constantinople and Unique Item as well as many short stories not in English translation.
Pavić wrote five novels which were translated into English: Dictionary of the Khazars: A Lexicon Novel, Landscape Painted With Tea, Inner Side of the Wind, Last Love in Constantinople and Unique Item as well as many short stories not in English translation.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 608 reviews
March 4, 2025
Dictionary of the Khazars - Right on the title page prospective readers are informed there are two, nearly identical, editions of this book � MALE and FEMALE (authors caps). We are also alerted, warned even, that ONE PARAGRAPH (again, author's caps) is critically different in each edition. As both editions are now available in English, Serbian author Milorad Pavić and/or his publisher conclude this mini preamble with these words: “The choice is yours.�
Quizzically quaint in that I see not only one but three choices a reader can make: 1) which edition to read; 2) to search or not to search for that ONE PARAGRAPH; 3) once found or not found, the amount of importance ascribed to said single paragraph (this “lexicon novel� is well over three hundred pages). Additionally, many more choices could unravel depending upon a reader's decisions.
What does all this bring to mind? The children's gamebooks, Choose Your Own Adventure, or, perhaps Jorge Luis Borges� labyrinths or Umberto Eco’s literary puzzles or Italo Calvino’s direct references to how we read a book? If intrigued, even slightly, please read on. If not, you can stop right here. The choice is yours.
Preceding the reconstructed and revised second edition of The Khazar Dictionary, that is, the Milorad Pavić novel, there are more than a dozen pages of Preliminary Notes. Here’s the very first sentence: “The author assures the reader that he will not have to die if he reads this book, as did the user of the 1691 edition, when The Khazar Dictionary still had its first scribe.� Always encouraging words, especially for a book reviewer like myself who would like to continue reading and reviewing more books after I’m done with this one.
And who were the Khazars, you may well ask? Answer: a powerful people whose kingdom ruled lands at crossroads along the Silk Road between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea from the 7th to 10th century, a people who preached their own faith, a faith that continues to remain unknown to us moderns. Their conversion to one of the Western monotheistic religions -Judaism, Christianity, Islam - lead to the downfall of their empire at the hands of the Russians. The fact we do not know which one of the three religions is a central theme of the Dictionary of the Khazars.
What we do know is the ruler of the Khazars, the kaghan, invited a rabbi and a monk, and a dervish to his palace to compete in a contest to provide the best interpretation of a powerful, significant, fateful dream he had. The kaghan proclaimed that he and his people would convert to the winner's religion. Since no definitive record from the period has survived, in later years, each religion claimed victory. Ah, religion - what else is new?
The Preliminary Notes provide all sorts of remarkable detail, such as eyewitness reports that in the years following the demolition of the Khazar capital at the mouth of the Caspian Sea by the conquering Russians, shadows of the city’s houses held their outlines long after the buildings were destroyed. Leads me to believe, as a consequence of the Khazar defeat, the opium trade along the Silk Road must have been booming.
Also, how one 17th century chronicler explained his own day’s awakened interest in various writings and documents revolving around the competition for that distant kaghan’s kingdom: “Each of us promenades his thought, like a monkey on a leash. When you read, you always have two such monkeys: your own and the one belonging to someone else. Or, even worse, a monkey and a hyena. Now, consider what you will feed them. For the hyena does not eat the same thing as a monkey . . . .�
Say what? Not exactly the quote one would use to encourage young people to develop a love for books and reading. It would be interesting to know what stake the chronicler had in the Khazar debate. Was he himself an jaded reader? Maybe just another disgruntled author who couldn’t find a publisher for his own writing.
And there was funny business aplenty with that first edition of the Dictionary published at the end of the 17th century: two copies survived the Inquisition, one printed with a poisoned dye. Whoever opened the book soon grew numb and the reader would drop dead on the ninth page. At some point, the poisoned copy was destroyed. (Maybe not a bad thing). The other copy was also destroyed, this time by an old man who would tear out one page at a time to dip in his soup so as to skim off the fat. Thus, the second edition was put together, piece by piece, drawing on various sources through times both medieval and modern and lands, near and far and far out.
I’ll conclude my observations on the Preliminary Notes by citing how the author encourages us to read the book in such a way that we can rearrange the parts much like a Rubik's cube and put it together as if playing a game of dominoes or cards. And, “as with a mirror, he will get out of this dictionary as much as he puts into it, for, as is written on one of the pages of this lexicon, you cannot get more out of the truth than what you put into it. After all, this book need never be read in its entirety; one can take half or only a part and stop there, as one often does with dictionaries.�
The bulk of Milorad Pavić’s novel is composed of: The Red Book, The Green Book, The Yellow Book, that is, three dictionaries on the Khazar question compiled by three sources: Christian (Red), Islamic (Green) and Hebrew (Yellow). Contained therein are tales and tales within tales - a maze, a web, a jumble, a literary stew of states of consciousness, deadly alphabets, a princess with multiple faces, human immortality, fast and slow mirrors, inheritances based on the color of one’s beard, bones made of gold, learning the Khazar language from a parrot, a sealed chest of hashish, glass fingernails, dreams of a multicolored moustache, an illness serving as a pair of eyes. And that’s only from the first pages of The Red Book! It gets better. It gets wilder and wilder and wilder.
As by way of example, here are brief notes on the first two entries: Ateh, a 9th century princess, played a decisive role in the conversion of the Khazars. While asleep, the princess protected herself from her enemies by writing a single letter on each of her eyelids. The princess’s star-studded entry covers four glorious pages.
Brankovich Avram of the 17th century was among the authors of the book who could not speak one language for more than a minute at a time. While in conversation, Brankovich switched back and forth from Hungarian to Turkish to Walachian to Khazar and spoke Spanish in his sleep. His entry goes on for more than twenty pages (all in English).
This is a novel for lovers of storytelling, lovers who are willing to open the book as if picking up a Rubik's cube and delighting in each rotation. Who knows, such a lover might reach states of bliss unknown even to Khazar mystics and dreamers. The choice is yours.
Milorad Pavić, 1929-2009 - Serbian novelist, poet and literary historian
"Overall, he became a handsome and educated young man, and only occasionally did he exhibit barely noticeable signs that he was unlike others. For example, on Monday evenings he could take a different day from his future and use it the following morning, in place of Tuesday. When he came to the day he had taken, he would use the skipped Tuesday in its place, thereby adjusting the total. Under these conditions, of course, the connecting seams of the days could not fit together properly, and cracks appeared in time, but this matter only gladdened Petkutin." - Milorad Pavić, Dictionary of the Khazars
August 24, 2023
Dictionary of the Khazars is a heap of a novel or, probably, even a mountain � everything: religion, mythology, history, mysticism, faith, beliefs and superstitions are packed in a huge pile and every reader must sort it out one’s own way.
It is the magical realism eastern style � a Gothic phantasmagoria blended with a fine mockery.
History is an extravagant tapestry or, probably, a lampoon�
Whatever religion you’re into the Devil will find you�
Avram Brankovich's second, younger son was at the time stretched out somewhere in Bachka behind a motley stove built like a church, and he was suffering. It was rumored that the devil had pissed on him and that the child would get up at night, flee from the house, and clean the streets. For at night Mora sucked him, she nibbled at his heels, and man's milk flowed from his breasts.
It is the magical realism eastern style � a Gothic phantasmagoria blended with a fine mockery.
History is an extravagant tapestry or, probably, a lampoon�
Sevast, Nikon (17th century) � It is believed that at one time Satan lived under this name in the Ovchar gorge on the Morava River, in the Balkans. He was unusually gentle, addressed all men by his own name: Sevast, and worked as the head calligrapher at the St. Nicholas Monastery. Wherever he sat, however, he left an imprint of two faces, and in place of a tail he had a nose. He claimed that in his previous life he had been the devil in the Jewish hell and had served Belial and Gebhurah, had buried golems in the attics of synagogues, and one autumn, when the birds had poisonous droppings that seared the leaves and grass they soiled, had hired a man to kill him. This enabled him to cross over from the Jewish to the Christian hell, and now in his new life he served Lucifer.
Whatever religion you’re into the Devil will find you�
February 24, 2011
5 minutes ago some customer at my job proceeded to tell me about an episode of Doctor Phil he saw where an obese women lost weight by smoking crack (this is the third time today this man has told me this story.) Then he saw this book on my desk and said "Oh god, you're not really into that stuff are you?" I don't know what he assumed this book was about, I just finished it and I'm still not quite sure what it's about (but it was great, that much I know.) Apparently what ever he thought it was about frightened him enough for him to stop talking about that damn episode of doctor Phil and finally leave me alone . . . and for that I give this book 5 stars.
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May 20, 2019Forward
is a work of fiction written by Milorad Pavic relating to the factual khanate of the Khazars, the actual, yet debatable and certainly obscure, conversion of the Khazars to Judaism and the mysterious remnants of the Khazar civilisation.
Christianity
World religion to which the Khazars did not convert to. Christian sources form one part of the potentially annoying Dictionary of the Khazars.
Conversion
Process of change from one state to another typically undergone by the attentive reader.
Dictionary
Assemblage of words in alphabetical order with definitions explaining the meaning of the words to the curious reader. Dictionaries have a wider cultural significance in capturing the essence of the time and place of the compilation, and thus of the changing soul of a people like the indentation of a person's body left behind upon the sand. Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars is an exemplar of this.
Dictionary of the Khazars
Mysterious work compiled from Christian, Jewish and Muslim accounts of, and surviving knowledge about, the Khazars each forming a dictionary which cross references the other two. A novel by Milorad Pavic.
Fiction
Not fact, at least not intentionally.
Islam
World religion to which the Khazars did not convert to. Muslim sources form one part of the inventive Dictionary of the Khazars.
Judaism
World religion not noted for proselytising, but for the curious exception of the conversion of the pagan Khazars in the eighth century, a incident revisited from various perspectives in Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars. Jewish sources form one part of the enigmatic Dictionary of the Khazars.
Khazars
Semi-nomadic Turkic steppe people who formed a state to the north of the Black and Caspian seas which despite dealings with both the Christian Byzantine Empire and the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate converted to Judaism in the eighth century. In the mid-ninth century Prince Sviatoslav of Kiev destroyed the Khazar khanate. The Khazars left no writings of their own behind them. They can only be known through what was written about them by Christian, Jewish and Muslim sources. Some scraps of surviving information about the Khazars were later gathered into a curious book known as the Dictionary of the Khazars.
Milorad Pavic
Writer born in Yugoslavia known for playful works such as Dictionary of the Khazars, a novel written in the form of a dictionary in which the reader assumes an active part in creating in the story through which definitions and in what order they chose to read them.
Reader
You. To be confused with the author of this work.
Yugoslavia
Former country not destroyed by Prince Sviatoslav of Kiev in the ninth century. As memory fades only approachable through myth and story. If the stories of the peoples and faiths of that former country could be gathered together, perhaps in some kind of a literary dictionary, what countries could be assembled in the minds of the readers?
is a work of fiction written by Milorad Pavic relating to the factual khanate of the Khazars, the actual, yet debatable and certainly obscure, conversion of the Khazars to Judaism and the mysterious remnants of the Khazar civilisation.
* * *
Christianity
World religion to which the Khazars did not convert to. Christian sources form one part of the potentially annoying Dictionary of the Khazars.
Conversion
Process of change from one state to another typically undergone by the attentive reader.
Dictionary
Assemblage of words in alphabetical order with definitions explaining the meaning of the words to the curious reader. Dictionaries have a wider cultural significance in capturing the essence of the time and place of the compilation, and thus of the changing soul of a people like the indentation of a person's body left behind upon the sand. Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars is an exemplar of this.
Dictionary of the Khazars
Mysterious work compiled from Christian, Jewish and Muslim accounts of, and surviving knowledge about, the Khazars each forming a dictionary which cross references the other two. A novel by Milorad Pavic.
Fiction
Not fact, at least not intentionally.
Islam
World religion to which the Khazars did not convert to. Muslim sources form one part of the inventive Dictionary of the Khazars.
Judaism
World religion not noted for proselytising, but for the curious exception of the conversion of the pagan Khazars in the eighth century, a incident revisited from various perspectives in Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars. Jewish sources form one part of the enigmatic Dictionary of the Khazars.
Khazars
Semi-nomadic Turkic steppe people who formed a state to the north of the Black and Caspian seas which despite dealings with both the Christian Byzantine Empire and the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate converted to Judaism in the eighth century. In the mid-ninth century Prince Sviatoslav of Kiev destroyed the Khazar khanate. The Khazars left no writings of their own behind them. They can only be known through what was written about them by Christian, Jewish and Muslim sources. Some scraps of surviving information about the Khazars were later gathered into a curious book known as the Dictionary of the Khazars.
Milorad Pavic
Writer born in Yugoslavia known for playful works such as Dictionary of the Khazars, a novel written in the form of a dictionary in which the reader assumes an active part in creating in the story through which definitions and in what order they chose to read them.
Reader
You. To be confused with the author of this work.
Yugoslavia
Former country not destroyed by Prince Sviatoslav of Kiev in the ninth century. As memory fades only approachable through myth and story. If the stories of the peoples and faiths of that former country could be gathered together, perhaps in some kind of a literary dictionary, what countries could be assembled in the minds of the readers?
January 9, 2022
Iluzija je da su nam misli u glavi. Glava i mi cijeli smo u mislima. Mi i naše misli to je kao more i struja u njemu � naše tijelo je struja u moru, a misli samo more. Tako tijelo pravi mjesta sebi u svijetu probijajući se kroz misli. Duša je pak, korito i jednom i drugom.
Neko mi reče da se dobije istorija Bosne i Hercegovine kada se sklone Pavićevi nadrealni elementi. Kakogod, možda se dobije i istorija svih zemalja.
Hazarski rječnik je jedno zrelo dijelo. Kadšto oponaša trenutke zapečaćene u vremenu, obasjane nekim smionim napredovanjem unazad. Ono ne samo da budi jedno carstvo, već mu daje jedan esencijalni značaj, tako što eliminiše svu njegovu zemaljsku pohotu, otvarajući neke drevno-misteriozne krajeve kroz tri monoteističke religije; hrišćanstvo, islam i judaizam. Pavić će da provede jedan drevni Hazarski, ratnički narod, kroz ove tri religije u kojem će se on razlikovati samo po formi koje te religije tvore. Međutim pisac uvodi hroničare, pjesnike i istoričare te antropološki pristupa običajima, anegdotama, mitovima i raznim istorijski znatnim događajima koji pripadaju ovom narodu.
