Rachel - Rushdie, 3/7

I absolutely love the first selection, so I'm going to close read that.  It starts on page 337, if anyone wants to grab their book and follow along...

The rhythm in this passage is unbelievable.  Totally alive.  I love this passage because it mirrors the one that opens the book, but instead of hearing "once upon a time," we hear "it's only a matter of time."  There's two phrases that are notorious for beginning intense stories...two storyteller phrases if I ever heard them.  We also see another dittoed line: "No, that won't do, there's no getting away from the date: my mother, right ankle on the left knee, was corn-tissue out of the sole of her foot with a sharp-ended nail file on September 9th, 1962.  And the time?  The time matters, too."

There's that anaphora that insists on itself: "I hold on to Padma.  Padma is what matters - Padma muscles, Padma's hairy forearms, Padma my own pure lotus. . . .who, embarrassed, commands: "Engouh.  Start.  Start now."

The constant repetition generates an electric sense of urgency in the book. It's almost like you can hear Rushdie saying: "we're going further down the Rabbit Hole now."  Saleem himself struggles to continue that narration, as though the psychological cracks are making it near-impossible to continue writing.  But Padma - there's that buff female figure, again - urges him forward...going to make a note of that for my gender relations paper.  Definitely.