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.

Karol - Rushdie -03/05

This passage begins and ends with “…it’s only a matter of time” and time plays as an enumerative conceit throughout grounding the readership in dates and figures as addendum to Salim’s inner life. There is a hyperrealism apparent here to the point where it ‘chews on bones.’  The images of Amina picking at her corny gangrenous feet accretes into a scene less magical then Salim’s inner life. 

The space of an inner life that is interrupted by telecommunications and projecting phantasm onto reality, and thus, creating a fablesque space. It is significant that Amina Sinai receives a message by telegraph that affects her action in material reality based on Morse code radio transmission that requires a faith network in order to operate (meaning both sender and receiver have to trust the other party is real) .   

The anti-sublime image of Amin Sinai “right ankle on left knee” using a nail file is interrupted by an “envelope in a silver dish,” and stylistically the theme of interruption is evident  in the form. Because of the exhcange between form and content interruption can view as a thing in itself. 

When hyperreal space is interrupted it is hallmarked by dates and details in an enumerative concentration on details of “armies and their dates.” Rushdie’s use of the word “verucas” is interesting because It implies a viral basis to Amina’s affliction and paired with the arrival of the telegram it suggests a parallel. Its arrival also marks the entrance into fablesques space as Salim begins:  “…once upon a time. No, that won’t do…”(337-338)

Close Reading Rushdie II - 337-429

More passages for close reading. Just like before, only - remember: the emphasis here is on the language, the type of words, rhythm, voice, metaphor... In other words, the "rhetoric" or "poetics" of the passage. Try not to simply comment on "what it says." So, with that rather tedious preamble:
1. From "What chews-on-bones..." (337) to "...only a matter of time." (338). 2. "They had even begun to sleep..." (341) to "...you are badly changed." (342). 3. "Silence outside me..." (348) to "...the name of the end." (349). 4. "Capable of smelling..." (354) to "...opposite direction to me." (355). 5. From "There was a new brilliance..." (356) to "...revisited by Uncle Puffs." (356). 6. "What I could smell..." (361) to "...the spoors of whores." (362). 7. From "Once upon a time..." (366) to "'Progresshas occurred.'" (367). 8. From "The next morning..." to "...what she knew to be so." (373). 9. "Tick, tock..." (379) to "...adrift, unmanned." (380) 10. "Who died in the holy war?" (390) to "...family from the earth." (391). 11. From "Futility of statistics..." (411) to "...Ganges and the sea." (412)

Dan - Rushdie

285

            This excerpt shows the dynamic between Saleem between  Hanif and Pia. The fact that Hanif is so set on making realist cinema relects the state of Indian films. It is said that one of the only things that truly unites Indian culture is Indian cinema. It is known that realism is a genre that is not usually within the Bollywood culture. But the stubbornness of Hanif to create realistic scripts begins to bring him and Pia to poverty. This is the first time that Saleem is old enough to notice’s the disdain between Hanif and Saleem. I feel through Hanif and Pia Rushdie taking a swing at Bollywood. This can be seen especially in this excerpt where Saleem over hears Hanif and Pia arguing,

 "Scribble," she said, her hand slicing air, "Allah, don't stop me! So much talent, a person cannot go to the pot in this house without finding your genius. Are you happy husband? Are you making much money? God is good to you?" 

Eidia- Rushdie- 3.1.11

Pages 276 - 277

In this passage, there is a narrative voice employed by Saleem, who is in dialogue with his aunt; however, he is not entirely engaging in conversation with Pia Aziz, for he has transformed into an attentive listener, who in return exchanges his viewpoints with us, the readers and audiences. While describing her talents, which have been overlooked since her first success with Hanif's film, and her now banal life amongst the common folk, Pia, physically exerts a series of signals which is what Saleem is most affective by. Describing his aunt's complaints (while she claims not to complain about her current life), Saleem seems more drawn towards his sexual impulses, taking great care to describe Pia's "adorable breasts". Already, at such a young age, Saleem has begun to exert signs of his sexuality.
As Saleem continues to speak to the audience, Pia continues to engage herself in a one sided dialogue with Saleem, who expresses a minimum of responses. She is distraught by her husband's primary focus on penning scripts dealing with social cause, and exclaims how "boring-boring" they are. Ignorant of her husband's attempt to acquire a much more segued attempt from her "Public" appeals of dance and drama, Pia forgets for a bit that she is living the "ordinary" life that Hanif is scripting. She for once forgets to place herself in the same situation. Clearly, living amongst the masses, Pia is the one too proud of herself, not her husband.