Snovi imaju veliki značaj kod Hazara. Ono što čini okosnicu ovog romana jesu san i sjećanja. Postoji sekta unutar Hazarskog naroda koja je vična da čita snove tzv. lovci na snove. Oni o sebi kažu sljedeće ,,U snu osjećamo se kao riba u vodi. Povremeno izranjamo iz sna, okrznemo okom svijet na obali, ali opet tonemo s žurbom i žudno, jer se osjećamo dobro samo u dubinama. Pri tim kratkim izranjanjima na kopnu opažamo jedno čudno stvorenje tromije od nas, priviknuto da diše na drugi način, no mi i zalijeplјeni za svoje kopno svom svojom težinom, pri tome lišeno strasti u kojoj mi živimo kao u sopstvenom tijelu. Jer ovdje dole slast i tijelo su nerazlučivi i jedno su isto." Jedan od najboljih u tome zvao se Mokadasa al Safer. Takođe kada je srušena Hazarska prijestonica od strane Rusa, hazarski vladar (sveštenik) zatražiće da mu se protumači san i tada će na pozornicu da stupe tri religije u vidu jednog monaha, derviša i rabina. Koji od ove trojice ispravno protumači san Hazarski narod će pripasti njemu odnosno njegovoj religiji. Diplomatski zar ne? Zanimljivo je i kako su se prema jednom predanju isto tako Hazari pokrstili, i prešli u vjeru pravoslavnu. Spram mača, diplomatija se čini savršenom.
Postoje i neki egzotični krajolici Pavićevog romana kao što su poređenje dva savremenika Homera i Svetog proroka Ilije, jedan opjevao vatru i vodu, a drugi tom vatrom kažnjavao a vodom nagrađivao. Duhovne sile koje čovjeka dijele od zemlje i od neba. Zatim tri rijeke iz Antičkog svijeta koje pripadaju podzemlju hrišćanstva, islama i judaizma.
November 20, 2023
A wonderful book and one I will return to with pleasure in future years.
Dictionary of the Khazars is the translation by Christina Pribićević-Zorić of the original by Milorad Pavić.
The basis for the novel is the true story of the Khazars - a semi-nomadic people that rapidly created a powerful empire in the 7th Century and then just as rapidly disappeared in the 10th. They left behind relatively little reliable historic records, and the vacuum has been filled by myth: this novel is an imaginative contribution to their reconstructured history.
The centre of the novel is an event that is recorded in history (albeit scholars disagree if it actually happened or is more myth) - the Khazar Polemic when the ruler of the state decided that the people should convert to either Judaism, Islam or Christianity, and invited a representative of each religion to argue the case for their faith.
The historical record suggests that the Khazars converted to Judaism, but the basis for the novel is an alternative history where the actual outcome is lost in history and each faith has it's own alternative tradition where their faith was successful. Pavic also adds his own elements of Khazar culture with a strong emphasis on the importance of dreaming.
The story focuses on 4 main groups of people - with each time three separate characters from each faith. Firstly, the three participants in the polemic (Cyril, Ibn Kora and Isaac Sangar), the three contemporary chroniclers of the debate (Cyril's brother Methodius, Al-Bakri and Judah Halevi), three 17th century figures who seek to reconstruct the Khazar legend and who find themselves linked by dreams (Avram of Brankovich, Yusuf Masudi and Samuel Cohen) and finally three late 20th Century historians researching the Khazars (Dr Isailo Suk, Dr Abu Kabir Muawia, Dorethea Schultz). Incidentally many of these are based on actual historical figures, albeit heavily embroidered by Pavic's imagination.
Where this novel really comes into it's own is the unique narrative style. The tale is told in the form of a dictionary of inter-linked entries, with separate dictionaries for each faith.
While it is possible to read the book linearly from cover to cover, it is much more rewarding to dip in and out of the book, and follow the references from one entry to another.
Either way, a fascinating story emerges and despite the lack of a conventional narrative, the story is linked up beautifully in a final appendix. There it becomes clear that the 20th century historians are each a form of reincarnation of their 17th century predecessors. And most satisfyingly three characters representing the devil himself (Nikon Sevast - Avram's scribe, Akshany a lute player, and Ephronsinia Lukarevich the lover of Cohen) reappear in the guise of a pleasant family of Belgians, keen to ensure that the truth of the Khazars will never be found.
A truly engrossing read.
Dictionary of the Khazars is the translation by Christina Pribićević-Zorić of the original by Milorad Pavić.
The basis for the novel is the true story of the Khazars - a semi-nomadic people that rapidly created a powerful empire in the 7th Century and then just as rapidly disappeared in the 10th. They left behind relatively little reliable historic records, and the vacuum has been filled by myth: this novel is an imaginative contribution to their reconstructured history.
The centre of the novel is an event that is recorded in history (albeit scholars disagree if it actually happened or is more myth) - the Khazar Polemic when the ruler of the state decided that the people should convert to either Judaism, Islam or Christianity, and invited a representative of each religion to argue the case for their faith.
The historical record suggests that the Khazars converted to Judaism, but the basis for the novel is an alternative history where the actual outcome is lost in history and each faith has it's own alternative tradition where their faith was successful. Pavic also adds his own elements of Khazar culture with a strong emphasis on the importance of dreaming.
The story focuses on 4 main groups of people - with each time three separate characters from each faith. Firstly, the three participants in the polemic (Cyril, Ibn Kora and Isaac Sangar), the three contemporary chroniclers of the debate (Cyril's brother Methodius, Al-Bakri and Judah Halevi), three 17th century figures who seek to reconstruct the Khazar legend and who find themselves linked by dreams (Avram of Brankovich, Yusuf Masudi and Samuel Cohen) and finally three late 20th Century historians researching the Khazars (Dr Isailo Suk, Dr Abu Kabir Muawia, Dorethea Schultz). Incidentally many of these are based on actual historical figures, albeit heavily embroidered by Pavic's imagination.
Where this novel really comes into it's own is the unique narrative style. The tale is told in the form of a dictionary of inter-linked entries, with separate dictionaries for each faith.
While it is possible to read the book linearly from cover to cover, it is much more rewarding to dip in and out of the book, and follow the references from one entry to another.
Either way, a fascinating story emerges and despite the lack of a conventional narrative, the story is linked up beautifully in a final appendix. There it becomes clear that the 20th century historians are each a form of reincarnation of their 17th century predecessors. And most satisfyingly three characters representing the devil himself (Nikon Sevast - Avram's scribe, Akshany a lute player, and Ephronsinia Lukarevich the lover of Cohen) reappear in the guise of a pleasant family of Belgians, keen to ensure that the truth of the Khazars will never be found.
A truly engrossing read.
August 20, 2020
What a mad wild swirling cocktail of a book. Suicide, the children's definition: The soda-fountain concoction that results when you mix a little of every flavor in one big cup.
Imagine such a slushy stir of Italo Calvino, Angela Carter, Jorge Luis Borges, Umberto Eco, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, David Mitchell, Jan Potocki, and a healthy slug of Sheharazade.
The Facts: In the 8th Century the semi-nomadic Khazars sat at the East-West tollbooth junction on the Silk Road, providing buffer state status to its powerful neighbors Byzantium, Russia, Persia, Arabia, and the Turks. In this novel the gaps in the history are filled in with fabulist abandon. The culture of the extinct Khazars survives only in scattered fragments of texts from competing sources, who all have their own tinted views and self-serving interpretations, documenting events and personages from before, during, and after The Khazar Polemic.
The Khazar Polemic: early Khazar religion remains mysterious, but it seems the leader of the Khazars found it insufficient in explaining a portentious dream of his. He summoned representatives of the three main regional faiths, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, to interpret his dream, vowing to convert--personally and his state--to the religion of the sage with the most convincing interpretation.
Naturally, each of them claimed to be the winner later. Each religion's extant texts on the subject amount only to fragments loosely gathered under general headings: names of groups or sects within Khazar society, prominent personages, significant events, folk wisdom, occupations, musical techniques, foods, salt, spirits, and demons. This novel is the collection of three dictionaries--or encyclopediæ, really: The Red Book, The Green Book, and The Yellow Book, or the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish dictionaries respectively.
Dictionary Entries: this is a little misleading as they are no mere definitions, but usually an explanatory story (or two, or three, often darkened by intrigue, enlivened by the fantastical), presented within the larger story of The Khazar Polemic. Key terms and names are marked with symbols to indicate their appearance in the other dictionaries. Naturally the duplicate entries are not identical, so the conflicting definitions produce a lexicographical , through which the absent voice of the disappeared Khazars attempts to speak.
That Khazar Voice: tells of murder, romance, conspiracy, curses, revenge, tattoos, adventure, trickery, an enchanted chicken, time-warping mirrors, dopplegangers, golems, ghosts, a noblewoman with two thumbs per hand like this
magic, monsters, miracles, and--especially--dreams. These murky tangled tales set root in the soil of history's hidden mysteries then sprout like vines with tendrils extending into the future, reaching across centuries and coiling about events long following, even into the present day.
Ferociously imaginative and fancifully baroque, this "book person's book" could be a sweet beach read for the sort of person who finds the usual "beach" fare less than refreshing.
[Note: although the edition above is the "male" version, the copy I read was the "female" version. I'm not sure what the difference is except that it's just a handful of lines toward the end] The end.
Imagine such a slushy stir of Italo Calvino, Angela Carter, Jorge Luis Borges, Umberto Eco, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, David Mitchell, Jan Potocki, and a healthy slug of Sheharazade.
The Facts: In the 8th Century the semi-nomadic Khazars sat at the East-West tollbooth junction on the Silk Road, providing buffer state status to its powerful neighbors Byzantium, Russia, Persia, Arabia, and the Turks. In this novel the gaps in the history are filled in with fabulist abandon. The culture of the extinct Khazars survives only in scattered fragments of texts from competing sources, who all have their own tinted views and self-serving interpretations, documenting events and personages from before, during, and after The Khazar Polemic.
The Khazar Polemic: early Khazar religion remains mysterious, but it seems the leader of the Khazars found it insufficient in explaining a portentious dream of his. He summoned representatives of the three main regional faiths, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, to interpret his dream, vowing to convert--personally and his state--to the religion of the sage with the most convincing interpretation.
Naturally, each of them claimed to be the winner later. Each religion's extant texts on the subject amount only to fragments loosely gathered under general headings: names of groups or sects within Khazar society, prominent personages, significant events, folk wisdom, occupations, musical techniques, foods, salt, spirits, and demons. This novel is the collection of three dictionaries--or encyclopediæ, really: The Red Book, The Green Book, and The Yellow Book, or the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish dictionaries respectively.
Dictionary Entries: this is a little misleading as they are no mere definitions, but usually an explanatory story (or two, or three, often darkened by intrigue, enlivened by the fantastical), presented within the larger story of The Khazar Polemic. Key terms and names are marked with symbols to indicate their appearance in the other dictionaries. Naturally the duplicate entries are not identical, so the conflicting definitions produce a lexicographical , through which the absent voice of the disappeared Khazars attempts to speak.
That Khazar Voice: tells of murder, romance, conspiracy, curses, revenge, tattoos, adventure, trickery, an enchanted chicken, time-warping mirrors, dopplegangers, golems, ghosts, a noblewoman with two thumbs per hand like this
magic, monsters, miracles, and--especially--dreams. These murky tangled tales set root in the soil of history's hidden mysteries then sprout like vines with tendrils extending into the future, reaching across centuries and coiling about events long following, even into the present day.Ferociously imaginative and fancifully baroque, this "book person's book" could be a sweet beach read for the sort of person who finds the usual "beach" fare less than refreshing.
[Note: although the edition above is the "male" version, the copy I read was the "female" version. I'm not sure what the difference is except that it's just a handful of lines toward the end] The end.
December 7, 2024
This book is not a traditional novel, a dictionary or any other reference book, a myth, a religious dispute, a collection of folk tales or a dream. It is a magic, mesmerising combination of all of them. You get lost among the mysterious events and half mythical characters of the book but you cannot put it down - the paradoxical mythology that the author created to talk about the fate of a small nation by blending fact, fiction and sleep is completely enthralling.
'SALT AND SLEEP: The letters of the Khazar alphabet take their names from salted foods, and the numbers from types of salt; the Khazars recognize seven types of salt. Only the salty regard of God does not cause aging; otherwise the Khazars believe that aging comes from looking at one's own body or another's, because looks plow and tear through bodies with the most varied and lethal tools, creating their passions, hates, plans, and cravings.
The Khazars pray by weeping, for tears are a part of God, by virtue of always having a bit of salt at the bottom, just as shells hold pearls. Sometimes women take a handkerchief and fold it until it can be folded no more; that is a prayer. The Khazars also follow the cult of sleep. They believe that anyone who has lost salt cannot fall asleep, which is why such attention is paid to sleep. But that is not all; there is something I could not fully grasp, like a road you cannot hear from the noise of the cart. They believe that the people who inhabit every man's past lie as though enslaved and cursed in his memory; they can take no other step than the one they once took, can meet no one but the people they once met, cannot even grow old. The only freedom allowed ancestors, allowed entire
bygone nations of fathers and mothers retained in memories, is occasional respite in our dreams. There, in our dreams, these figures from our memories acquire some measure of freedom; they move around a little, meet a new face, change partners in their hates and loves, and assume a small illusion of life. Hence, sleep occupies a prominent place in the Khazar faith, because in dreams the past, forever captured within itself, gains freedom and new promise.'
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"The truth is transparent and goes unnoticed, whereas lies are opaque and let in neither light nor gaze. There is a third version, where the two mix, and this is the most customary. With one eye we see through the truth, and that gaze is lost forever in infinity; with the other eye we do not see even an inch through the lies, and that gaze can penetrate no further, but remains on earth and ours; and so we push through life sideways. Hence, the truth cannot be understood on its own, like a lie, but only by comparing it with lies, by comparing the white space with the letters of our Book, because the white spaces in The Khazar Dictionary mark the translucent places of the divine truth and name (Adam Cadmon), and the black letters between the white spaces are where our eyes cannot penetrate beyond the surface."
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“Each of us promenades his thought, like a monkey on a leash. When you read, you always have to such monkeys: your own and one belonging to someone else. Or, even worse, a monkey and a hyena. Now, consider what you will feed them. For a hyena does not eat the same things as a monkey...�
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“When we read, it is not ours to absorb all that is written. Our thoughts are jealous and they constantly blank out the thoughts of others, for there is not room enough in us for two scents at one time.�
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“I dream in a language I do not understand when I'm awake.�
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“He was creating the first letters of the Slavonic alphabet. He started with rounded letters, but the Slavonic language was so wild that the ink could not hold it, and so he made a second alphabet of barred letters and caged the unruly language in them like a bird.�
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“It has been said ever since that the Brankoviches of Erdély count in Tzintzar, lie in Walachian, are silent in Greek, sing hymns in Russian, are cleverest in Turkish and speak their mother tongue --Serbian-- only when they intend to kill.�
'SALT AND SLEEP: The letters of the Khazar alphabet take their names from salted foods, and the numbers from types of salt; the Khazars recognize seven types of salt. Only the salty regard of God does not cause aging; otherwise the Khazars believe that aging comes from looking at one's own body or another's, because looks plow and tear through bodies with the most varied and lethal tools, creating their passions, hates, plans, and cravings.
