What other pages in Haroun need specific mention? Could page 137 be the most pivotal page in Rushdie’s book? I was for me. It was where I discovered not only the climax, but where I discovered why, at least one reason why, we read stories which are not true. Maybe it’s not a why per say, more a parallel behavior; a pattern of stupefying decisions we all make which results in the joy, pain, and everything in between we feel. Unrequited love, similar to Demetrius’ pursuit of Hermia, even though there was never any worldly evidence that love would ever be reciprocated, shares a utility resemblance to reading stories that are not true. Doesn’t it? We do it because there is a part of us which refuses to believe there are not things we cannot sense with our parochial senses. You can’t touch love nor can we literally swim in the Oceans of the Streams of Stories but that does not lesser there importance to humanity.
Haroun, against surmounting odds, refuses to give up. This proclamation thrust him to the top of the list for nomination by prince Bolo to champion the mission to the south and against the poison. And who better take on the way things are than someone who refuses to let things get worse? Does that sound like anyone you know? Who amongst us are not a “slave to love,” as Haroun is accused of being by Bolo? Since all, if not most, Literature majors are hopeless romantics I am hoping it is not to far a leap for you to see the parallel between reading stories which are not true and chasing love which is perhaps equally not true.
No comments:
Post a Comment