Hannah-Rushdie-3/2

2. pg 274-275 "'Not the dark one...'" to "...lots of fun"

From pages 274-275, Saleem comes back from the hospital and is going to live with Hanif, Pia and Mary. When he is telling Mary to make him a light green chutney, "... green like grasshoppers!"(green = a new beginning, happiness, nature/nurture. The lighter the chutney, the more pure and innocent he wants to feel after experiencing everything that has happened so far, such as learning about his mother's infidelity). On page 275, Saleem compares himself to the Kolynos Kid that has a big grin on his face. "...squeezing crises and transformations out of a bottomless tube, extruding time on my metaphorical toothbrush..." (275). It seems that Saleem is trying to clean his slate and mind, but his hopes thin out, like toothpaste coming out of the tube, as his parents temporarily leave him with Hanif. Transformations and crises come and go in never ending cycles.

"That I was no longer a good business risk, no longer worth the investment of their love and protection?" Saleem is portrayed as an insecure little boy, as he should be at his age. Throughout the novel so far, he is seen as an older narrator at age ten because of his abilities and his powers, but this passage shows Saleem as doubtful about his future and the love of his parents. He even wants his sister to at least give him a phone call, reassuring his position as a child in his family. In order to deal with his insecurities, he decides to act like a surrogate son to Hanif and Pia, trying to reclaim his role in some sort of typical family setting. Rushdie seems to show Saleem as an ordinary boy in India, somewhat normal and worrisome. He is repetitive in Saleem's thoughts about blaming himself for making his parents disappear from his life, going on for a page about the 'what ifs' of his injury and what could have happened if it never happened.

Michael rUSHdie---------

In the passage on page 332 beginning with "Of course i nodded" rushdie narrates as eleven year old saleem  at a military dinner with his uncle the general and his son zafar. Zafar wets his pants and is chased out by the general out of shame. In the diologic sense we get an understanding of the voice of the general in his feelings towards his son and his need to find a replacement to salvage his honor, as described through his eyes. Saleem helps Zulfikar map out "the revolution" using pepperpots, salt cellars and bowls of chutney as symbolic object of soldiers and landmarks. We get a sense of the peoples view of the president in saleem admitting that at his age he was unable to pass any judgment on the corruption of the president. So in that we see the perception of both saleem as older narrator and saleem as eleven year old child, we feel the innocent excitemnet of adventure within the eleven year old saleem when his uncle wakes him up to take him to the presidents. Decribing his journey there the style of Rushdies writing and rhythm changes, and becomes a poetic portrayal of images via memory. "Black smoked windowed limousines pausing at darkened house. sentries guard the door with crossed rifles. Suddenly the writing assumes a present point in time as opposed to a past tensed tone.

Jason - Rushdie - 3/2

In the passage from Pg. 292-3 in which Saleem is becoming aware that his Midnight Children’s Conference is becoming tainted by prejudices which leak from parents into children and seem to obliterate the compassion, curiosity, and innocence a child is supposed to have. It seems to me that the irony or joke here is that kids are presumably acting with adult prejudices when it could just as easily be that prejudices are essentially child-like to begin with. In this situation adults may be portrayed here as overgrown children.

Much of the passage also focuses on Saleem as a kind of humanitarian who believes in the potential of the individual to overcome the dualities that are found throughout society. He wants to create a “third space” so to speak, outside of duality – duality being the thing that most alienates one thing/person/idea from another. Also, Saleem, in a way, shows himself to be a “dreamer,” believing in the power of ideas over the power of things. In this sense, Saleem could also be seen as a kind of spiritual figure, who rejects the material/physical/temporal world. There’s also the clear impression that the Conference, and what Saleem is arguing for, are part of a political discourse. It seems that Saleem’s position calls attention to or satirizes “the plea for reason” or “doing things for the greater good” within the context of a democracy.

Saleem’s ideas are confronted (or at least contrasted) by Shiva’s opposing beliefs in the inherent and inescapable dualities of life, that there is nothing more to living than providing for oneself, and that people are nothing more than things.

