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Book I | Book II |
A. As a metafiction: |
B. As a Historiographical Metafiction: Parody of National Myth + Magic Realism |
"the Role of the artists
Harrison 65
As Keith Wilson has pointed
out, ...there is an above-average number of failed, quasi-, or would-be
artists in the novel. They include Nadir Khan the poet, his painter
friend whose pictures grow and grow, Lifafa Das and his expanding peep
show, Hanif the film director, Picture Singh the snake charmer, Jamila
the singer, and most importantly, of course, Saleem the writer. For
he too, like the others, illustrates the unattainability of either universality
or the kind of perfection that Hanif aims at in playing rummy--in a word,
the essential fallibility of the artist and of whatever medium he or she
uses." (Harrison, James. Salman Rushdie. NY: Twayne Publishers,
1992.)
e.g. painter who Nadir Khan
lives with p. 50
Lifafa Das p. 82
Wee Willie Winkie p. 116
Hanif's documentary realism
292 --the story of a pickle factory
C. The role of the reader: Padma
the magicians' ghetto 474-//the Communist movement in India 476
Picture Singh
plot
time line
1915-1942 Mian Abudullah--1945 8/9 revelation
and arrest p. 68
1946 6 Mumtaz(Amina)+ Ahmed
1947 8/15
1956 the Washing Chest Accident
1957 the Circus ring accident p. 223
581 of the 1001 survive
1958 the Midnight Children's Conference
passive victim; understanding, with a sense
of purpose--
smell anything that stinks--
oblivion--as a bhudha, a basketed ghost, a
would-be-savious of the nation,
anger--calm, no longer want to be anything
except what who I am. ..I am the sum total of ...457
1975 6/25 the birth of Aadam Sinai
1976 420 in captivity
1977 1/18 ectomy