Will - Rushdie - 2/28

On page 189, Saleem writes, "Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems . . . "  Saleem illustrates this thought with the image of sitting in a large movie theater.  As a person moves closer and closer to the screen, the picture becomes less and less cohesive, until finally " . . . the illusion dissolves­—or rather, it becomes clear that the illusion is reality."  The second part of the book is constructed as if Saleem and the reader are moving closer and closer to the screen of the present.  Even for Saleem, as he gets closer to his present reality the story gets more chaotic, and it is harder for him to understand the order of events.  One needs distance from "reality" in order to make narrative sense of it. 

Narrative cause-and-effect is amplified in movies.  Saleem's uncle Hanif Aziz is a failing director who introduced the world to the "indirect kiss" (162), in which the love of a young couple is expressed by sensuously kissing objects like tea cups in front of each other.  The scene where film language is used most effectively is the scene where Saleem spies on his mother's meeting with Nadir Khan (renamed Qasim) on pages 247-249.  They meet at the Pioneer Cafe, a restaurant frequented by film extras.  Amina and Qasim are both "screen-names" they've taken on to play "half-unwanted roles."  Saleem shoots close-up on a pack of cigarettes on the table between Amina (Mumtaz) and Nadir (Qasim), then their hands enter the frame, hovering above each other but unable to touch.  To signal that they truly love each other, they perform an "indirect kiss," Amina pressing her lips to one side of a glass and Nadir pressing his lips to the other.  Saleem is so shaken that he says, "I left the movie before the end."  Yet the question arises of how Saleem saw all this through a corner of a grimy window?  Does he actually remember this or is it a filmic reconstruction? 

The concept of the "indirect kiss" is the high achievement of Hanif's career.  It shows metaphorically what is dramatized elsewhere in the book:  all love is expressed indirectly.  Aadam Aziz and Nasseem fall in love through a perforated sheet; Mumtaz (Amina) falls in love with Nadir in the shadow shadows of a vault, casting him side-long glances as she changes his chamber pot; Saleem expresses his love for Evie by learning to ride a bike; Brass Monkey shows her sibling love for Saleem by fighting Evie.  No one just says, "I love you," because it is insufficient.  Thus Hanif's "indirect kiss" is a much more realistic image than his scripts about pickle factories.