            This passage could also be a metaphor for human nature in general seen through the emerging yin and yang of Saleem’s mind as he comes of age or representative of self-confidence/self-belief versus self-doubt. This interpretation would probably be more applicable to Saleem the Narrator since his perspective is more removed and thus would be one that encompasses both sides of the argument.

Karol - Rushdie -03/02

One thing  distinct about the narrator’s voice is that his voice shift from present to past tensed narration he seems to evoke himself as if in the present by speaking to the audience familiarly. Part of the familiarity, I think, comes from the self-abasing satirical undertones Salim employs in narration. Stating his actions as allegorical or symbolic reduces them to readership but then again empowers the narrator because of his ability to suspend judgment in his following by reducing himself before they get a chance to. Rushdie beats the hand of judgment to the punch by having his protagonist declare the artifice of his constructions, an “active metaphorical mode of connection.”

                       

The pace picks up as Salim is woken up for the “real thing.” The list of objects being used for the game of strategy he is helping in set the pace as he is awoken by his uncle. His uncle also calls him “sonny.” Also, the text apologizes for Salim before it puts him in the abduction scene. “An eleven-year-old boy cannot judge whether a President is truly corrupt, even if gongs-and-pips say he is; it is not for eleven-year olds to say whether Mirza’s association with the feeble Republican Party should have disqualified him from high office under the new régime. Saleem Sinai made no political judgments…”

Rushdie sets the strange scene of the home invasion as it is happening in the present. “Black smoked-windowed limousine pausing at darkened house. Sentries guard the door with crossed rifles; which part, to let us through. I am marching at my uncle’s side, in step, through half-lit corridors; until we burst into a dark room with a shaft of moonlight spotlighting a four-poster bed. A mosquito net hangs over the bed like a shroud.” The opening of this sequence of events speaks of manhood as it pertains to fatherhood. Even though, Salim is inventing his father figures his initiation in manhood is very real and dire. (332-33)

Will - Rushdie - 3/2

On page 276, the passage that begins "My mumani . . . " starts in the voice of the narrator Saleem, describing a charming scene from his youth when his film-star aunt made him act out scenes with her.  But the image of innocence is undercut with the detail that Saleem is "trying to keep my eyes away from two impossible orbs, spherical as melons, golden as mangoes."  This is a schoolboy's way of describing breasts, similar to when Saleem described his mother's butt as a giant black mango.  The phrase captures the awkwardness of Saleem's position at that moment:  he is being treated as a child, but he is in the beginning stages of his sexual maturity.  Pia then gives a melodramatic soliloquy, with "one arm flung across her brow."  She laments her declining fame and her simple life with Hanif, and ends with the ridiculous phrase:  "But I know this:  my face is my fortune; after that, what riches do I need?"  This is the voice of an actress, declining in fame but still dignified.  Rushdie is poking fun at the melodrama and narcissism of famous people, but in that moment the reader can still admire her self-possession. 

This is not so true when at the next moment Pia switches to the voice of a nagging wife, decrying Hanif's "boring-boring scripts" which are devoid of singing, dancing, drama, or humor.  Pia's monologue ends with the hilarious line, "So you know what he is writing now?  About . . . the Ordinary Life of a Pickle-Factory!"  Hanif, the strictest realist filmmaker ever, is all the while sitting on a "chlorophyll-striped sofa."  Rushdie inserts this detail to connect him to the Kolynos Kid, the smiley child on a toothpaste billboard representing gross consumerist culture.  This allusion keeps the reader from thinking of Hanif as a martyr, and his wife as a soul-sucker.  Saleem doesn't know whose side to take, and neither does the reader.  Rushdie uses different voices to make a common type of scene bewildering (perhaps because to a young child like Saleem it is bewildering).  This scene is funny, but it's a portrait of an unhappy marriage.  It's melodramatic but also psychologically realistic.  

Joseph-Rushdie-3/2

1. p. 273, beginning "Sensing Padma's..." and ending "...passed us by." 


