Jason - Rushdie - 2/14

So far, Saleem seems to be the narrator of Midnight’s Children. He is particularly concerned with relating his family’s history starting from the time of his grandfather, Aadam Aziz. Saleem associates himself closely with his grandfather because he describes himself as having inherited a similar, if the same kind, of nose his grandfather had, which is apparently very large and seems to be capable of significant feats. For one, Saleem seems to use his nose to smell out the odors of certain memories, which to an extent seems logical enough, though a peculiarity of Saleem’s case appears to be that his olfactory capacity is more or less able to use this sense of smell to determine events that have occurred in the past. This kind of magical-realist detail is further compounded by Saleem’s admission that he is a master cook whose “latter days [have been dedicated] to the large-scale preparation of condiments,” primarily chutneys and kasaundies. After being prompted by Padma (his housekeeper?) to hurry up with the pace of his story, Saleem explains, “things – even people – have a way of leaking into each other,” suggesting a correlation between the process of cooking, or at least the process of something being cooked, and history as a non-linear narrative. In this sense, Saleem’s voice, which is very clearly tied to his sense of history (through his sense of smell), is one of apparent non-linearity. Still, much of the story so far has progressed more or less linearly, at least in terms of plot. Though, the thoughts and ideas expressed by Saleem are at times almost synesthetic and full of interruptions from outside the proper narrative.