Joseph-Rushdie-2/16

I wanted to discuss the role that spit has played so far in our reading of ‘Midnight’s Children’.   Our first real encounter with spit is in the beginning of the chapter appropriately titled: “Hit-the-Spittoon”. Saleem describes to the reader that he is falling apart, “brained by spittoons”.  This is an odd phrase, but if we read further I believe my interpretation of spit as memory can be corroborated. In the next paragraph, Saleem states: “It is important for me to remain calm. I chew betel nut and expectorate in the direction of a cheap brassy bowl, playing the ancient game of hit-the-spittoon: Nadir Khan’s game, which he learned from the old men in Agra”. It is as if memory and legacy is embedded in the saliva’s of the men who have spit into the spittoon, and Saleem is anxious that he will eventually be reduced to a salvia remnant.  It is also telling that it is “Nadir Khan’s game.” Nadir Khan was the first husband of Amina, and a reason for their divorce is his impotence. Saleem is also impotent, and his impotence is treated as if it is a game of Nadir Khan’s ‘Hit-the-Spittoon’: "Despite Padma’s many and varied gifts and ministrations, I can’t leak into her…Despite everything she tries, I cannot hit her spittoon.”

What is the connection between the spittoon and impotence? I think there is a connection between both men’s (Nadir/Saleem) freewheeling, abstract flights of fancy and the two women’s (Amina and Padma) pragmatism and rationality. I was thinking of the ‘Evil Eye’ in India and Pakistan legend.  According to John Abbot in the book “Indian ritual and belief: the keys of power”, spitting is sometimes used to protect someone from excessive admiration (Thus Abbot says it is common for mothers to lightly spit to the side of the child to suggest a sense of fallibility that protects against the ‘evil eye’). In the case of ‘Midnight’s Children’, perhaps the criticisms (a form of verbal ‘spitting’ or disapproval, if you will) that Padma provides for Saleem is a way to dispel his excessive self-indulgences, and this leaves him impotent? If this were considered, why would criticisms leave him completely impotent? Is he nothing if he is not indulging in fantasies and mythologizing himself?

Great post. - Robin.