It's obvious in this passage that we are meeting the poetic and linguistic narrator. This narrator is one who cannot find meaning unless he covers all grounds, and this is an instance in which he must explain terms mentioned in an earlier paragraph to a "bewildered"  Padma. It's largely a paragraph that attempts to poeticize the hyphen, and link each term to an academic study of 'Midnight's Children("passive-metaphorical", "passive-literal", and "active metaphorical"). This passage seems made for Spark Notes or term papers,and it's easy to see Rushdie is having fun(at one point he says "Under this heading you should file", as if he knows we are making handy analyses in our spiral notebooks). To link it to another work that pokes fun of it's audience(Nabokov's "Pale Fire"), it would be like if John Shade had left a poem, complete with handwritten annotations and a study guide, for Charles Kinbote , instead of Kinbote explicating little on the actual text and interpreting through his own idiosyncratic and delusional lens. Saleem may be having a go at jabbing his reader with scholarly humor, but he is also deadly serious and concerned about how he is to be interpreted. He leaves no room for ambiguity, unlike the deceased poet of 'Pale Fire'.

For Saleem, his outlook is mostly "active metaphorical": He imagines his life to run parallel with India's, and he actively goes seeking for connections. If reached for long or far enough, almost any event in our own lives can be made "active metaphorical" to match with history.  Saleem attributes only one event to being "active-literal": The rallying cry he gave the people. This is of course humorous, because Saleem states earlier that the words are "A nonsense; a nothing; nine words of emptiness". The most active thing he has done was essentially unintentional. These nine words of emptiness  played a role in the partition of Bombay(although, like many other things, perhaps Saleem overstates his influence).

On a structural level, the paragraph is very passive and serves to recount many things have occurred, or in the event that Saleem is reflecting on something which is to occur. It's a long, extended paragraph that does not have the one thing the passage ultimately addresses: action. As the passage comes to an end, Saleem laments that the Midnight's Children group had "passive-literal", "passive-metaphorical", and "active-metaphorical":What they did not have was "active-literal", and in terms of the narrative, neither did this passage.

The Language Wars: analyzing Rushdie's style pp. 273-336

For this post, please analyze one of the passages below. In class, we will analyze each one: you should contribute when we get to yours. As we've established, Rushdie employs a "dialogic" style, meaning that he writes in many voices. As you look closely at the passage you've picked, try to pick out the voices: the author/narrator; the voice of the Indian people; the scientist or specialist; the poet; the historian; the ordinary or uneducated person, etc. What satirical purpose does he create through mimicry? Also, analyze his use of allusions, rhythm, tone, imagery, repetition, inside jokes - and other techniques of literary poetics. Passages: 1. p. 273, beginning "Sensing Padma's..." and ending "...passed us by." 2. 274-275 from "Not the dark one..." to "...lots of fun." 3. From "My mumani" (276) to "..Life of a Pickle-Factory" (277). 4. From "The ghost of Joe..." (280) to "..confusion you will unleash." (281). 5. From "When I returned..." (285) to "..was a terrific exit." (286). 6. From "In this way..." (292) to "...with one single thing." (293). 7. From "Who listed..." (295) to "...with the Reaper. (With my help.)" (296). 8. From "I confess: what I did..." (297) to "AFTER NEHRU, WHO?" (298). 9. From "KNOW, O UNBELIEVERS..." (306) to "...of Good Family." (307). 10. From "It was said; could not be unsaid..." (312) to "...would probably have approved." (313). 11. From "Of course, I nodded." (332) to "...over the bed like a shroud." (333).

MICHAEL Rushdie---------

rUSHDIE mentions that everything has shape if you look for it. There is no escape from form, immediately after comparing the different sources of blood. The "rioters spilling eachothers blood" the blood of "his mothers cheeks. drifting off from the subject to discuss the affairs of his "inner world" then returning to the mutilation of saleem sinai. I feel that in the line of no escape from form, rushdie is merely considering the tendency to look for patterns in chaos, and eventually finding them. in terms of style I this jump from one telling to another subject displays the non linearity of rushdies style, he jumps on tangents and allows them to loose steam in his ranting. He has so much to say in dealing with the entitiy of india that , some things are put on stand by while he explains others departments of his mental chasm. wHICH IS understandable for someone who uses his own mind as a forum for telepathic communication.

Anna –Rushdie- 2/28

I'm having some trouble figuring out what Rushdie is doing, for a book that I began reading as sheer genius, and though I still think that on a large scale it is, (and even in the tiniest of details- also brilliant) it is very difficult to string at one time, more than one theme along, for example wondering about the witchcraft brew Padma brings home for the author for his fertility that sends him into fever (the heck does that mean?) and then the Evie American with the bicycles and all the commentary on race and children (innocence but also play and violence) this brings up, to the using of famous gods with well known characteristics to be devious characters, to falling in love with the ugly bits of people. So much action and metaphor and detail, so little explanation. I latched onto one line where Rushdie said (I paraphrase) reality can have metaphorical bits but this does not make it less real. This is what I latch onto. Oh and I really like how when he falls in love with Evie its because she is both snake and ladder, of course.

Jason - Rushdie - 2/28

The further along in the book I get the more it seems the structure of it deals with the juxtaposition or superimposition of the workings of the inner mind and the workings of the everything else outside of the mind. Much of Saleem’s narrative style could be explained as having the quality of attributing the processes of his mind, which he describes as being “messy” (with ideas and ideas of things leaking into one another so that they overlap and create new meaning or meanings that otherwise wouldn’t exist), and placing those “messy” associations into the world outside of his mind.

By doing this, Saleem implicitly creates meaning in things. This is evident in almost any section of the novel where one object is associated with another. This practice of creating meaning seems to finally come into direct opposition with Shiva, the other original Midnight Child, who holds the exact opposite opinion: there is no meaning or purpose for why things are the way they are.

On Pg. 252-3, Saleem has a mental conference with Shiva, during which time Shiva essentially states that he seeks to control the M.C.C. and make it do what he wants. This seems to set the stage for an “epic battle between good and evil.” The joke might be that this encounter with Shiva, and all other M.C.C. members for that matter, are all within Saleem’s mind. If so, the story in which Saleem the character exists might just be a veneer for a debate over whether things have meaning or not.

And because Saleem seems to believe in form (by performing his duty as narrator he implicitly looks for it) that belief might be justification enough to say that meaning exists in the world (which appears to consist of a mixing of the inner mind and the outer enviorment). But because there seem to be two sets of inner-minds (that of the young Saleem the character and that of the older Saleem the narrator) and two sets of external realities (that of the family history and political history in which Saleem the character lives and that of the pickle factory and Padma in which Narrator Saleem lives) it seems difficult to attribute more truth to one set of perspectives over another. They all could be the same illusion, which might mean: that to believe in meaning and purpose is to deceive yourself.

Jane-Rushdie-2/28/2011

Throughout the narrative we find ourselves questioning Saleem as a reliable narrator and whether or not he is in fact, insane, which is why is find the opening paragraph of All- India Radio telling about Saleem's interpretation of history to be truthful. At the end of the passage when he says, "I reiterate, without a sense of shame, my unbelievable claim: after a curious accident in a washing-chest, I became a sort of radio" (Rushdie, 189) I was reminded of an earlier passage wherein several villagers find Saleem's grandfather's optimism in the face of revolt and bloodshed disconcerting: "The old men at the paan-shop at the top of Cornwallis Road chewed betel and suspected a trick. I have lived twice as long as I should have,the oldest one said, his voice cracking like an old radio because decades were rubbing up against each other around his vocal chords" (Rushdie, 38). This seems to correspond to Rushdie's metaphor of the distortion of the movie screen when seen up close to our perception of history when in the present. As another modern device, the likening of the old man to the garbled sounds of a radio being the result of decades past melding into one another speaks further Saleem comparing himself to a radio and whether then we can trust him as a reputable source of knowledge on India's past. 

Karol - Rushdie -2/28

I had an 'ah ha' moment with the song that keeps coming up how-much-is-that-doggie-in-the-window (165,298)This seems to be satirical of a concept of love at a distance. Amina is in close proximity to the first example grappling with the dream of an "unnameable" husband. In the second occurrence it lies in proximity to reference to Crusoe (emblematic for colonial literature).  In Rushdie's context I think it is making fun of the west's obsession with objectified and unreachable images from less developed parts of the world. Laika is also mentioned giving grounds to this premise because of Wests reaction to a dog being sent into space to die.

I do think that the characters are comic but I think I are something more, they are cartooned. The exaggerations of their features make them less life like and therefore more life like to interface with. Kind of a response to the "uncanny valley" that happens with excessive realism. Jonathan Swift does something like this with the his portrayals of the Irish.

