Salman Rushdie - Parody In Midnight Children - In 1981, Salman Rushdie published Midnight Children, a novel that one can say belongs to the genre of magic realism. Though the genre has been totally dominated by Latin American writers -Garcia Marquez, Juan Rulfo, Isabel Allende, and Laura Esquivel- the Indian author Rushdie holds his own. |
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You are here: DIME Home > Books and Reviews > Salman Rushdie - Parody In Midnight Children
In 1981, Salman Rushdie published Midnight Children, a novel that one can say belongs to the genre of magic realism. Though the genre has been totally dominated by Latin American writers -Garcia Marquez, Juan Rulfo, Isabel Allende, and Laura Esquivel- the Indian author Rushdie holds his own.
Author: marciano guerrero
Date: Dec 8, 2009 - 10:21:21 PM
In 1981, Salman Rushdie published Midnight Children, a novel that one can say belongs to the genre of magic realism. Though the genre has been totally dominated by Latin American writers -Garcia Marquez, Juan Rulfo, Isabel Allende, and Laura Esquivel- the Indian author Rushdie holds his own.
Not only does he use magic realism -the fantastic, the magical, the strange- as a useful technical tool, but he transcends it to portray the almost unreal and surreal dimensions of the Indian subcontinent. And much like the Latin American writers, he brings a magic and refreshing view of the effects of colonialism.
Given to paradox and the absurd, it is hard at times to tell the serious from the comic. And when we are in doubt we accept that the author means well and we read his humorous antics with goodwill-much as we do with Lawrence Sterne's Tristram Shandy.
For those who are language-oriented, the novel owns a treasure of hyperbole, similes, and metaphors: as when he refers to "pickles of history." Pickles, for those who like them and eat them, leave a sour taste in your mouth, just like some episodes of Indian history.
To present his own interpretation of reality, Rushdie tells us that "Sometimes legends make reality, and become more useful than the facts." And he goes on the insert a series of tales and legends within the novel.
Saleem, tireless narrator, is an almost incredible character. No sooner has he told us a few verities than he quickly jabs at us with exaggerations; no sooner he treats a fact than he contradicts it; no sooner he falls asleep than we see him acting in real life; no sooner he awakes than we know he's dreaming. And if that wasn't enough, the witch Parvati changes Saleem into an invisible being for some time. Ah! What a fine writer can do with language!
When Saleem says:
"Midnight has many children; the offspring of Independence were not all human. Violence, corruption, poverty, generals, chaos, greed, and pepperpots.... I had to go into exile to learn that the children of midnight were more varied than I-even I-had dreamed."
"Newspapers shall praise him, two mothers shall raise him.! Bicyclists love him, but crowds will shove him! Washing will hide him- voices will guide him! Friends mutilate him- blood will betray him! Spitoons will brain him- doctors will drain him- jungle will claim him - wizards reclaim him! Soldiers will try him- tyrants will fry him. He will have sons without having sons. He will be old before he is old... And he will die....before he is dead."
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