The Khazars pray by weeping, for tears are a part of God, by virtue of always having a bit of salt at the bottom, just as shells hold pearls. Sometimes women take a handkerchief and fold it until it can be folded no more; that is a prayer. The Khazars also follow the cult of sleep. They believe that anyone who has lost salt cannot fall asleep, which is why such attention is paid to sleep. But that is not all; there is something I could not fully grasp, like a road you cannot hear from the noise of the cart. They believe that the people who inhabit every man's past lie as though enslaved and cursed in his memory; they can take no other step than the one they once took, can meet no one but the people they once met, cannot even grow old. The only freedom allowed ancestors, allowed entire
bygone nations of fathers and mothers retained in memories, is occasional respite in our dreams. There, in our dreams, these figures from our memories acquire some measure of freedom; they move around a little, meet a new face, change partners in their hates and loves, and assume a small illusion of life. Hence, sleep occupies a prominent place in the Khazar faith, because in dreams the past, forever captured within itself, gains freedom and new promise.'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The truth is transparent and goes unnoticed, whereas lies are opaque and let in neither light nor gaze. There is a third version, where the two mix, and this is the most customary. With one eye we see through the truth, and that gaze is lost forever in infinity; with the other eye we do not see even an inch through the lies, and that gaze can penetrate no further, but remains on earth and ours; and so we push through life sideways. Hence, the truth cannot be understood on its own, like a lie, but only by comparing it with lies, by comparing the white space with the letters of our Book, because the white spaces in The Khazar Dictionary mark the translucent places of the divine truth and name (Adam Cadmon), and the black letters between the white spaces are where our eyes cannot penetrate beyond the surface."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Each of us promenades his thought, like a monkey on a leash. When you read, you always have to such monkeys: your own and one belonging to someone else. Or, even worse, a monkey and a hyena. Now, consider what you will feed them. For a hyena does not eat the same things as a monkey...�
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“When we read, it is not ours to absorb all that is written. Our thoughts are jealous and they constantly blank out the thoughts of others, for there is not room enough in us for two scents at one time.�
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“I dream in a language I do not understand when I'm awake.�
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“He was creating the first letters of the Slavonic alphabet. He started with rounded letters, but the Slavonic language was so wild that the ink could not hold it, and so he made a second alphabet of barred letters and caged the unruly language in them like a bird.�
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
“It has been said ever since that the Brankoviches of Erdély count in Tzintzar, lie in Walachian, are silent in Greek, sing hymns in Russian, are cleverest in Turkish and speak their mother tongue --Serbian-- only when they intend to kill.�
July 12, 2018
ᴜᴅᴠᴀ—A town on the Montenegrin coast, pop. 13,000. According to Stephanus of Byzantium, writing in the 6th century CE, Budva was founded by Cadmus, the grandson of Poseidon and first king of Thebes, who had journeyed up the coast in his old age with his wife Harmonia. Inhabited for at least 2,500 years, Budva is one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic, and the centre of Montenegro's small but important tourist industry. It was here in 2007 that Warwickº bought a copy of Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavićº, which was the first English-language book he had seen during his trip. His diary records that he carried the novel with him to a restaurant that evening, where the owner ‘showed off a platter of fish that his son had just caught. Hannah picked out a sea bass, and they cooked it right there on a grill in the corner�. The owner, having made sure that his guests had finished eating, then sat down at their table and joined them to finish a bottle of home-made bearberry rakia which Hannah later described as ‘gruelling� and blamed for a nosebleed. That Pavić's book was used as a coaster on this occasion can be seen from the many pale rings on its back cover, which resemble the icon of an otherworldly Olympics in which all competitors finished last. When the pair, staggering slightly, got back to their tiny hotel room after dinner, there was a nasty surprise waiting. Tucked into an alcove in the wall of their room was the most terrifying oil painting either had ever seen. It showed a black-clad old woman glaring out at the world with an expression of concentrated hatred; it had been half-concealed when they had taken the room, but now, from the bed, it looked down on them like a prop from the staging of an Edgar Allen Poe story. Turning the lights out did not help, since a quirk of the shutters meant that a single shaft of moonlight landed precisely on the crone's furious face. Under such circumstances, reading, like other activities, was out of the question, and the two of them lay awake all night, wide-eyed and motionless. In the morning, Warwick pushed Pavić's novel unread into his backpack, where it remained for the duration of their holiday.
ɪᴄᴛɪᴏɴᴀʀ—A collection of words, arranged in order, for the purposes of explanation or translation. Bilingual Sumerian–Akkadian wordlists have been excavated from Ebla (modern Syria), meaning that dictionaries as a concept go back nearly four and a half millennia. The ŷ reviewer Warwickº has sixty-eight of them on his shelves (at least according to the tags), although Dictionary of the Khazars, of course, being a novel, is not among them. Even Milorad Pavićº, the author, does not present his book as a dictionary strictly so-called, but rather as a kind of encyclopaedia. In reality, there exists no dictionary of the language spoken by the Khazarsº, who used an unknown tongue of which only a single word has come down to us: ϱŪ, an offhand scrawl at the bottom of a letter written in a runiform Old Turkic script to the Jewish community of Kiev in around 930. Scholars think it means ‘We have read it�. From this we can conclude that historical linguistics is not a field untouched by irony. A dictionary is not a novel; yet all lovers of dictionaries will be aware of the ghost-narrative that can arise from flicking through one, and allowing connections to spark between the words serendipitously encountered.
ʜᴶᴢᴀʀ—A Turkic people of Central Asia, who for centuries had a powerful empire astride the Silk Road, until they disappeared into obscurity sometime around the tenth century. In his novel Dictionary of the Khazars, Milorad Pavićº tells a number of strange legends and anecdotes about their society and lifestyle, a few of which are real but most of which are elegant fabrications. One effect of the novel is to make their fate seem universal: in some sense, Pavić seems to suggest, we are all Khazars, awaiting our own extinction, looking ahead to a future when, ultimately, we will pass out of all memory and understanding. There are also some willy jokes.
Pᴀᴠɪᴄ́, Mɪʟᴏʀᴀ� (1929�2009)—Pavić was born into a family of artists and poets in Belgrade and was, perhaps, always fated to assume his role as Serbia's most famous modern writer. As a child, it was said that he could remember the details of all his dreams, and would recite them at length to people, only occasionally falling silent, as though on the brink of some unsayable revelation. His first novel, Dictionary of the Khazars, came only in his mid-fifties when he had turned his back on poetry, though the renunciation was only nominal: the book reads as much like poetry as it does any traditional novel. Written in the hypertextual form of a dictionaryº, it was hailed as the first novel of the twenty-first century. The year was 1984. When Warwickº bought a copy of the novel in Budvaº, in 2007, Pavić might easily have been described as Serbia's greatest living writer; by the time he actually read the book, Pavić had been dead for nearly a decade, his own life, like those of his Khazars, beginning its slow journey from news to history to legend to forgetting.
Pʀɪʙɪᴄ́ᴇᴠɪᴄ́-Zᴏʀɪᴄ�, Cʜʀɪsᴛɪɴᴀ—Born in New York, Pribićević-Zorić already had a smattering of Slavic (thanks to her Yugoslavian father) when she moved to Belgrade for a year as a post-graduate. She stayed for more than twenty. Her English translation of Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavićº is fluent and poetic and gives you a good idea of why native speakers hold him in such regard. She has translated from ‘Serbian�, ‘Croatian� and ‘Bosnian�, which are all really slight variants on the same dialect � we used to call Serbo-Croatian, until political motivations inspired a linguistic break-up. In 2007, when Warwick bought his copy of the book in Montenegro, the Montenegrins still considered themselves to be speaking Serbian, though soon afterwards they began to call it ‘Montenegrin�. One or two words then take on talismanic proportions � the word for bread, hljeb, which is pronounced locally with more palatalisation than Serbian hleb, suddenly becomes almost a national symbol. The Balkanisation of languages in the Balkans can give you an insight into why the subject of a lost dictionaryº � especially when it exists in multiple, contradictory versions, as here � might be an appealing subject for a writer from Yugoslavia.
Wᴀʀᴡɪᴄ� (ʙ. 1978)—English-born lapsed journalist and the author of this review. Of the thousands of books on his shelves, a few volumes have got lost or become unaccounted for over the years, during house moves or reorganisations or ill-advised lending-outs to unscrupulous extended family members. Occasionally, though, these reappear again some years later, unexpectedly, dropping out from behind a jolted shelf or tumbling from the forgotten pouch of an old bag, and forcing a sudden clash between the state of your life as it was then, when you bought it, and the state of your life now, as you stare, baffled, at the faded paperback. So it was with Warwick's copy of Milorad Pavić'sº first novel about the Khazarsº, which somehow survived being dragged across the Balkans, stuffed in an attic in Kent, put in storage in Lincolnshire, anonymously and serially stashed in three Paris apartments and transited across two more international borders, before finally being read in a week of commutes to Zurich. The girl he bought it with is now his wife, the jobs they do are different, the places they live are different, the languages they use are different � so many people and places and languages and times, all of them cannoning together and all of them, eventually, to be lost, completely, just allow for a certain timeframe, to be lost as surely as the Khazars and their unknowable, irrecoverable, undoubtedly beautiful language�
ɪᴄᴛɪᴏɴᴀʀ—A collection of words, arranged in order, for the purposes of explanation or translation. Bilingual Sumerian–Akkadian wordlists have been excavated from Ebla (modern Syria), meaning that dictionaries as a concept go back nearly four and a half millennia. The ŷ reviewer Warwickº has sixty-eight of them on his shelves (at least according to the tags), although Dictionary of the Khazars, of course, being a novel, is not among them. Even Milorad Pavićº, the author, does not present his book as a dictionary strictly so-called, but rather as a kind of encyclopaedia. In reality, there exists no dictionary of the language spoken by the Khazarsº, who used an unknown tongue of which only a single word has come down to us: ϱŪ, an offhand scrawl at the bottom of a letter written in a runiform Old Turkic script to the Jewish community of Kiev in around 930. Scholars think it means ‘We have read it�. From this we can conclude that historical linguistics is not a field untouched by irony. A dictionary is not a novel; yet all lovers of dictionaries will be aware of the ghost-narrative that can arise from flicking through one, and allowing connections to spark between the words serendipitously encountered.
ʜᴶᴢᴀʀ—A Turkic people of Central Asia, who for centuries had a powerful empire astride the Silk Road, until they disappeared into obscurity sometime around the tenth century. In his novel Dictionary of the Khazars, Milorad Pavićº tells a number of strange legends and anecdotes about their society and lifestyle, a few of which are real but most of which are elegant fabrications. One effect of the novel is to make their fate seem universal: in some sense, Pavić seems to suggest, we are all Khazars, awaiting our own extinction, looking ahead to a future when, ultimately, we will pass out of all memory and understanding. There are also some willy jokes.
Pᴀᴠɪᴄ́, Mɪʟᴏʀᴀ� (1929�2009)—Pavić was born into a family of artists and poets in Belgrade and was, perhaps, always fated to assume his role as Serbia's most famous modern writer. As a child, it was said that he could remember the details of all his dreams, and would recite them at length to people, only occasionally falling silent, as though on the brink of some unsayable revelation. His first novel, Dictionary of the Khazars, came only in his mid-fifties when he had turned his back on poetry, though the renunciation was only nominal: the book reads as much like poetry as it does any traditional novel. Written in the hypertextual form of a dictionaryº, it was hailed as the first novel of the twenty-first century. The year was 1984. When Warwickº bought a copy of the novel in Budvaº, in 2007, Pavić might easily have been described as Serbia's greatest living writer; by the time he actually read the book, Pavić had been dead for nearly a decade, his own life, like those of his Khazars, beginning its slow journey from news to history to legend to forgetting.
Pʀɪʙɪᴄ́ᴇᴠɪᴄ́-Zᴏʀɪᴄ�, Cʜʀɪsᴛɪɴᴀ—Born in New York, Pribićević-Zorić already had a smattering of Slavic (thanks to her Yugoslavian father) when she moved to Belgrade for a year as a post-graduate. She stayed for more than twenty. Her English translation of Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavićº is fluent and poetic and gives you a good idea of why native speakers hold him in such regard. She has translated from ‘Serbian�, ‘Croatian� and ‘Bosnian�, which are all really slight variants on the same dialect � we used to call Serbo-Croatian, until political motivations inspired a linguistic break-up. In 2007, when Warwick bought his copy of the book in Montenegro, the Montenegrins still considered themselves to be speaking Serbian, though soon afterwards they began to call it ‘Montenegrin�. One or two words then take on talismanic proportions � the word for bread, hljeb, which is pronounced locally with more palatalisation than Serbian hleb, suddenly becomes almost a national symbol. The Balkanisation of languages in the Balkans can give you an insight into why the subject of a lost dictionaryº � especially when it exists in multiple, contradictory versions, as here � might be an appealing subject for a writer from Yugoslavia.
Wᴀʀᴡɪᴄ� (ʙ. 1978)—English-born lapsed journalist and the author of this review. Of the thousands of books on his shelves, a few volumes have got lost or become unaccounted for over the years, during house moves or reorganisations or ill-advised lending-outs to unscrupulous extended family members. Occasionally, though, these reappear again some years later, unexpectedly, dropping out from behind a jolted shelf or tumbling from the forgotten pouch of an old bag, and forcing a sudden clash between the state of your life as it was then, when you bought it, and the state of your life now, as you stare, baffled, at the faded paperback. So it was with Warwick's copy of Milorad Pavić'sº first novel about the Khazarsº, which somehow survived being dragged across the Balkans, stuffed in an attic in Kent, put in storage in Lincolnshire, anonymously and serially stashed in three Paris apartments and transited across two more international borders, before finally being read in a week of commutes to Zurich. The girl he bought it with is now his wife, the jobs they do are different, the places they live are different, the languages they use are different � so many people and places and languages and times, all of them cannoning together and all of them, eventually, to be lost, completely, just allow for a certain timeframe, to be lost as surely as the Khazars and their unknowable, irrecoverable, undoubtedly beautiful language�
July 20, 2023
اینجور که میگن، میلوراد پاویچ یه مورخ و نویسنده بدبختی بود که همیشه آرزو داشت بتونه چیزی شبیه آثار بورخس و امبرتو اکو بنویسه ولی هیچوقت موفق نمیش� و هیشکی داستان هاش رو نمیخوند و از کاغذ کتاباش فقط برای پیچیدنش دور اوپانچی استفاده میکردند چون از نوع مرغوب گلاسه بود و چرم رو نرم نگه میداشت. اونم که نمیتونست بیخیال نوشتن داستان بشه و از طرفی داشت توی شغل شریف طراحی جدول متقاطع میپوسید به شدت افسرده میشه و روز به روز سقوط میکنه، تا اینکه یک شب توی اوج ناامیدی میر� بالای پل تا خودکشی کنه و اونجا یک معتاد کارتون خواب بعنوان آخرین لذت زندگی بهش سالویا میده... و بعد این اتفاق مرموز بوده که میلوراد نه تنها خودکشی نمیکنه بلکه راه رستگاری رو پیدا میکنه، کارتون خوابه رو میبره خونه خودش و توی مدت کوتاهی بهترین کتاب خودش و خفن ترین رمان تاریخ صربستان رو مینویس�.
کتابی که شرع خوندنش بزرگترین ریسک هر آدمیه چون با باز کردنش، یا بعد خوندن ۹ صفحه میمیری� و یا اگر اونو تا انتها بخونید دیوونه میشید. شما هیچ انتخابی ندارید، این کتابه که سرنوشت شما رو انتخاب میکنه.
من این کتابو تا انتها خوندم.
کتابی که شرع خوندنش بزرگترین ریسک هر آدمیه چون با باز کردنش، یا بعد خوندن ۹ صفحه میمیری� و یا اگر اونو تا انتها بخونید دیوونه میشید. شما هیچ انتخابی ندارید، این کتابه که سرنوشت شما رو انتخاب میکنه.
من این کتابو تا انتها خوندم.
May 21, 2021
La lectura de este libro ha sido realmente una experiencia maravillosa. Va a estar sin duda entre lo mejor que haya leído este año y va derecho al estante de mis libros favoritos.
Camuflada bajo la estructura de un diccionario, lo que hay es una novela con un entramado laberíntico muy bien pensado, que funciona como una especie de rompecabezas que va tomando forma de a poco y desafía al lector a estar muy atento a los detalles.
El libro entero es un catálogo de palabras, expresiones y principalmente biografías que intentan echar luz sobre la historia de una tribu ya desaparecida que vivió cerca del Mar Caspio entre los siglos VII y X, los Jázaros.
Según lo que se sabe, los Jázaros desaparecieron luego que fueran convertidos de su antigua religión a una nueva, pero no esta muy claro cual fue esa nueva religión elegida; y es por eso que el libro consta de tres versiones distintas del mismo diccionario con la mirada que cada uno de los actores involucrados tiene sobre lo que realmente le ocurrió a los Jázaros, hay una versión musulmana, una versión judía y una versión cristiana, que en suma completan una historia extraordinaria llena de erudición, fantasía y personajes por demás extravagantes como lo son por ejemplo los cazadores de sueños jázaros.
Una obra extraordinaria y magnífica de Milorad Pavic, e igual que ya escribí en la reseña de creo que a quien le gusta el estilo de escritores como Borges, Calvino o Perec seguramente les va a gustar mucho también este gran autor serbio.
Si uno anduviese desde aquí hasta el Bósforo, de callejuela en callejuela, podría encontrar todas las fechas de todas las estaciones del año, porque no es al mismo tiempo para todos otoño o primavera, y todas las edades de la vida humana, porque nadie puede ser cada día viejo o joven..... Si uno supiera con exactitud hacia donde dirigirse encontraría esta noche a alguien a quien ya le están sucediendo tus noches y tus días futuros, a alguien que come tu almuerzo de mañana, a otro que esta llorando tus pérdidas de hace ocho años o esta besando a tu futura mujer, y a un tercero que se está muriendo de una muerte idéntica a aquella de la cual morirás tú.
Camuflada bajo la estructura de un diccionario, lo que hay es una novela con un entramado laberíntico muy bien pensado, que funciona como una especie de rompecabezas que va tomando forma de a poco y desafía al lector a estar muy atento a los detalles.
El libro entero es un catálogo de palabras, expresiones y principalmente biografías que intentan echar luz sobre la historia de una tribu ya desaparecida que vivió cerca del Mar Caspio entre los siglos VII y X, los Jázaros.
Según lo que se sabe, los Jázaros desaparecieron luego que fueran convertidos de su antigua religión a una nueva, pero no esta muy claro cual fue esa nueva religión elegida; y es por eso que el libro consta de tres versiones distintas del mismo diccionario con la mirada que cada uno de los actores involucrados tiene sobre lo que realmente le ocurrió a los Jázaros, hay una versión musulmana, una versión judía y una versión cristiana, que en suma completan una historia extraordinaria llena de erudición, fantasía y personajes por demás extravagantes como lo son por ejemplo los cazadores de sueños jázaros.
Una obra extraordinaria y magnífica de Milorad Pavic, e igual que ya escribí en la reseña de creo que a quien le gusta el estilo de escritores como Borges, Calvino o Perec seguramente les va a gustar mucho también este gran autor serbio.
Si uno anduviese desde aquí hasta el Bósforo, de callejuela en callejuela, podría encontrar todas las fechas de todas las estaciones del año, porque no es al mismo tiempo para todos otoño o primavera, y todas las edades de la vida humana, porque nadie puede ser cada día viejo o joven..... Si uno supiera con exactitud hacia donde dirigirse encontraría esta noche a alguien a quien ya le están sucediendo tus noches y tus días futuros, a alguien que come tu almuerzo de mañana, a otro que esta llorando tus pérdidas de hace ocho años o esta besando a tu futura mujer, y a un tercero que se está muriendo de una muerte idéntica a aquella de la cual morirás tú.
August 23, 2010
I am doing a project in which I read all 1001 of the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" as stated by a book in this stupid and arbitrary series of different stuff you have to do before you die. It is dumb and I will never finish it, but now that I started, I am pretty set on continuing.
The thing that makes it the most dumb is that these books are chosen by someone who has like, really different taste from me. I hated "Naked Lunch." Now I plan to pretty much hate this book, but I guess it could always surprise me.
I had this therapist once who was like "Why are you always doing hard stuff that you don't like instead of stuff that you are good at and enjoy?" The fact that I am doing this project signals to me that therapy has failed.
Update: Due to my unwillingness to quit this book as well as my stubborn refusal to make any progress in it, I have now basically given up reading. Houston, we are at an impasse.
Update #2: I have given up on this book, and on my ENTIRE dumb project, not with a sense of defeat, but a strong feeling of triumph.
The thing that makes it the most dumb is that these books are chosen by someone who has like, really different taste from me. I hated "Naked Lunch." Now I plan to pretty much hate this book, but I guess it could always surprise me.
I had this therapist once who was like "Why are you always doing hard stuff that you don't like instead of stuff that you are good at and enjoy?" The fact that I am doing this project signals to me that therapy has failed.
Update: Due to my unwillingness to quit this book as well as my stubborn refusal to make any progress in it, I have now basically given up reading. Houston, we are at an impasse.
Update #2: I have given up on this book, and on my ENTIRE dumb project, not with a sense of defeat, but a strong feeling of triumph.
April 2, 2014
I adore this book. I have the impression to live at Renaissance time. It is an encyclopaedic project or the imagination competes for it in the reality. An esthète pleasure for gentilhomme. It should be sold in japon paper cover by calf pure leather, title in gold leaf. I have well on bought from the time the male version. If I compared to female version, I did not find that the 17 lines of difference changed so much this book.
I remember the writer during the TV program Apostrophe. A small discreet and pleasant man.
Why this workk is so forgotten while equivalent projects became cult books.I hope this rate help it to recover its row.
I remember the writer during the TV program Apostrophe. A small discreet and pleasant man.
Why this workk is so forgotten while equivalent projects became cult books.I hope this rate help it to recover its row.
September 2, 2018
On Dictionaries
This novel isn’t the single dictionary its title suggests. In fact, it contains three separate dictionaries, although they are more encyclopaedias or encyclopaedic dictionaries. Even then, they don’t purport to be complete or comprehensive. Each dictionary in this “mosaic portrait� consists of only 14, 15 or 16 entries. Of these, only four appear in all three dictionaries (Ateh, Khagan, Khazars, and Khazar Polemic).
The only characteristic that justifies the use of the term “dپDzԲ� is the alphabetical arrangement of the terms. It can’t really be said that each term is authoritatively defined. The entry is really just a springboard for a narrative relating to the term. Thus, as the subtitle suggests, the novel is effectively a “lexicon novel� in which the subject matter is not narrated chronologically, but alphabetically.
An Alphabetical Narrative
Theoretically, at least, this arrangement allows us to delve into the subject matter spontaneously (“This book can be read in an infinite number of ways. It is an open book, and when it is shut it can be added to: just as it has its own former and present lexicographer, so it can acquire new writers, compilers, and continuers...Thus, the reader can use the book as he sees fit.�), though in fact I read the book from cover to cover, as I would have read any novel, stopping only occasionally to check what had been written about an entry when it had appeared earlier.
Thus, from a post-modern point of view, the novel is a well-conceived and -executed challenge to the conventional structure of narrative.
The Authority of Narratives and Narrators
It also questions the authority of all narratives (and their narrators), not just in its arrangement, but in its subject matter.
The three separate dictionaries purport to be translations from the Greek, Arabic and Hebrew, of three separate but related accounts of the one historic event (although, again, it is possible that there might have been multiple similar events).
The Khazar Polemic
The event (known as the Khazar Polemic) was supposed to have occurred in the eighth or ninth century A.D.
The Khazars were a tribe of people who lived between the Caspian and the Black Seas. They had a king and another leader called a Khagan. At the time of the event (one version places it about 740 A.D.), one of its Khagans had a dream in which an angel appeared and said, “God is pleased by your intentions, but not by your deeds.� (also translated as “Your intention is good and acceptable to the Creator, but your deeds are not.�)
The Khagan invited representatives of the Christian, Islamic and Jewish religions to come to his court and explain what the dream meant. If he was convinced by their explanation, he and his people would convert to their religion.
Thus, the Khagan assumes the role of an outsider confronted by the three Abrahamic religions. He has to decide which faith he prefers.
The Gospel Truth
There is no contemporary evidence of what happened in the Khazar Polemic. Like the Christian Gospels, the arguments were recorded subsequently. However, there is an added complication: even these subsequent accounts were destroyed, and the only surviving accounts were reconstructed centuries later (in about 1689). Add to this context, the research activities of three academics (one from each faith) who are trying to assess the records and evidence 293 years later in the twentieth century (1982, to be precise).
Part of the dramatic tension arises from the fact that the three different accounts differ in which religion is supposed to have prevailed in the competition. Each religion claims to have succeeded. Originally, I thought that this was suggesting that all three were lying or fabricating their claim (or that all religions were capable of doing so). However, on reflection, I suppose there is a possibility that one account was correct, and that only two were lying. Of course, if there had been multiple events (rather than a single one), then it is possible that more than one was telling the truth about a different event.
Powerful Internationals
Pavic questions the power structures behind religions:
Perhaps, all religions or sources of power are just as bad as one another. Pavic writes that “all evil comes from the fact that in this world we are constantly tempted to obey and take for our model those who are worse than we…�
Three Choices, One Truth
Pavic seems to be relatively impartial about which dictionary he prefers, although he does suggest that “later, printed versions [of the Hebrew version] were castrated in the hands of the Christian Inquisition.�
On the other hand, he posits the following question:
Each dictionary or account, therefore, gives us a different perspective or point of view on the subject matter. We readers are challenged to work out what is the truth or, if incapable of doing that, at least to decide whom we are tempted to believe (if anyone). In other words, we are confronted with at least two, if not three, unreliable narrators.
Killing the Reader
This creates a dilemma for the reader:
Thus, when readers suspend disbelief and believe in the truth of what they are reading, they apparently risk their own lives and truth.
No Room for Two Scents
Pavic nevertheless questions the ability of the reader to synthesise a conclusion about the truth:
Pushing Through Life Sideways
At times, there are suggestions that the problem lies in language (not necessarily in religion alone):
The truth stands out against lies, if only we could tell which is which. Pavic might have been implying that it's a problem not just in literature, but in life and society as well.
Overall, Pavic achieves his post-modern goals with much greater style and flair (the novel often reads like a holy book, a murder mystery, a volume of poetry, or a collection of stories out of "One Thousand and One Nights") than his American counterparts. European authors do this kind of thing so much better.
VERSE:
Heaven and Hell
[In the Words of Milorad Pavic]
The taller we grow
Toward the sky,
Through the
Wind and rain
Toward God,
The deeper
We must sink
Our roots
Through the mud and
Subterranean waters
Toward hell.
SOUNDTRACK:
Chaka Khan - "Going Up Yonder" (Live at Aretha Franklin's funeral)
This novel isn’t the single dictionary its title suggests. In fact, it contains three separate dictionaries, although they are more encyclopaedias or encyclopaedic dictionaries. Even then, they don’t purport to be complete or comprehensive. Each dictionary in this “mosaic portrait� consists of only 14, 15 or 16 entries. Of these, only four appear in all three dictionaries (Ateh, Khagan, Khazars, and Khazar Polemic).
The only characteristic that justifies the use of the term “dپDzԲ� is the alphabetical arrangement of the terms. It can’t really be said that each term is authoritatively defined. The entry is really just a springboard for a narrative relating to the term. Thus, as the subtitle suggests, the novel is effectively a “lexicon novel� in which the subject matter is not narrated chronologically, but alphabetically.
An Alphabetical Narrative
Theoretically, at least, this arrangement allows us to delve into the subject matter spontaneously (“This book can be read in an infinite number of ways. It is an open book, and when it is shut it can be added to: just as it has its own former and present lexicographer, so it can acquire new writers, compilers, and continuers...Thus, the reader can use the book as he sees fit.�), though in fact I read the book from cover to cover, as I would have read any novel, stopping only occasionally to check what had been written about an entry when it had appeared earlier.
Thus, from a post-modern point of view, the novel is a well-conceived and -executed challenge to the conventional structure of narrative.
The Authority of Narratives and Narrators
It also questions the authority of all narratives (and their narrators), not just in its arrangement, but in its subject matter.
The three separate dictionaries purport to be translations from the Greek, Arabic and Hebrew, of three separate but related accounts of the one historic event (although, again, it is possible that there might have been multiple similar events).
The Khazar Polemic
The event (known as the Khazar Polemic) was supposed to have occurred in the eighth or ninth century A.D.
The Khazars were a tribe of people who lived between the Caspian and the Black Seas. They had a king and another leader called a Khagan. At the time of the event (one version places it about 740 A.D.), one of its Khagans had a dream in which an angel appeared and said, “God is pleased by your intentions, but not by your deeds.� (also translated as “Your intention is good and acceptable to the Creator, but your deeds are not.�)
The Khagan invited representatives of the Christian, Islamic and Jewish religions to come to his court and explain what the dream meant. If he was convinced by their explanation, he and his people would convert to their religion.
Thus, the Khagan assumes the role of an outsider confronted by the three Abrahamic religions. He has to decide which faith he prefers.
The Gospel Truth
There is no contemporary evidence of what happened in the Khazar Polemic. Like the Christian Gospels, the arguments were recorded subsequently. However, there is an added complication: even these subsequent accounts were destroyed, and the only surviving accounts were reconstructed centuries later (in about 1689). Add to this context, the research activities of three academics (one from each faith) who are trying to assess the records and evidence 293 years later in the twentieth century (1982, to be precise).
Part of the dramatic tension arises from the fact that the three different accounts differ in which religion is supposed to have prevailed in the competition. Each religion claims to have succeeded. Originally, I thought that this was suggesting that all three were lying or fabricating their claim (or that all religions were capable of doing so). However, on reflection, I suppose there is a possibility that one account was correct, and that only two were lying. Of course, if there had been multiple events (rather than a single one), then it is possible that more than one was telling the truth about a different event.
Powerful Internationals
Pavic questions the power structures behind religions:
“The point is, you can be either a great scientist or a great violinist...only if you or your accomplishments are supported and backed by one of the powerful internationals of today’s world. The Hebrew, Islamic, or Catholic international…�
Perhaps, all religions or sources of power are just as bad as one another. Pavic writes that “all evil comes from the fact that in this world we are constantly tempted to obey and take for our model those who are worse than we…�
Three Choices, One Truth
Pavic seems to be relatively impartial about which dictionary he prefers, although he does suggest that “later, printed versions [of the Hebrew version] were castrated in the hands of the Christian Inquisition.�
On the other hand, he posits the following question:
“Perhaps the only way to compile a Khazar encyclopaedia or dictionary on the Khazar question would be to assemble all three stories about the three main dream hunters and thus obtain one truth?�
Each dictionary or account, therefore, gives us a different perspective or point of view on the subject matter. We readers are challenged to work out what is the truth or, if incapable of doing that, at least to decide whom we are tempted to believe (if anyone). In other words, we are confronted with at least two, if not three, unreliable narrators.
Killing the Reader
This creates a dilemma for the reader:
“Every writer can with no trouble kill his hero in just two lines. To kill a reader, someone of flesh and blood, it suffices to turn him for a moment into the hero of the book, into the protagonist of the biography. The rest is simple…�
Thus, when readers suspend disbelief and believe in the truth of what they are reading, they apparently risk their own lives and truth.
No Room for Two Scents
Pavic nevertheless questions the ability of the reader to synthesise a conclusion about the truth:
“When we read, it is not ours to absorb all that is written. Our thoughts are jealous and they constantly black out the thoughts of others, for there is not room enough in us for two scents at one time…�
Pushing Through Life Sideways
At times, there are suggestions that the problem lies in language (not necessarily in religion alone):
“The truth is transparent and goes unnoticed, whereas lies are opaque and let in neither light nor gaze. There is a third version, where the two mix, and this is the most customary. With one eye we see through the truth, and that gaze is lost forever in infinity; with the other eye we do not see even an inch through the lies, and that gaze can penetrate no further, but remains on earth and ours; and so we push through life sideways. Hence, the truth cannot be understood on its own, like a lie, but only by comparing it with lies, by comparing the white space with the letters of our Book…�
The truth stands out against lies, if only we could tell which is which. Pavic might have been implying that it's a problem not just in literature, but in life and society as well.
Overall, Pavic achieves his post-modern goals with much greater style and flair (the novel often reads like a holy book, a murder mystery, a volume of poetry, or a collection of stories out of "One Thousand and One Nights") than his American counterparts. European authors do this kind of thing so much better.
VERSE:
Heaven and Hell
[In the Words of Milorad Pavic]
The taller we grow
Toward the sky,
Through the
Wind and rain
Toward God,
The deeper
We must sink
Our roots
Through the mud and
Subterranean waters
Toward hell.
SOUNDTRACK:
Chaka Khan - "Going Up Yonder" (Live at Aretha Franklin's funeral)
May 20, 2019
<< […] Abraham ben Ezra lived in a little house by the sea. Aromatic plants always grew around it, and since the winds could not disperse the scents they carried them like carpets from place to place. One day, Abraham ben Ezra noticed that the scents had changed. That was because he felt FEAR. At first the fear inside him was as deep as his youngest soul; then it descended to Ezra’s middle-aged, and then to his third, oldest soul. Finally, the fear ran deeper than the souls in ben Ezra, and he could no longer stand it in the house. He wanted to leave, but when he opened the door he found that a cobweb had been spun across the entryway during the night. It was like any other cobweb, except it was red. When he tried to remove it, he noticed that the beautifully spun web was made of hair. He began to search for the owner. Although he found no clue, in town he noticed a foreign woman walking with her father. She had long red hair, but she paid no attention to ben Ezra. The next morning, ben Ezra again felt fear, and again he found a red cobweb spun across his door. When he met the girl that day, he offered her two bouquets of myrtle.
She smiled and asked:
“How did you discover me?�
“I immediately noticed,� he said, “that inside me were three fears, not one.� […] >>
She smiled and asked:
“How did you discover me?�
“I immediately noticed,� he said, “that inside me were three fears, not one.� […] >>
March 20, 2023
Libro exigente, complejo y en algunos aspectos poco agradecido. Recomendado para los buscadores de retos y nada recomendable para los que no tengan la suficiente paciencia en deleitarse con su belleza innata y esperen resultados rápidos al cabo de pocas páginas leídas.
Se trata es una gran obra. Detrás de la apariencia de un diccionario de léxico, con entradas por religiones, nombres propios y demás, todo relacionado con ese pueblo errante y semi desconocido como son los jázaros, tras eso se oculta una novela muy trabajada en la forma y bastante documentada en el fondo.
Tengo la impresión de puntuar bajo (haciendo relectura creo que le pondría el 5), pero lo cierto es que me ha dejado agotado y esas 150 primeras páginas iniciales en las que buscas una relación o nexo o algo que arme la novela, sin resultado aparente, eso me cuesta perdonárselo (esa impaciencia de la que hablaba al principio). Sin embargo, a partir de ahí, desde el ecuador el panorama se despeja y queda una novela que estéticamente es bella y que deja un poso de gran literatura. También consigue eso que tanto me gusta siempre como es bucear por el libro: volver a páginas iniciales, avanzar a las finales, a un nombre que no recuerdas, historias cruzadas, etc.
Además de la versión masculina, también existe una versión femenina que solamente cambia su redacción en un párrafo de no más 6 o 7 líneas. He manejado los dos ejemplares pensando que aportaría algo significativo, sin embargo, debo decir que aparte de un pequeño matiz de uno de los personajes finales del libro, no es para tanto como para sacar una edición masculina y otra femenina y en modo alguno se justifica.
Insisto en que a pesar de la apariencia a priori rara (diccionario con entradas de personajes judíos, cristianos e islamistas, dos anexos finales, unas instrucciones de uso, etc), se trata de una gran novela, con un desenlace final a la altura.
Se trata es una gran obra. Detrás de la apariencia de un diccionario de léxico, con entradas por religiones, nombres propios y demás, todo relacionado con ese pueblo errante y semi desconocido como son los jázaros, tras eso se oculta una novela muy trabajada en la forma y bastante documentada en el fondo.
Tengo la impresión de puntuar bajo (haciendo relectura creo que le pondría el 5), pero lo cierto es que me ha dejado agotado y esas 150 primeras páginas iniciales en las que buscas una relación o nexo o algo que arme la novela, sin resultado aparente, eso me cuesta perdonárselo (esa impaciencia de la que hablaba al principio). Sin embargo, a partir de ahí, desde el ecuador el panorama se despeja y queda una novela que estéticamente es bella y que deja un poso de gran literatura. También consigue eso que tanto me gusta siempre como es bucear por el libro: volver a páginas iniciales, avanzar a las finales, a un nombre que no recuerdas, historias cruzadas, etc.
Además de la versión masculina, también existe una versión femenina que solamente cambia su redacción en un párrafo de no más 6 o 7 líneas. He manejado los dos ejemplares pensando que aportaría algo significativo, sin embargo, debo decir que aparte de un pequeño matiz de uno de los personajes finales del libro, no es para tanto como para sacar una edición masculina y otra femenina y en modo alguno se justifica.
Insisto en que a pesar de la apariencia a priori rara (diccionario con entradas de personajes judíos, cristianos e islamistas, dos anexos finales, unas instrucciones de uso, etc), se trata de una gran novela, con un desenlace final a la altura.
March 10, 2022
Ovo je definitivno najbolje druženje s Pavićem do sada. U potpunosti me zadovoljio na nivou jezika, ali i priče. Ono što je moja jedina zamerka, a mislim da je to pomenula i Jasmina Ahmetagić, jeste struktura knjige koja je zatomila neke duboke uvide. I koliko god ona bila interesantna, mislim da narativ ovde sam sebe jede: jedino što kasnije ostane sa vama su fragmenti. Stilski gledano, sve buja i cveta, jedno prozno proleće autorovog stvaralaštva; s tim da ne mora baš svaka rečenica u pasusu da se "oneobiči", jer onda neki sjajni opisi možda ostanu u zapećku prosto jer ne dolaze do izražaja, čime mi je bio narušen odnos među opisima i njihova stabilnost.
July 23, 2007
Recommended to me after I'd talked up Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, this book could be, and often has been, cited as one of Danielewski's predecessors. It's one of those books you could spend a whole year with, unpacking it, taking notes, analyzing and cross-referencing, or you could just read and enjoy.
The book is divided into three dictionaries focused around exploring The Khazar Polemic, a fictionalized account of the mass conversion of the Khazar people in which the representatives of the three Abrahamic faiths, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, were called to come before the Khazar king and present a case for their individual faiths. Each dictionary has an entry for certain terms/people, such a Khazars, Princess Ateh and the Khazar Polemic, as well as a host of entries solely their own. Certain characters, situations, images, events and phrases pop up throughout all three dictionaries as well. Dates are confused, actions are distorted and characters change, making the book feel like an actual, authentic and messy engagement into history long passed and personal motivations running up against historical moments/movements. They are like the impurities added to electronic music to make it sound more like the actual instruments they are mimicking.
The book can be read however one wishes, front to back, bouncing through various allusions to other entries, all the similar entries together, however you wish. However, there is a certain poetry to the book's ending if read straight through from Dr. Dorothea Schultz's entry to Appendix II after having the whole book behind you. The entire book is fascinating and engaging, but I believe there is a reason no entry references the second appendix. It should be saved for last, the simple, exquisite dessert that casts the entire meal into glorious relief.
As enjoyable as it is, this is not a book to be read lightly. As it states in the brilliantly done introduction to the book, one gets out of the truth, or this book, what one puts into it. If you come in ready not simply to read, but to work, you have quite an experience ahead of you. I hope you enjoy it a tenth as much as I did.
The book is divided into three dictionaries focused around exploring The Khazar Polemic, a fictionalized account of the mass conversion of the Khazar people in which the representatives of the three Abrahamic faiths, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, were called to come before the Khazar king and present a case for their individual faiths. Each dictionary has an entry for certain terms/people, such a Khazars, Princess Ateh and the Khazar Polemic, as well as a host of entries solely their own. Certain characters, situations, images, events and phrases pop up throughout all three dictionaries as well. Dates are confused, actions are distorted and characters change, making the book feel like an actual, authentic and messy engagement into history long passed and personal motivations running up against historical moments/movements. They are like the impurities added to electronic music to make it sound more like the actual instruments they are mimicking.
The book can be read however one wishes, front to back, bouncing through various allusions to other entries, all the similar entries together, however you wish. However, there is a certain poetry to the book's ending if read straight through from Dr. Dorothea Schultz's entry to Appendix II after having the whole book behind you. The entire book is fascinating and engaging, but I believe there is a reason no entry references the second appendix. It should be saved for last, the simple, exquisite dessert that casts the entire meal into glorious relief.
As enjoyable as it is, this is not a book to be read lightly. As it states in the brilliantly done introduction to the book, one gets out of the truth, or this book, what one puts into it. If you come in ready not simply to read, but to work, you have quite an experience ahead of you. I hope you enjoy it a tenth as much as I did.
October 4, 2015
A bird foraging for food in the swamps and marshes sinks rapidly if it doesn't move. It has to keep pulling its feet out of the mire to move on, regardless of whether it has caught something or not. And the same applies to us and to our love. We have to move on, we can't stay where we are, because we'll sink.
This is less a novel, than shards of story reduced to a taxonomy. The bird metaphor does reflect on the precariousness of the parsing. Sifting through such, the reader coalesces the data, breathes life into the clay monolith. The activation inspires the author's wrath on forgotten tragedy and erasure. Vengeance is wrecked. Outside of the framing story, which we discover three-quarters of the way through Dictionary, there is a curious silence of intent. We learn of dream hunters and an amalgamation which combines female and masculine, the light and dark and along the way we gather images from cello-fingering and fencing manuals. I would recommend reading the entries which appear in all three sections of the novel first. It won't necessarily elucidate but it yields some fascinating overlap.
This is less a novel, than shards of story reduced to a taxonomy. The bird metaphor does reflect on the precariousness of the parsing. Sifting through such, the reader coalesces the data, breathes life into the clay monolith. The activation inspires the author's wrath on forgotten tragedy and erasure. Vengeance is wrecked. Outside of the framing story, which we discover three-quarters of the way through Dictionary, there is a curious silence of intent. We learn of dream hunters and an amalgamation which combines female and masculine, the light and dark and along the way we gather images from cello-fingering and fencing manuals. I would recommend reading the entries which appear in all three sections of the novel first. It won't necessarily elucidate but it yields some fascinating overlap.
pass
July 2, 2019Basically a tripartite dictionary structure giving three different versions of the same event for the reader to piece together. I've read 1.5 of the three and feel no compulsion to read 1.5 more.
I dare say I'm not clever enough to read this very clever book *slow blink* but to a humble genre-fiction reader, it seems very like a ton of fantasy world building and no plot. This is intentional, as apparently the author was trying to "disrupt the traditional models of fiction writing such as the development of story and the notions of beginning and end". He succeeded triumphantly here, so if that sounds like a great way to spend your remaining hours on a slowly suffocating planet, get in, but I'm bailing.
I dare say I'm not clever enough to read this very clever book *slow blink* but to a humble genre-fiction reader, it seems very like a ton of fantasy world building and no plot. This is intentional, as apparently the author was trying to "disrupt the traditional models of fiction writing such as the development of story and the notions of beginning and end". He succeeded triumphantly here, so if that sounds like a great way to spend your remaining hours on a slowly suffocating planet, get in, but I'm bailing.
October 8, 2023
"Desde entonces se dice de los Brankovich de Transilvania que mienten en valaco, callan en griego, cuentan en la lengua tzintzar, en la iglesia cantan en ruso, son los más sabios en turco y solo cuando quieren matar hablan en su lengua materna: el serbio."
“Asimismo, no puede estar mucho tiempo hablando en una misma lengua, las cambia como amantes, y habla ora en valaco, ora en húngaro o turco, y comenzó a aprender de un loro la lengua jázara. Dicen que en sueños habla también el español, pero pierde esos conocimientos al despertarse.�
Éste está siendo un buenísimo año literario para mí; es un año en el que me he dejado guiar más por mi instinto que por recomendaciones externas, aunque sí que es cierto que hay recomendaciones que se quedan en la memoria y las rescatas casi inconscientemente, pero ha sido un año raro (personalmente hablando) así que se puede decir que en compensación he asumido riesgos que me han hecho lanzarme a la piscina y salir de mi zona de confort. Me ha salido bien, me está saliendo bien, diría yo, porque he descubierto autores que me han dado no solo alegrías, sino que me han emocionado de verdad�, así que hago mía la cita de Sebald, más que nunca: “no leáis siempre y de manera exclusiva esos libros sanos; acercaos un poquito a la llamada literatura enfermiza, de la que tal vez podáis sacar un consuelo vital. La gente sana debería arriesgarse siempre de una u otra manera. ¿Para qué demonios, si no, conservar el sano juicio? ¿Para morir un día saludablemente? Vaya un futuro desolador..." A finales de año haré un resumen de estos autores descubiertos que me han volado la cabeza, pero quizás los más gratificantes han sido los autores balcánicos, los croatas, bosnios y serbios especialmente, y entre ellos está Milorad Pavic, al que ya reseñé un par de veces durante este año y que no para de sorprenderme.
