I have written prior about how genres like science-fiction and fantasy can sometimes predict the technology which is yet to come. At times this is mere speculation, with the books themselves inspiring future creators. At times there is a tendency for extrapolation, with authors acutely observing the trends of their present and inflating it across time and space.
However, at times the authors of magical realism do both, and in mythtaking fashion at that.
Salman Rushdie in this novel arguably spoke about the internet and the perils of existing in a shared consciousness much before the network actually existed.
Sounds familiar?
Magical Realism and the Postcolonial
It is not accidental that writers of so many erstwhile colonies resort to magic realism- where the magical is commonplace and reality often outrageous, to bind their narratives. When teaching such novels, I often state that when the lived reality of these writers was so absurd, is it really a surprise that their narratives employed the magical?
Of course, the trope is not for everyone, something that speculative fiction tends to suffer from. I am of the opinion, however, that this is what Rushdie does best, which is also telling in his Haroun and the Sea of Stories- a treatise on free speech masquerading as a children’s fable.
Given this, it is easy to see why this novel was a landmark one for India writing in English and put the subcontinent on the map.
Saleem Sinai and the story of India
The novel’s unreliable protagonist is certainly a character for all ages. What Rushdie does incredibly well through Saleem Sinai, born at ‘the stroke of the midnight hour’ (Vir Das’ logical take on Nehru’s speech always comes to mind) is narrate parallel tales- of the boy and of the young nation.
I was reminded of another excellent book on parallel tales by an Indian author: Shashi Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel, another work which combines the Mahabharat and the Indian Independence struggle to pen its full tale. Both novels take solace in the reality of independence and wed them to their own myths, giving birth to unique products of Independent India- wholly desi.
Beginning my life as an expatriate in Vietnam, I do long for another Rushdie book left incomplete on my bedside back in India, Knife, but that is a newsletter for another day. For now, do permit yourself to float in the gentle lake of this novel.
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