Eidia- Rushdie- 2.28.11

Punishment and Atonement

Distributed via several passages, in Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children, there are several examples of the relationship between punishment and atonement, action and reaction.
There are the naive and disciplined examples of Amina's power to forbid her children from speaking, a common punishment for their misdeeds, for she cannot bring herself to raise her hands on them. The example of the wash closet, Saleem's coincidental witnessing of his mother's nudity and still intact vulnerability towards Nadir resulted in a days worth of silence. Later, the Brass Monkey awakes the next morning, eagerly urging her mother to retract the punishment, for Saleem has been good, he has not spoken since the sentence. Once allowed to speak; however, Saleem addresses the family with the news of his interaction with the archangels, leading to a powerful strike to his ears, partially deafening him. Along with Saleem's punishments, the Brass Monkey, the family's original malicious child, reputed for her shoe burning habits and fierce actions, has faced these punishments at a multiple rate.
Elevated, in a graver manner, there are the sins of the adults, and their punishments. One of the most striking and burdensome punishment is that of Mary Periera, who has been concealing her crime from the entire society: the exchanging of babies. With this act, Mary Periera inherited a sense of guilt, so prominent, that the apparitions of Joseph D'Costa reestablished several times, leaving Mary bewildered, paranoid, sleep deprived, but incapable of admitting her crime, severely heightening her already intense sense of guilt.

Hannah-Rushdie-2/28

Saleem's mother, Amina, is described as taking the "burdens of the world" upon her own back on page 180. She becomes a Christ like figure because of her loyalty to her family and community, her ever lasting guilt and most importantly, the sacrifices she goes through in order to feel rid of her "sins" (seems like being human is too daunting for her).

"'Amma, maybe you're a mermaid really, taking human form for the love of a man-so that every step is like walking on razor blades!' My mother smiled, but did not laugh" (179). Amina feels responsible for her husband's impotency and her inability to love him as a whole that she is full of guilt. She even blames herself for Monkey's disinterest in feminine qualities, her son's big nose and gambling to support the family. It seems as if catering to human nature and letting some things go isn't what Amina is willing to do for herself. She seems to be striving for an inhuman, or perhaps spiritual, type of life because she can't deal with having to let go of Nadir. According to the Bible, Christ was born in a manger and grew up as a carpenter's son, yet was crucified for the world's sins and is now in Heaven. Amina, then Mumtaz, was tucked away into darkness with Nadir (simpler times) then suddenly thrust up into another marriage, having to pay for her secrets and guilt by being a Christ like figure to everyone else around her.

On page 180, Amina seems to have a fog of guilt around her head (Christ and his crown of thorns, representing and mocking his claim to be the son of God). Everyone who came in contact with Amina felt the need to confess their sins, such as Lila Sabarmati and Hanif. Afterwards, they felt better about themselves. Maybe this air of confession was due to the fact that Amina was regarded as being put together and able to handle everyone else's problems, since she was seen as a Christ like figure (untainted and pure). She is portrayed as a relatively moral woman and I feel Saleem decides to speak about this right before the bathroom incident in order to show the reader that not everybody is as strong as they seem.

Joseph-Rushdie-2/28

The abilities of the Midnight's Children are undoubtedly comic, and Rushdie sets it up from the very beginning: He comments that "synchronicity on such a scale would stagger even C.G Jung." (This is later undermined, or at least I think you could make a case). It must be noted though that for Indian culture, the abilities of the children are, on a whole, not that staggering. Rudhie remarks:"But no literate person in this India can be wholly immune from the type of information I am in the process of unveiling-no reader of our national press can have failed to come across a series of-admittedly lesser- magic children and assorted freaks."

The thing that I find most fascinating is the solipsism that most of the children's gifts create: There is the case of Sundari, whose beauty ultimately leaves her disfigured and she has to hide behind a mask(I found this one particularly interesting because there is a very similar case in 'Infinite Jest');there is a girl who cannot be crossed because her words literally harm others;there is the boy who has the curse of forgetting everything he ever saw(a contrast to the famous Borges story, "Fumes the Memorious").