“Le preguntó a Constantino el Filósofo por qué siempre al hablar tenía un libro en la mano, mientras que los jázaros sacaban toda la sabiduria del pecho, como si antes se la hubieran tragado. Constantino le respondió que sin el libro se sentía desnudo, ¿y quién podría creer que un hombre desnudo tiene muchos vestidos?
Milorad Pavic es uno de los autores que descubrí en mi fiebre balcánica a principios de este año y quizás el autor más original y fresco con los que me he encontrado este año. Con Pieza Única y El ultimo amor en Constantinopla, ya descubrí de lo que es capaz a la hora de narrar sobre unos mundos mezcla de aventura, lirismo, realismo mágico, crónica histórica y provocación continua, rompiendo con la estructura narrativa tradicional y convirtiendo sus historias en un juego entre él y el lector, haciéndole participar continuamente en el texto. Y sin embargo, temía un poco enfrentarme a esta su obra magna, su Diccionario jázaro, por lo exuberante de la temática. Se puede decir que Pavic es un autor interactivo en el sentido en que usa giros narrativos, pistas, misterios, estructuras, para que el lector esté continuamente avanzando y retrocediendo la historia en su mente: la mayoría de sus historias, al igual que este Diccionario jázaro no están contadas cronológicamente hablando, sino que a su vez forman una especie de texto universal que comenzándolo, da igual en qué punto del libro, llegarás al mismo punto de partida o de su final. Circularidad.
"Cazadores de Sueños:
Secta de sacerdotes jázaros cuya protectora era la princesa Ateh. Eran capaces de leer los sueños de los demás, hábitarlos como si estuvieran en su propia casa y, recorriéndolos cazar la presa indicada: un hombre, un objeto, un animal.
Uno de los más célebres lectores de sueños se llamaba, según la leyenda, Muqaddasi al Safer. Él alcanzo a penetrar en la más abisal profundidad del misterio�"
[...]
El objetivo de los cazadores de sueños es comprender que todo despertar no es más que un escalón en una serie de liberaciones del sueño. Quien entienda que su día no es más que la noche del otro y que sus dos ojos son como un ojo de los otros, buscará el verdadero día, aquel que posibilita el auténtico despertar de la propia realidad.
[...]
Los mejores cazadores de sueños eran los jázaros, pero no hay jazaros desde hace mcho. Se ha conservado solamente su arte y algunas partes de su diccionario en que se habla de esa habilidad. Eran capaces de seguir a las personas que se presentan en los sueños ajenos y acorrarlos como presas de un hombre a otro, incluso en los sueños con los animales o de los demonios...�
Es prácticamente imposible hacer un resumen sobre lo que va este libro pero si que se puede decir que es una novela en todo el sentido de la palabra, solo que usa la estructura de un diccionario léxico, con sus entradas y sus apéndices. Pavic crea una historia a partir de los pocos datos históricos que se conservan de los jázaros, una tribu nómada de la Europa Central y Oriental entre los siglos VII y X. Los jázaros fueron un pueblo errante intimamente ligado con los judíos, los musulmanes y los cristianos y esto se verá en varios puntos de la novela: “Algunas veces le sucedía que se despertaba con los ojos llenos de lágrimas que debía haber llorado en el sueño; cuando las frotaba entre los dedos se rompían desgranándose como pedazos de vidrio roto o arena, y por ellos el copto podía advertir que no eran lágrimas suyas, sino de algun otro.�. La imaginación de Milorad Pavic dota a estos jázaros de una riqueza que desborda belleza casi en cada página como por ejemplo los imagina habitando los sueños de otras personas en busca de su propia identidad, siempre huidiza y evasiva. En esta novela, el Gran Khan de los jázaros tiene un sueño casi imposible de interpretar así que para intentar llegar a su comprensión, convoca a representantes de las tres religiones del mundo; la cristiana, la judía y la musulmana, pidiéndoles a cada uno de ellos que le interpreten el sueño. La explicación que le convenza más hará que toda la tribu jázara se convierta a su religión. De este modo Pavic divide la novela en tres libros: el Libro Rojo (la interpretación cristiana), el Libro Verde (la interpretación islámica) y el Libro Amarillo (la interpretación hebrea), cada uno de los libros contendrá entradas y sus definiciones, convirtiendo algunas entradas en pequeñas novelas y algunas entradas, se repetirán en cada uno de los tres libros, así que el lector tendrá a veces que comparar la entrada de la princesa Ateh, por ejemplo, , en los tres libros para establecer las pequeñas diferencias o novedades. “Ateh era poetisa, pero solo se han conservado estas palabras suyas: ‘La diferencia entre dos síes puede ser mayor que entre un sí y un no.�. El resto es fruto de las atribuciones.�
" Dentro de poco nos vamos a ver y tengo miedo de ese encuentro, y no sólo por su herida de la que todavía no sé nada, sino también porque todos nosotros somos como árboles enterrados en su propia sombra.
[...].
Escribió que cuando dos personas se sueñan recíprocamente, de modo que el sueño de una constituye la realidad de la otra, sobra siempre un poco de sueño, sea de una parte o de la otra. El sueño, por cierto, dura menos que la realidad de la persona soñada, pero el sueño es siempre incomparablemente más profundo que cualquier realidad...".
Este resumen que he hecho más arriba no le hace justicia a esta obra maravillosa, porque realmente Pavic explora detalles que para cada lector podrán significar algo totalmente diferente. Me apasiona Pavic por la importancia que siempre le da a los sueños porque es en los sueños donde las proporciones adquieren otros significados y el espacio y el tiempo se difuminan y toma cuerpo otra realidad: lo que debería estar lejos está cerca y viceversa, y esta es una novela en la que los sueños juegan un papel fundamental para la subjetividad del texto en sí, para cada lector podrá significar algo diferente. Otra maravilla que se repite continuamente son las lenguas, que parece ser otro tema recurrente en sus novelas, la lengua jázara a punto de extinguirse debe seguir viva a costa de lo que sea, y hay momentos absolutamente gloriosos en la novela en los que Pavic, recrea la importancia de las lenguas..., e incluso hay secciones que podrían ser extensiones de "El último amor en Constantinopla" o "Pieza Única"�, es como si las novelas de Milorad Pavic estuvieran interconectadas entre ellas: “Uno de los caminos seguros que conducen al verdadero futuro, pues también existe un futuro falso, es ir en la dirección en la que crece tu miedo.�
“Por eso el demonio musulmán condenó a la princesa Ateh olvidar su propia lengua, el jázaro, y todos sus poemas. A olvidar incluso el nombre de su amante, de modo que recordara solo el de un fruto con forma de pez. Antes de que esto ocurriera, presintiendo el peligro, la princesa Ateh ordenó que se capturase un gran número de loros capaces de hablar. Por cada palabra del Diccionario jázaro llevaron a palacio un loro, y cada uno fue adiestrado para recitar una voz del diccionario, de manera que supiese de memoria los versos relativos a esa voz. Naturalmente los versos estaban en lengua jázara, y en esa lengua los recitaban los loros. Cuando los jázaros abandonaron su religión, la lengua jázara pronto empezó a desaparecer, y entonces Ateh puso en libertad a los loros y les dijo: - Id y enseñad a lo demás pájaros los poemas que conocéis, porque aquí dentro de poco serán olvidados...- Los pájaros se dispersaron por los bosques a lo largo de las costas del Mar Negro. Allí enseñaron a otros loros los poemas que conocían, éstos los enseñaron a otros, y así en un momento dado solo los loros conocían los poemas y hablaban la lengua jázara. �
Pavic está continuamente enlazando la fábula con la historia, la ficción con la realidad, rellena los huecos históricos con su imaginación rabiosamente desmedida. Yo diría que esta obra define a la perfección quién es realmente Milorad Pavic, y esa habilidad para mezclar prosa y poesía con la que pocas veces me he encontrado es algo que no deja de fascinarme. El control que tiene este autor del lenguaje es todo un desafío para el lector y esto unido a la riqueza de cómo expone narrativamente hablando este texto, convierten este Diccionario jázaro en una auténtica joya. Es un texto con múltiples lecturas, que se metamorfosea continuamente dependiendo del momento, de los sueños, de las lenguas� Y para hacer su exuberante ficción aún más complicada, Pavic ha construido su novela según líneas de género, publicando versiones femeninas y masculinas de este Diccionario jázaro, habiendo, tengo entendido, solo una brevísima diferencia, quizás de una palabra entre ambas versiones. Yo he leido la versión femenina y realmenente tampoco sé dónde estaría la diferencia pero en este sentido me da igual. La lectura de este Diccionario jázaro ha supuesto otro de estos momentos gloriosos literarios de mi año en curso.
“De noche, cuando nos dormimos, nos transformamos todos en actores y cada vez salimos a un escenario distinto para recitar nuestro papel. ¿Y de día? De día, en la realidad, aprendemos ese papel. A veces no lo aprendemos bien y entonces tenemos miedo de salir al escenario y nos escondemos detrás de los demás actores que se han aprendido mejor que nosotros sus parlamentos y movimientos.
Y tú, tú eres el que entra en la sala para asistir a nuestro espectáculo y no para recitar. Que tu mirada se detenga en mí en el momento que me sienta preparada, porque ninguno de nosotros es bello y sabio los siete días de la semana.�
♫♫ � ♫♫ �
January 7, 2025
If there is a book I would love to gift to all my friends, it would be this one. Cosmopolitan, original, magical ... the favorite book of mine from the country of my birth, hands down.
I am thrilled to see great reviews from some of the GR friends whose opinion I respect for their sophistication and nonprejudicial cosmopolitanism:
Paul:
/review/show...
Marc:
/review/show...
Vit:
/review/show...
And, though Joe rarely writes reviews, we had fabulous offline discussions about the book. Thanks, Joe!
/review/show...
I am thrilled to see great reviews from some of the GR friends whose opinion I respect for their sophistication and nonprejudicial cosmopolitanism:
Paul:
/review/show...
Marc:
/review/show...
Vit:
/review/show...
And, though Joe rarely writes reviews, we had fabulous offline discussions about the book. Thanks, Joe!
/review/show...
January 6, 2020
I have like no clue what I just read. I'll rate it 3 stars, but I might change it later.
I can only say the following: dafq was this book?
I can only say the following: dafq was this book?
January 10, 2021
La verità nessun uomo la conosce, né mai potrà conoscere le cose che io dico a parole sugli dei e sul tutto. La parola può forse avvicinarsi alla realtà, ma non conoscerla: il massimo traguardo è l'opinione.
[Senofane]
Libro definito il primo romanzo del XXI secolo, il Dizionario dei Chazari è l'opera immensa di un autore, almeno da noi, misconosciuto. Pavić costruisce intorno a pochi e incerti dati storici una sorprendente opera di fantasia che mescola romanzo, dizionario, saggio, agiografia e che nasconde sotto allegoria una riflessione sul popolo serbo. Le tre parti che la compongono, libro rosso, verde e giallo, rappresentano i rispettivi punti di vista cristiano, islamico ed ebraico sull'adesione dei chazari alla loro religione (anche se in realtà non sapremo mai a quale delle tre fedi si convertirono). Si tratta di tre parti autonome, scritte come voci di un'enciclopedia (che - tra l'altro - rappresentava il libro ideale di un altro grande slavo, Danilo Kiš) e che possono essere lette in mille modi diversi secondo un procedimento caro a Cortázar.
Sin dalle note introduttive l'autore provoca il lettore richiamandolo a un ruolo attivo, perché quello che ha davanti è un libro "aperto", «e quando lo si chiude si può continuare a scriverlo», un libro pericoloso, nel quale perdersi, dove tutto è metafora di qualcos'altro, un libro prezioso perché fatto della stessa materia dei sogni e «il sogno è il giardino del diavolo e tutti i sogni del mondo sono già stati sognati molto tempo fa. Oggi essi vengono offerti in cambio di una realtà logora e consunta, e come le monete di metallo che vengono scambiate con le lettere di credito, e viceversa, passano da una mano all'altra…�
Sì signori, qui si entra in un labirinto borgesiano di specchi, con i sogni che riflettono, amplificano e distorcono la realtà. Qui si entra in un mondo di "doppi", che mescola tradizione, leggenda, religione, superstizione ed esoterismo, un mondo nel quale il falso storico diventa vero nella finzione letteraria e personaggi inventati si muovono fianco a fianco con altri realmente esistiti ma che non hanno mai detto o fatto quello che Pavić racconta. Vero e falso che vanno a braccetto, come nella vita e come (soprattutto) nella letteratura perché il Dizionario dei Chazari è grande letteratura, un piacere intellettuale, un dialogo tra scrittore e lettore nel quale il sogno dello scrittore diventa la realtà del lettore, proprio come succede a due dei personaggi del libro.
Un raffinatissimo libro-mondo che contiene dentro un po' di tutto: dal rapporto scrittore/lettore alle riflessioni sul tempo e sulla memoria, al rapporto verità/menzogna con la conclusione di come gli sforzi dell'uomo di approdare alla conquista della verità siano destinati al fallimento perché non esiste una verità ultima, definitiva, né sulla conversione dei Chazari né su tutto il resto e ci si dovrà sempre accontentare di verità parziali, punti di vista.
Un libro enorme, che lascia un'unica certezza, quella che «il lettore che torna dall'alto mare dei suoi sentimenti non è più quello che poco prima in alto mare si era avviato».
Links
[Senofane]
Libro definito il primo romanzo del XXI secolo, il Dizionario dei Chazari è l'opera immensa di un autore, almeno da noi, misconosciuto. Pavić costruisce intorno a pochi e incerti dati storici una sorprendente opera di fantasia che mescola romanzo, dizionario, saggio, agiografia e che nasconde sotto allegoria una riflessione sul popolo serbo. Le tre parti che la compongono, libro rosso, verde e giallo, rappresentano i rispettivi punti di vista cristiano, islamico ed ebraico sull'adesione dei chazari alla loro religione (anche se in realtà non sapremo mai a quale delle tre fedi si convertirono). Si tratta di tre parti autonome, scritte come voci di un'enciclopedia (che - tra l'altro - rappresentava il libro ideale di un altro grande slavo, Danilo Kiš) e che possono essere lette in mille modi diversi secondo un procedimento caro a Cortázar.
Sin dalle note introduttive l'autore provoca il lettore richiamandolo a un ruolo attivo, perché quello che ha davanti è un libro "aperto", «e quando lo si chiude si può continuare a scriverlo», un libro pericoloso, nel quale perdersi, dove tutto è metafora di qualcos'altro, un libro prezioso perché fatto della stessa materia dei sogni e «il sogno è il giardino del diavolo e tutti i sogni del mondo sono già stati sognati molto tempo fa. Oggi essi vengono offerti in cambio di una realtà logora e consunta, e come le monete di metallo che vengono scambiate con le lettere di credito, e viceversa, passano da una mano all'altra…�
Sì signori, qui si entra in un labirinto borgesiano di specchi, con i sogni che riflettono, amplificano e distorcono la realtà. Qui si entra in un mondo di "doppi", che mescola tradizione, leggenda, religione, superstizione ed esoterismo, un mondo nel quale il falso storico diventa vero nella finzione letteraria e personaggi inventati si muovono fianco a fianco con altri realmente esistiti ma che non hanno mai detto o fatto quello che Pavić racconta. Vero e falso che vanno a braccetto, come nella vita e come (soprattutto) nella letteratura perché il Dizionario dei Chazari è grande letteratura, un piacere intellettuale, un dialogo tra scrittore e lettore nel quale il sogno dello scrittore diventa la realtà del lettore, proprio come succede a due dei personaggi del libro.
Un raffinatissimo libro-mondo che contiene dentro un po' di tutto: dal rapporto scrittore/lettore alle riflessioni sul tempo e sulla memoria, al rapporto verità/menzogna con la conclusione di come gli sforzi dell'uomo di approdare alla conquista della verità siano destinati al fallimento perché non esiste una verità ultima, definitiva, né sulla conversione dei Chazari né su tutto il resto e ci si dovrà sempre accontentare di verità parziali, punti di vista.
Un libro enorme, che lascia un'unica certezza, quella che «il lettore che torna dall'alto mare dei suoi sentimenti non è più quello che poco prima in alto mare si era avviato».
Il kagan […] paragonò il lavoro sterile dei cacciatori di sogni al topo magro di quel racconto greco che entrò facilmente attraverso un buco nel granaio, ma dopo aver mangiato non riusciva a tornare indietro per lo stomaco troppo pieno: «Non puoi uscire sazio dal granaio, ma soltanto affamato, come vi sei entrato. Così anche un mangiatore di sogni, affamato, passa con facilità nella fessura sottile tra sogno e realtà, ma dopo avervi cacciato la preda e raccolto la frutta, sazio di sogni, non può più tornare, perché ne puoi uscire soltanto com'eri quando vi sei entrato. Così lui deve abbandonare a sua preda oppure rimanere per sempre nei sogni. Non si rende utile in nessuno dei due casi…�
Links
December 2, 2014
3.5/5
Pardon my reverting to name association once again, but the strongest thought that kept recurring during my reading was that of Borges this, Borges those. The book is a dictionary, male edition, picked into multiple parts via introduction, appendices, and the split between Christian, Judaism, and Islam, the former three complete with colorful pictographs that make the inside as beautifully eclectic as the outer cover. As for the definitions themselves, they resemble Borges short fictions in that the definition is a proof of words, the crux of the surrounding the story rather than briefly explicated in no more than a sentence or two, perhaps a tail or two of alternate embodiment if you're lucky.
The entries are collaborated and cross-referenced across the different sections, so one may leapfrog from one crossed/starred/mooned (you'll understand when you read it) from one denoted name to the next, if they like. As my reading tastes are more of the barreling through than the flitting sort, I read the text straight with detours made only for footnotes and the occasional backtrack to a previous entry grown fuzzy with further reading. As a result, people and events and cultures did not tie together as quickly as they could have, but there was plenty of that feeling I love when one open ended factoid finally comes upon its proper partner and clinks together with a satisfying aha! So I was happy with my methodology.
If I'm making this horribly exciting, apologies. Certain parts are very exciting, true, but in the slow and stolid way of final understanding rather than quickening way of action and romance and all that jazz. At times the constant tall tale expoundings on every noun one came across grew tedious, at others one wondered whether entire pages were worth reading in the broader context of the book. Not to mention the footnotes being less of the intriguing tidbits of other works, instead containing bibliographic references in multiple languages that would put a polyglot historian of fifteen varied cultures to shame. Oh, and the sections rendered completely in Hebrew, Greek, and/or Arabic. But, of course, all of these are enjoyable so long as one is in the right mind frame, so perhaps its best to leave you with the advice to take your time with this. Forcing yourself through this diaphanous display is akin to the bull in the ancient attic smothered in centuries of dust; choking, clogging, and all that beauty gone to waste.
It is those who actually differ among themselves who pose the greatest danger. They long to meet one another, because their differences do not bother them. And they are the worst. We and our enemies will combine forces to fight those who allow us to differ from them and do not let this difference disturb their sleep; we will destroy them in one fell swoop from three sides...I'd be mightily pleased if the back cover claim of "A national bestseller" proved true, a hope strong enough to keep me floating on unfounded assumptions rather than springing me forth to actually track the numbers down. Name drops here include Eco, Borges, García Márquez, all of whom I agree with, all of them parts in this greater whole of parable myth, religious cornerstones, and a long running river of fact versus fiction, life versus dream, reader versus reading. Save this for when you need a day heavy with thoughtful meanderings down lines of history and arcs across that cradle of the East both Europe and Middle and much else besides, centuries before and decades after those names were put into a place of attempted definition. Attempting to this day, if the rich complexity and muddled fury of both book and current day have anything to say about it.
-Nikon Savast, a.k.a. Satan
Pardon my reverting to name association once again, but the strongest thought that kept recurring during my reading was that of Borges this, Borges those. The book is a dictionary, male edition, picked into multiple parts via introduction, appendices, and the split between Christian, Judaism, and Islam, the former three complete with colorful pictographs that make the inside as beautifully eclectic as the outer cover. As for the definitions themselves, they resemble Borges short fictions in that the definition is a proof of words, the crux of the surrounding the story rather than briefly explicated in no more than a sentence or two, perhaps a tail or two of alternate embodiment if you're lucky.
The entries are collaborated and cross-referenced across the different sections, so one may leapfrog from one crossed/starred/mooned (you'll understand when you read it) from one denoted name to the next, if they like. As my reading tastes are more of the barreling through than the flitting sort, I read the text straight with detours made only for footnotes and the occasional backtrack to a previous entry grown fuzzy with further reading. As a result, people and events and cultures did not tie together as quickly as they could have, but there was plenty of that feeling I love when one open ended factoid finally comes upon its proper partner and clinks together with a satisfying aha! So I was happy with my methodology.
If I'm making this horribly exciting, apologies. Certain parts are very exciting, true, but in the slow and stolid way of final understanding rather than quickening way of action and romance and all that jazz. At times the constant tall tale expoundings on every noun one came across grew tedious, at others one wondered whether entire pages were worth reading in the broader context of the book. Not to mention the footnotes being less of the intriguing tidbits of other works, instead containing bibliographic references in multiple languages that would put a polyglot historian of fifteen varied cultures to shame. Oh, and the sections rendered completely in Hebrew, Greek, and/or Arabic. But, of course, all of these are enjoyable so long as one is in the right mind frame, so perhaps its best to leave you with the advice to take your time with this. Forcing yourself through this diaphanous display is akin to the bull in the ancient attic smothered in centuries of dust; choking, clogging, and all that beauty gone to waste.
For there is no man's reality around us that someone else is not dreaming about somewhere in this human ocean tonight, nor is there somebody's dream that is not becoming the reality of another.As for the difference between the male and female editions? Enter if you dare.
December 26, 2019
An extraordinary experimental novel, containing one of the most beautiful definitions of the process of reading I have ever read:
…reading is, generally speaking, a dubious proposition. When used, a book can be cured or killed in the reading. It can be changed, fattened, or raped. Its course can be rechanneled; it is constantly losing something; you drop letters through the lines, pages through your fingers, as new ones keep growing before your eyes, like cabbage. If you put it down tomorrow, you may find it like a stove gone cold, with no hot supper waiting for you any more.
July 10, 2016
Prvo, ne znam da li da dam 4 ili 5 zvjezdica jer je bilo dijelova koji su me nervirali i gdje mi je dolazilo da Pavića gađam najdebljim rječnikom koji imam (ili Istorijom srpske književnosti).
Iako napisana krajem XX vijeka, Hazarski rječnik okarakterisan je prvom knjigom XXI vijeka.
Pavić je na veoma zanimljiv i eksperimentalan način stvorio svoj roman iliti roman-leksikon. Čitava priča kreće se oko Hazara, davno iščezlog naroda koji je ispovijedao nepoznatu vjeru na svom jeziku i oko Hazarske polemike - prelaska Hazara u jednu od tri religije: hriščanstvo, judaizam i islam.
Odmah na početku Pavić daje iscrpnu dokumentarnu građu koja potpomaže stvaranje njegove pseudo istorije, jer vi zaista na kraju imate osjećaj da je (ako ne sve) bar većina stvari zaista vjerodostojna.
Postojao je taj jedan Hazarski rječnik iz 17. vijeka koji je štampao Daubmanus i koji je danas izgubljen. Sada autor pokušava sklopiti taj 'rečnik rečnika', tj. rekonsturisati prvobitni iz 17. vijeka.
Romaneskno jezgro čine tri rječnika: hrišćanski, jevrejski i islamski koji zajedno čine Hazarski rječnik (zbog toga bih ja čak i govorila o romanu omnibusu ali nisam kompetentna da o tome trabunjam, bar dok ne dobijem diplomu).
Sva tri rječnika sadrže odrednice koje potpomažu otkrivanje toga šta se desilo sa Hazarima i kojoj su se vjeri priklonili - i to je, uslovno rečeno, fabula romana.
Međutim, veoma je zanimljivo kako se autor postavio prema čitaocu. Naime, daje nam bezgraničnu slobodu kako ćemo čitati rječnik. Da li od korice do korice, od zada ka naprijed, iz sredine, nasumično... međutim, to je samo privid jer kako god čitali autor nam ne ostavlja prostora da sami izvlačimo zaključke jer su oni dati spajanjem posljednjih rečenica muškog i ženskog rječnika (Pavić i bitch face).
Ali pored toga, struktura samog leksikona je zanimljiva jer su unutar samih odrednica autor poigrava sa više žanrova i stilova. Naći će se tu i dokumentarni stil, epistolarna forma, pjesme, narodna predanja itd. I sad zamislite sve to uklupiti tako da knjigu možete čitati kako hoćete?
Pavić se veoma dovitljivo poigrava sa nama dajući nam i tri vremenska sloja leksikona: srednjovjekovni, barokni i period XX vijeka (mada je u njegovo vrijeme nazivan savremenim slojem).
Takvi vremenski slojevi omogućavaju dodatne perspektive sagledanje istorije nestajanja jednog naroda. A način na koji Pavić piše o istini je zaista odličan. On govori o stvaranju istine na osnovu onoga šta joj daš. Hrišćani su dali podatke da je kagan(hazarski vođa) prešao u hrišanstvo, Judejci u njihovu vjeru, a Muslimani da se priklonio islamu. Čime se vraća na ono vječito: istoriju pišu pobjednici. Međutim, ovdje nema pobjednika jer su vremenski slojevi toliko isprepleteni i sam kraj! Kakav paralelizam i povezivanje kroz vijekove! (neću da kvarim).
A ono što ja uvijek zaboravim, a što je i neko nepisano pravilo postmodernizma, kroz čitav roman pratite motiv nestalog teksta (hello Ime ruže koje neću završiti za vrijeme ovog semestra :( ).
Ono što je meni lično bilo najzanimljivije bilo je shvatanje snova i fantastike. Svemu onome što se vezuje za snove i za neke vještine poput slikanja živopisa, pa čak i pisanja pridodati su elementi fantastike. Pavić fantastiku koristi da bi snove i lovce snovima predstavio što stvarnijim, a opet sa druge strane kroz fantastiku zapravo provlači autopoetičke momente. Taj nestali narod je neuhvatljiv poput snova koje tri lovca na snove pokušavaju uloviti i sastaviti priču o Hazarima i polemici, odnosno preobraćenju Hazara u jednu od tri velike religije.
Iako napisana krajem XX vijeka, Hazarski rječnik okarakterisan je prvom knjigom XXI vijeka.
Pavić je na veoma zanimljiv i eksperimentalan način stvorio svoj roman iliti roman-leksikon. Čitava priča kreće se oko Hazara, davno iščezlog naroda koji je ispovijedao nepoznatu vjeru na svom jeziku i oko Hazarske polemike - prelaska Hazara u jednu od tri religije: hriščanstvo, judaizam i islam.
Odmah na početku Pavić daje iscrpnu dokumentarnu građu koja potpomaže stvaranje njegove pseudo istorije, jer vi zaista na kraju imate osjećaj da je (ako ne sve) bar većina stvari zaista vjerodostojna.
Postojao je taj jedan Hazarski rječnik iz 17. vijeka koji je štampao Daubmanus i koji je danas izgubljen. Sada autor pokušava sklopiti taj 'rečnik rečnika', tj. rekonsturisati prvobitni iz 17. vijeka.
Romaneskno jezgro čine tri rječnika: hrišćanski, jevrejski i islamski koji zajedno čine Hazarski rječnik (zbog toga bih ja čak i govorila o romanu omnibusu ali nisam kompetentna da o tome trabunjam, bar dok ne dobijem diplomu).
Sva tri rječnika sadrže odrednice koje potpomažu otkrivanje toga šta se desilo sa Hazarima i kojoj su se vjeri priklonili - i to je, uslovno rečeno, fabula romana.
Međutim, veoma je zanimljivo kako se autor postavio prema čitaocu. Naime, daje nam bezgraničnu slobodu kako ćemo čitati rječnik. Da li od korice do korice, od zada ka naprijed, iz sredine, nasumično... međutim, to je samo privid jer kako god čitali autor nam ne ostavlja prostora da sami izvlačimo zaključke jer su oni dati spajanjem posljednjih rečenica muškog i ženskog rječnika (Pavić i bitch face).
Ali pored toga, struktura samog leksikona je zanimljiva jer su unutar samih odrednica autor poigrava sa više žanrova i stilova. Naći će se tu i dokumentarni stil, epistolarna forma, pjesme, narodna predanja itd. I sad zamislite sve to uklupiti tako da knjigu možete čitati kako hoćete?
Pavić se veoma dovitljivo poigrava sa nama dajući nam i tri vremenska sloja leksikona: srednjovjekovni, barokni i period XX vijeka (mada je u njegovo vrijeme nazivan savremenim slojem).
