Rushdie Insights

Since one of the greatest writers of all time is going to be HERE on MONDAY I am really trying to immerse myself in his texts before he gets here. I am about halfway through The Satanic Verses right now and I have read about 50 pages in Midnight's Children. I am also trying to get through his essays and to read some supplemental material to enhance my understanding. As I was reading on http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/anglophone/satanic_verses/svnotes.pdf, I found a section called "The Crucial Book of: Salman Rushdie". Within this section Rushdie discusses the influence that Joyce's Ulysses (#12) has had on him and on his writing. Here are some of the quotations that I found most interesting:

"Joyce built a whole universe out of a grain of sand."

"Joyce is always in my mind, I carry him everywhere with me."

"Everyone said that it was such a sealed book, hard to penetrate, but I did not think so at all. You never hear people say that there is so much humor in the book, that the characters are so lively or that the theme - Stephen Daedalus in search of his lost father and Bloom looking for his lost child - is so moving. People talk about the cleverness of Ulysses and about the literary innovation. To me it was moving, in the first place."

"Nevertheless, they would not have become friends, he believes. "Joyce was not very good at friendship. There is a story about his put-down of Samuel Beckett, who adored him and often came along his place. He plainly told him that he only loved two people in the world: the first being his wife, the second his daughter. His only encounter with Proust was also very comical. Joyce and Proust met each other when leaving a party. Proust had his coach standing at the door and was wrapped up fom head to foot, afraid as he was to catch a cold. Joyce jumps into the coach uninvitedly, lights a cigar and opens the window widely. Proust says nothing, neither does Joyce. It is like a silent movie. Two masters of the word, who say nothing to each other and yet disclose themselves. Fantastic!" --> I thought this one was hilarious!

Within the interview he also recites a portion of Molly Bloom's monologue. The importance of memory is evident in Rushdie's life and his work.

It's obvious that Rushdie has been profoundly influenced by Joyce but I think that it's really interesting to realize that Rushdie's admiration comes from more than just the creative and technical aspects of Joyce's writing. He also has a definite sense of Joyce's thematic goals. Whereas most readers cannot get past the technicality and the challenge of reading Finnegans Wake and Ulysses, Rushdie points out the tenderness and sensitivity of subjects that Joyce discusses. I feel much more obliged to read these texts all the way through now that I've read Rushdie's testimony to them.

I have more to say re: Rushdie and his texts, but, it's late. I'll do more later!