Rushdie makes a big deal out of talents being greater if a child was born close to the exact minute. However, many of the children's abilities seem haphazard and not adhering to any temporal logic. For example, there are two children who are born rather late but possess pretty enviable powers: Rushdie speaks of a child who believes himself to be a reincarnation of Rabindranath Tagore and "extemporizes verses of remarkable quality". Such a literary and oratory gift would seem to be a valuable power. Also, Rushdie describes late blooming siamese twins, with one head of a boy and one head of a girl, who are able to speak every dialect. That seems like a vital power as well. Does time of birth really play that big of a difference if such great powers are possessed by the supposed 'freaks'? Furthermore, there are some children born closer to the hour who possess some questionable powers: For example, there is a girl who multiplies fish. Given the choice, I would certainly choose the powers of some of the children of the later minutes. There seems to be an element of comedy and mockery in the face of Saleem trying to construct a methodology.

 The biggest instance in support of Saleem's theory is the two births that are closest to the minute: The birth of Saleem and the birth of Shiva; knees and nose. Shiva is given the gift of war, the ultimate divisive action. Saleem is given the gift of communication, the ultimate chance for regeneration. Destruction and regeneration cannot help but be inextricably related, and these two are forever bound together. Many of the children seem comic and random, but it is clear that the timing and proximity of these two births were no accident.

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.         

Rushdie - post suggestions - 2/28/11

Posts should refer at least partly to 206-271. Make them analytical: try to work out some question of meaning, significance, the structure of the book, etc. Avoid posting generalized responses. Read all the questions. They are intended to spur ideas about this extravagant work of literature.

• relating to the question of religion as a presence in Rushdie's world, consider the transformation of Saleem's mother ("she took on the world's guilt") into a saintly, even Christlike figure just before the bathroom incident.
• the question of impotence: Padma's attempt to cure Saleem using herbs; Ahmed's confession of impotence to Narlikar and Dr. Narlikar's reaction, followed by Narlikar's unexpected passion for his wife... which is described in terms reminiscent of tantric practices... the awakening of chakras and prana (energy) from the lowest to the highest... try to intepret or discuss these strange passages.
• conflict or strife between the sexes: Narlikar's female relatives who wish to build a female-only colony on Methwold's estates after Narlikar's death.. the "strong, hairy-armed women" at the beginning of "All-India Radio." Female bodybuilders in Ghani's house... etc. Are these comic elements or signs of a female revolt or the breakdown of traditional sex roles...?
• Consider the passage at the beginning of "All India Radio." How does the book deal with questions of history and truth as measured and recorded by modern devices: such as radios, medical instruments, movies, public address systems, etc.? If you like, compare this to the problem of truth and history in Naipaul.
• On p. 193, Saleem performs an act of contrition. The story contains many such incidences of punishment and atonement. What are the transgressions for which characters are likely to be punished? What does this say about concepts of authority or morality in the novel? (Power relations in Naipaul were largely social or political. Here power and authority are often within the family...)
• Consider the types of events that lead to Saleem's transformations: an encounter with his nude mother, trauma to one ear at the hands of his father and to another during a bicycle accident... Later, trauma to the nose causes a change in his powers. Why do these mundane physical events (including the time of his birth) - rather than something more mystical or spiritual - cause such transformations? 
• Comment on Sonny's and Saleem's courtship of the American Evie Burns, which involves a lot of bicycle-riding. Bicycling fits with the "carnivalesque" because it is a part of circus life. Consider this in light of love as a whole in the novel.
• Starting on 224, we have a lengthy description of the Midnight's Children, including all their various powers. Comment on Rushdie's choice of powers and abilities. They are not like the Justice League or something. Is there a comic message here?
• Alternatively, comment on the Children as an alternative family in light of the families in the novel in general. Alternatively (again) consider the Children as a parody of some political body (then the novel as a whole would be an allegory).
• p. 242: passage about the selectivity of memory followed by a discussion of world religions: obviously history, autobiography, and folk stories all involve selective memory... The passage may suggest that all stories are "maya" or illusion. Discuss.
• Brahma is a many-headed god: a many-headed monster hardly worshiped in India. On page 217, there is a line referring to language as an "endless ant-trail." This may in turn refer to a famous Hindu story involving a trail of ants. Brahma, remember, is the creator god. Can you relate this story to the idea of creation or building in this novel?
• This book's form may be more associative than linear: that is, it jumps from one thing to another connected thing in a "hypertext" manner, rather than telling a straightforward story. Consider the passage about blood on 258-259, containing the line "Everything has shape if you look for it. There is no escape from form."