Takvi vremenski slojevi omogućavaju dodatne perspektive sagledanje istorije nestajanja jednog naroda. A način na koji Pavić piše o istini je zaista odličan. On govori o stvaranju istine na osnovu onoga šta joj daš. Hrišćani su dali podatke da je kagan(hazarski vođa) prešao u hrišanstvo, Judejci u njihovu vjeru, a Muslimani da se priklonio islamu. Čime se vraća na ono vječito: istoriju pišu pobjednici. Međutim, ovdje nema pobjednika jer su vremenski slojevi toliko isprepleteni i sam kraj! Kakav paralelizam i povezivanje kroz vijekove! (neću da kvarim).
A ono što ja uvijek zaboravim, a što je i neko nepisano pravilo postmodernizma, kroz čitav roman pratite motiv nestalog teksta (hello Ime ruže koje neću završiti za vrijeme ovog semestra :( ).
Ono što je meni lično bilo najzanimljivije bilo je shvatanje snova i fantastike. Svemu onome što se vezuje za snove i za neke vještine poput slikanja živopisa, pa čak i pisanja pridodati su elementi fantastike. Pavić fantastiku koristi da bi snove i lovce snovima predstavio što stvarnijim, a opet sa druge strane kroz fantastiku zapravo provlači autopoetičke momente. Taj nestali narod je neuhvatljiv poput snova koje tri lovca na snove pokušavaju uloviti i sastaviti priču o Hazarima i polemici, odnosno preobraćenju Hazara u jednu od tri velike religije.
May 6, 2022
Definirlo un libro particolare sarebbe come sminuirlo, ha talmente tante nozioni storico-religiose, avvenimenti che s'intrecciano, passaggi esageratamente fantasiosi al limite del surreale, del bizzarro, che s'intersecano con fatti storici e molto molto altro.
Non è un libro semplice da seguire, ma proprio questo lo rende unico, multiforme, multistrato e conseguentemente un libro longevo, perchè lo si può leggere in tutte le maniere possibili, dall'inizio alla fine come un romanzo, oppure come proprio un dizionario e quindi andando a cercare le voci interessate, oppure anche dalla fine all'inizio come un romanzo al contrario, anche se a dirla tutta in questo libro non vi è un "vero" inizio nè una "vera" fine. Un po' come avere tra le mani un contenitore con una storia frammentata in tanti e vari pezzettini con un fronte ed un retro e da lì, si pesca e si legge, si pesca e si legge, si pesca e si legge...
Da recuperare e da leggere e rileggere varie volte per carpirne tutte le sfumature, magari prima recuperando alcuni documenti sulla storia e la religione della Serbia nei periodi citati. Quello che non avevo durante questa prima lettura!
Non è un libro semplice da seguire, ma proprio questo lo rende unico, multiforme, multistrato e conseguentemente un libro longevo, perchè lo si può leggere in tutte le maniere possibili, dall'inizio alla fine come un romanzo, oppure come proprio un dizionario e quindi andando a cercare le voci interessate, oppure anche dalla fine all'inizio come un romanzo al contrario, anche se a dirla tutta in questo libro non vi è un "vero" inizio nè una "vera" fine. Un po' come avere tra le mani un contenitore con una storia frammentata in tanti e vari pezzettini con un fronte ed un retro e da lì, si pesca e si legge, si pesca e si legge, si pesca e si legge...
Da recuperare e da leggere e rileggere varie volte per carpirne tutte le sfumature, magari prima recuperando alcuni documenti sulla storia e la religione della Serbia nei periodi citati. Quello che non avevo durante questa prima lettura!
July 10, 2020
Hazarski rečnik se izdvaja svojom neobičnom formom. Roman leksikon u 100.000 reči stoji u podnaslovu i predstavlja žanrovsku odrednicu dela. Sastavljen od tri knjige u kojima su odrednice raspoređene prema alfabetu. Prva knjiga je Crvena knjiga (hrišćanski izvori o hazarskom pitanju), za njom sledi Zelena knjiga (islamski izvori) i Žuta knjiga (hebrejski izvori). Od 36 odrednica Rečnika njih 12 odnose se na istorijske ličnosti, događaje ili pojmove koji imaju veze baš sa Hazarima.
Sledeća nesvakidašnjost romana je što postoje tri verzije � muška, ženska i androgina. Autor ovu pojavu definiše na sledeći način: „Često su me pitali gde je suština razlike između muškog i ženskog primerka moje knjige. Stvar je u tome što muškarac svet doživljava van sebe, u svemiru, a žena svemir nosi u sebi.
Ovo je roman koji poziva čitaoca da izabere odrednice i menja raspored čitanja, on postaje aktivan učesnik u oblikovanju romana. Pročitati Hazarski rečnik znači čitati ga u svim pravcima i rasporedima odeljaka, te između delova pronaći celinu. Tako možemo reći da je ovo knjiga koja nema čvrstu, fiksiranu formu.
Na samom početku saznajemo da je Pavić autor drugog izdanja Hazarskog rečnika i da je ovo samo rekonstrukcija prvobitnog Daubmanusovog izdanja iz 1691. (uništenog sledeće godine) sa dopunama do najnovijeg vremena.
Sledeće pitanje koje se neminovno postavlja je pitanje autorstva. Prema hrišćanskoj verziji, knjigu je izdavaču izdiktirao neki monah po imenu Teoktist Nikoljski. Izdavač Daubmanus, odnosno Pavićev književni junak i u isto vreme koautor romana. Oni pišu istu knjigu, komponovanu na isti način. U romanu pod odrednicom Daubmanus Joaners saznajemo da postoje dva Daubmanusa � stariji, koji je objavio rečnik, i mlađi, koji je naslednik njegovog imena i zanata. Daubmanus stariji je dao nepročitan rukopis na slaganje, otisnuo jedan primerak otrovnom bojom i upravo iz njega počeo da čita. Stvaranje Hazarskog rečnika, kao i svaka velika mitska gradnja, tražilo je žrtvu. To je ovoga puta onaj ko je knjigu napravio.
Kao sledeći autor se spominje princeza Ateh, koja je hiljadugodišnji preteča, odnosno pratvorac romana koji je pred nama. Sve priče vezane za nju su date u jednom izrazito magijskom kontekstu, sa brojnim motivima fantastike. Za nju se vezuje pojam hazarsko lice. „Hazarskim licem nazivana je osobina svih Hazara, pa i princeze Ateh, da svakog dana osvanu kao neko drugi, pod sasvim drugim i nepoznatim licem tako da imaju muke i s najbližim srodnicima da se prepoznaju.� Ovaj opis-karakterizacija može se shvatiti ako aluzija na etičku i versku mnogolikost stanovništva hazarske države, tako da se zapravo ne zna ko su pravi Hazari, jer nisu nađeni materijalni ostaci njihove kulture.
Kao koautor se pominje i Jusuf Masudi, u čijem su liku najizraženije date naznake demonskog � od muzike do žene koja ga toj muzici podučava.
Pored njih postoji još ličnosti koje se shvataju učesnicima u stvaranju ovog vanvremenskog dela.
U ovom velikom mozaiku priča i sudbina, gde se gubi svaka spona mašte i zbilje, čeka nas još pregršt tajni, simbola i detalja skrivenih na prvo čitanje. Ovo je roman za koji su potrebna velika posvećenost, ponovljena čitanja i stalna vraćanja na neophodne odrednice.
Prikaz u celini pročitajte na sajtu
Sledeća nesvakidašnjost romana je što postoje tri verzije � muška, ženska i androgina. Autor ovu pojavu definiše na sledeći način: „Često su me pitali gde je suština razlike između muškog i ženskog primerka moje knjige. Stvar je u tome što muškarac svet doživljava van sebe, u svemiru, a žena svemir nosi u sebi.
Ovo je roman koji poziva čitaoca da izabere odrednice i menja raspored čitanja, on postaje aktivan učesnik u oblikovanju romana. Pročitati Hazarski rečnik znači čitati ga u svim pravcima i rasporedima odeljaka, te između delova pronaći celinu. Tako možemo reći da je ovo knjiga koja nema čvrstu, fiksiranu formu.
Na samom početku saznajemo da je Pavić autor drugog izdanja Hazarskog rečnika i da je ovo samo rekonstrukcija prvobitnog Daubmanusovog izdanja iz 1691. (uništenog sledeće godine) sa dopunama do najnovijeg vremena.
Sledeće pitanje koje se neminovno postavlja je pitanje autorstva. Prema hrišćanskoj verziji, knjigu je izdavaču izdiktirao neki monah po imenu Teoktist Nikoljski. Izdavač Daubmanus, odnosno Pavićev književni junak i u isto vreme koautor romana. Oni pišu istu knjigu, komponovanu na isti način. U romanu pod odrednicom Daubmanus Joaners saznajemo da postoje dva Daubmanusa � stariji, koji je objavio rečnik, i mlađi, koji je naslednik njegovog imena i zanata. Daubmanus stariji je dao nepročitan rukopis na slaganje, otisnuo jedan primerak otrovnom bojom i upravo iz njega počeo da čita. Stvaranje Hazarskog rečnika, kao i svaka velika mitska gradnja, tražilo je žrtvu. To je ovoga puta onaj ko je knjigu napravio.
Kao sledeći autor se spominje princeza Ateh, koja je hiljadugodišnji preteča, odnosno pratvorac romana koji je pred nama. Sve priče vezane za nju su date u jednom izrazito magijskom kontekstu, sa brojnim motivima fantastike. Za nju se vezuje pojam hazarsko lice. „Hazarskim licem nazivana je osobina svih Hazara, pa i princeze Ateh, da svakog dana osvanu kao neko drugi, pod sasvim drugim i nepoznatim licem tako da imaju muke i s najbližim srodnicima da se prepoznaju.� Ovaj opis-karakterizacija može se shvatiti ako aluzija na etičku i versku mnogolikost stanovništva hazarske države, tako da se zapravo ne zna ko su pravi Hazari, jer nisu nađeni materijalni ostaci njihove kulture.
Kao koautor se pominje i Jusuf Masudi, u čijem su liku najizraženije date naznake demonskog � od muzike do žene koja ga toj muzici podučava.
Pored njih postoji još ličnosti koje se shvataju učesnicima u stvaranju ovog vanvremenskog dela.
U ovom velikom mozaiku priča i sudbina, gde se gubi svaka spona mašte i zbilje, čeka nas još pregršt tajni, simbola i detalja skrivenih na prvo čitanje. Ovo je roman za koji su potrebna velika posvećenost, ponovljena čitanja i stalna vraćanja na neophodne odrednice.
Prikaz u celini pročitajte na sajtu
January 19, 2015
Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic, A Lexicon Novel in 100,000 Words, is a lyrical description of the events surrounding the so-called "Khazar Polemic" and conversion of the Khazar people. Written as an encyclopedia containing cross-referenced entries between three different sections (Christian, Muslim, Jewish), it relates the efforts of various scholars to pin down exactly what happened at the Khazar court when the Khagan invited representatives from the three religions to hold a discussion to convince him of which path to follow.
The Khazars were a real people and the Khagan really was their leader but apart from a few names from history (like Saints Cyril and Methodius and Al-Muqaddasi) this is a completely fictional account. This is reality as dreamed by many people from different eras, stitched together and retold a dozen times.
The story starts, for lack of a better way of putting things, with the Khagan's dream in which an angel told him that God is pleased with his intentions but not his deeds. Accordingly, he arranges the polemic mentioned earlier to gain an interpretation. Whoever is most convincing, wins the Khazar people to their religion. The process is helped or hindered by the princess Ateh, leader of a sect of dream-hunters, men who stalk other people's dreams for clues to pieces of the soul/body of the original Adam, from which they will compile the ultimate book. Peeking through the narrative are forces which conspire to stop this book ever being written.
The exact facts of the polemic and conversion have been lost in time and the encyclopedia details as well the efforts of various people to discover them. Unsurprisingly, each faith's source says that their own side won the argument and the Khazar people ceased to exist when they were absorbed into the larger Christian/Muslim/Jewish community. Reading about the Khazar practices, where faiths and peoples other than their own get more prominence in civic life, one gets the feeling that rather than converting to one single religion, assimilation into their own immigrant communities happened instead of the other way around.
Each entry tells a little more of the story and they don't have to be read in order. You can read from cover to cover or skip around. Whichever method you choose you'll get the whole story in a coherent manner but you'll have different perspectives on the scenes you read depending on the order you gain facts. I would really suggest reading the bit about Dorothea and the trial minutes last though.
This is a lovely, poetic history featuring a humunculus, devils, men who walk through dreams, hungry ghosts, impossible feats, and adventurous people. I really enjoyed this book. It is exactly the sort of dream-like, imaginary tale I enjoy, with real moments of horror, excitement, and love. Each entry is self-contained but reading each entry will give you perspective on others. Some of it is thought-provoking, especially on the nature of thought. He illustrates this with a metaphor of two men (author and reader) holding ropes with a puma (text, thoughts, ideas) caught between them. They can't eat the puma...
The book contains many wonderful vignettes and poetic proverbs; the translator did a great job. This book is like a cross between a fairy tale and a myth, dreamed by a storyteller, retold the next morning.
The Khazars were a real people and the Khagan really was their leader but apart from a few names from history (like Saints Cyril and Methodius and Al-Muqaddasi) this is a completely fictional account. This is reality as dreamed by many people from different eras, stitched together and retold a dozen times.
The story starts, for lack of a better way of putting things, with the Khagan's dream in which an angel told him that God is pleased with his intentions but not his deeds. Accordingly, he arranges the polemic mentioned earlier to gain an interpretation. Whoever is most convincing, wins the Khazar people to their religion. The process is helped or hindered by the princess Ateh, leader of a sect of dream-hunters, men who stalk other people's dreams for clues to pieces of the soul/body of the original Adam, from which they will compile the ultimate book. Peeking through the narrative are forces which conspire to stop this book ever being written.
The exact facts of the polemic and conversion have been lost in time and the encyclopedia details as well the efforts of various people to discover them. Unsurprisingly, each faith's source says that their own side won the argument and the Khazar people ceased to exist when they were absorbed into the larger Christian/Muslim/Jewish community. Reading about the Khazar practices, where faiths and peoples other than their own get more prominence in civic life, one gets the feeling that rather than converting to one single religion, assimilation into their own immigrant communities happened instead of the other way around.
Each entry tells a little more of the story and they don't have to be read in order. You can read from cover to cover or skip around. Whichever method you choose you'll get the whole story in a coherent manner but you'll have different perspectives on the scenes you read depending on the order you gain facts. I would really suggest reading the bit about Dorothea and the trial minutes last though.
This is a lovely, poetic history featuring a humunculus, devils, men who walk through dreams, hungry ghosts, impossible feats, and adventurous people. I really enjoyed this book. It is exactly the sort of dream-like, imaginary tale I enjoy, with real moments of horror, excitement, and love. Each entry is self-contained but reading each entry will give you perspective on others. Some of it is thought-provoking, especially on the nature of thought. He illustrates this with a metaphor of two men (author and reader) holding ropes with a puma (text, thoughts, ideas) caught between them. They can't eat the puma...
The book contains many wonderful vignettes and poetic proverbs; the translator did a great job. This book is like a cross between a fairy tale and a myth, dreamed by a storyteller, retold the next morning.
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