iii) Languages: the mix of accents and dialects and manners of speech is one of the most immediately striking aspects of the book: comment on this and connect it to the "language wars" in other books of the S. Asian diaspora.
Ghosh's use of language is interesting and very different, but similar in some ways, from other South Asian writers we have come across. As I began reading Sea of Poppies, I felt as if Ghosh was in tune with a writer from the 19th century. "He was not quite the novice now that he had been at the start of the voyage, but nor was he equal to his new responsibilities... to spread word of a hell-afloat with pinch-gut pay... the only seamen who would venture on her decks were lascars" (13). Ghosh doesn't just come out and say what he wants to say. He's very descriptive, especially when the Ibis is introduced. Ghosh's descriptions set up what is going on internally with the characters, especially in the first half of the assigned reading, but also what's happening externally, before the Opium Wars. Simply, the author doesn't make it easy to read this novel without thinking over each passage. He uses particular words, as if he took the time to choose one that would fit into the scene.
Like Rushdie (and somwhat Roy), Ghosh uses the Indian language more freely than Naipaul. He even provides a glossary in the back of the book. This allows the reader to become emerged in each word Ghosh chooses to use, whether it is a proper term or slang. Naipaul seems to stick to a traditional, Western way of writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment