The best book of a one of the most creative writer. Review on Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

The book is metafiction at its best.

Metafiction

What is metafiction? How is it defined and how is it executed in a novel? How do metafictional elements influence the reader and why does an author employ such strategies?

''Metafiction is a term given to fictional writing which self- consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artefact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality. In providing a critique of their own methods of construction, such writings not only examine the fundamental structures of narrative fiction, they also explore the possible fictionality of the world outside the literary fictional text.''

(Patricia Waugh, Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self Conscious Fiction, p. 2)

Saleem, the protagonist of the novel, draws the attention of the reader right from the beginning to the fact that he is writing his autobiography - telling his story as he knows it. The status of the novel as a man's life story is evident right from the first page as Saleem says that he writing his life story as he is going to die shortly. So the novel notifies its status as an object, an artefact that is an autobiography of a man called Saleem Sinai who is to die shortly. Now Saleem is a fictional character and his story is bound to be fictional. But his story is intertwined with the history of India and is ''responsible'' for several of historical events of this country. So Fiction and Reality are ''chutnified'' in this novel and raises the question of the relation between them. We can look at the life of Saleem as an allegory, then the fictions elements would just be symbols representing reality. Saleem was born with the birth of this country, which makes him an allegory for India. Saleem is literally at the centre of all events that took place in India from 1947 to the 1970s. Saleem in his text explains this relation to history in four modes of connection - active-literal, passive-literal, active-metaphorical, passive-metaphorical. All these modes of connections are invoked in the text and it is Saleem himself who points out these modes of connection to the reader. Saleem thus provides an analysis of his own text and points out to the reader the high points of the life whenever possible.

Padma

The character of Padma is a very interesting inclusion in the text. She represents the reader and she is definitely a construct of Rushdie. With Padma, Rushdie has brought the reader in direct interaction with Saleem, a fictious character. This can also be seen as a deliberate attempt to alienate the reader from the text. The reader becomes a third person, who is reading a text where the protagonist is not talking to his/her directly but is conversing with a representative of the reader.

Padma is sceptic of all the tales that Saleem weaves. She listens to his story patiently but is not wholly convinced by Saleem, just because it is all so fantastical. Saleem tries his hardest to convince Padma by invoking magic, mythology and religion that is so sacrosanct for Indians. Thus Padma represents the average reader who tends to read this fantastical tale of Saleem resistively. Saleem acknowledges that he is writing his autobiography. Why isn't he directly talking to the reader directly? Why is he made to communicate to the reader by Rushdie through Padma? One possible explanation to this may be that with Padma, Saleem knows when to stop explaining. He explains till Padma's thigh muscles relax, ie, till he has been able to convince Padma of his story. The reader still may not be convinced but Saleem can move on as he has convinced the reader's representative, who is also a construct of the writer (Rushdie). This authorial manipulation makes the text persuasive but not convincing. It makes the reader a resistant reader naturally. Padma then becomes alienated from the reader, as the reader is not as convinced as Padma is. For Padma, Saleem is real but for the reader, he is a fictious entity. This point also enhances the distance between the reader and Padma. Thus the author has deliberately made the reader read the text resistively. Thus it gives the liberty to the author to formulate any kind of fantastical story and get away with it as the reader is reading the text as he intends him/her to read it. Why is the author trying to make the reader the text resistively? The author is deliberately trying to make the reader question the contemporary description of history. His description of history is so fantastical and is from a single person?s perspective. History is generally told in a fashion favourable to a country agenda. Thus, he is questioning this form of history. His description is so fantastical and thus, it is necessary for the reader to reads it resistively. He wants the reader to question the contemporary historiography, wants him/her to read it resistively. He does it himself in the description of the war between India and Pakistan, where both sides claim to done considerable damage to the other side. Thus the story of Saleem Sinai is meant to be read as an allegory for contemporary historiography, which is being criticised by Rushdie.

Padma can also be seen as representing the lower classes of India. She is illiterate, superstitious, and her name means ''dung-goddess'' (dung being used by the lower classes in a variety of ways). Saleem tells Padma all about his life and watches her reaction and tries to convince her of the reality of his story. Why would the author invoke the lower class in his novel? An Indian novel in English will never reach that class and nor would the reader, who would be an elite, be able to identify with such a character. Is the author degrading the intellectual skills of the reader by making Padma a representative of the reader? Is the author suggesting that the reader is illiterate with respect to the issue he is presenting to the reader? He is definitely presenting something new, something that has not been associated with post-modernism before but is his views altogether radical? If it is, then the reader does need a little bit of explaining. Then the reader is illiterate to the radical views of the author and hence, it is understandable that the reader is shown to be of the ordinary sort.

This novel that created a revolution in the scenario of Indian writing in English, is without any doubt one of the most creative pieces of literature. It brings in elements of metafiction and magic-realism together and creates a novel that is both absorbing as well as allegorical. A delightful mix of fantasy and reality is what the novel offers and one that playfully analyses the historiography of India.