Thinking Activity:- Midnight's Children

 Hello Everyone,

I am a student of MKBU. In this blog is my Thinking Activity task given by our prof. Dilip Barad sir. And this blog is based on Famous British-Indian author Salman Rushdie's Novel "Midnight's Children".

"Free Speech is the Whole thing, the whole ball game, Free Speech is life itself"

-Zafer

About the Author:-

Salman Rushdie is the author of the Fourteenth novels like Midnight's Children, which was awarded the Booker Prize in 1981, Grimus, Shame, The Satanic Verses ect.. Rushdie is also the author of a book of stories, East West. He is the co-editor of Mirrorwork, an anthology of contemporary Indian writing, and of the 2008 Best American Short Stories anthology. He received Honours. Midnight's Children was named the best of the Booker- the best winner in the award's 40 year history by public vote. His books have been translated into over forty languages.

About the Novel:-

Midnight's Children was published in 1981 and it took readers all over the world. This novel was full of historical events, political angels or many things. Find this novel and readers are very desperate to read this novel. The novel not only made an impact as a presence but it also influenced a number of writers who followed Rushdie.

If we have to read this novel and watch the films. We get ideas for our own way of understanding this novel or film. Each reader interpreted a text from his own world view, values system and perception so that the book is read very differently from the book written by the author himself. Let's look at some questions based on this novel.

Narrative Techniques:-

Midnight's Children is classified in a category of fiction that goes by the name of magic realism. Magic realism was born in Latin And has followers all over the world. Today, whenever one thinks of magic realism, Salman Rushdie's name first comes to mind. He himself defines the term, in his essay on Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He describes it as a development out of surrealism that "expresses a genuinely Third World consciousness".

Midnight's Children novels must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. But he did not start the story from the beginning or not chronologically tell the story. Novel starting line like Once upon the time. Rushie has borrowed this trick from the traditional style of Writing. In this novel Rushdie has the narrator, Saleem Sinai, complaining about not having a listener to whom he can narrate his story. He made many mistakes but he came up with a smart way to cover up by blaming the narrator. He also influenced ancient India narrative Techniques like Panchtantra,Valmiki Ramayana and Ganesh set off a volley of objections. He also used a sutradhar to narrate his story to a nati.

At the very outset, Saleem Sinai creates an Arabian Nights ambience. He insisted that he has many "stories" to "tell". These stories, as Saleem Sinai explains to Padma, have a way of "leaking" into one another. He tales, Perforated Sheet, Mercurochrome, Hit the spittoon, Under the carpet, A public Announcement, Many Headed Monster and Methwold before the narrator gets back to the original story of Saleem's birth. Saleem proves himself to be a master storyteller like Scheherezade by getting Padma "hooked" to his story.

Salim is writing his story, we are often reminded, which he reads aloud to Padma because she is illiterate. Though Salim often uses phrases,

"In those year, you see", "I intone earnestly", " I don't want to listen"

Which indicates that the story is being told. Padma's love of superstitions, she stands for the view of the ordinary uneducated Indian people who do not question the marvelous the same way as anglicised Indians do.

Rushie shows that unlike his novel which clearly reveals how history is made, official histories hide the fact that they are also stories.

"History is always ambiguous. Facts are hard to establish and capable of being given many meanings".

Character (how many including, how many left out) Why?

Whenever we discuss any story or novel, we focus on its characters because we are very curious to know what protagonist or antagonist or major or minor characters played a vital role in this story. Characters are described as the person who is presented dramatic works that are interpreted by the reader as possessing certain moral, personality, and emotional qualities that get communicated through what they speak or what they do.

Saleem as India and India as Saleem:-

It is a very interesting and vital role presented in Midnight's Children. Beginning of the novel, he identified himself with Indian, its histories and its destinies. He pays attention to the process of birth, the birth of an independent Indian. He was born at midnight in India and got an independent identity. 

Saleem's self delusion of being India parallels that of an actual Prime Minister of India. He cites the slogan that had become quite famous during the emergency 

"Indira is India and India is Indira"

As Saleem questions the broken promise it becomes clear what Rushdie has been attempting in the character of Saleem. 

Padma:-

Padma is a presenting the little bit role in this novel and if we watch the movie then we can see Padma is not there and film Parvati is a presenting the vital role in this film. Parvati is presenting the role of the Witch Wizard. And Padma in the novel she presents the role of Listener. She listened to the story told by Saleem. Padma is indispensable to the novel because she is his nati, the live interactive audience of an oral narrative who both listens and creates a traditional storyteller's tale.

Saleem is "the greatest talent of all" , his ability to look into the hearts and minds of men. Then there is Parvati the witch who is the most powerful female midnight child. The third is Shiva, who like Saleem was "born on the stroke of midnight" and had been "given the gifts of war".

Common People as Character:-

Rushdie First time used common People as characters and his show made up India's population. Saleem records about the different activities from common people and their wonderful language and unique qualities. Here see the character of Tai, who is a boatman. All his characters from Saleem to Tai are allegorized or are symbols.

Theme and Symbols (if film adaptation able to capture themes and Symbols)

Whenever someone suggests that you read such a work or novel, that time we are asked what the major concepts or central themes are, then we have to read in a very interesting way. 

In this novel many interesting themes like,

-History and The Individual

-Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism in India

-Fragmentation, Migrancy and Memory

 The discussion has also established the connection between the themes and the migrant sensibility of Rushdie, the writer and the circumferences of his having lived away from India.

Symbols like,

-The Silver Spittoon

-The Perforated Sheet

-Knees and Nose

 Here see the themes and Symbols in this novel. If film adaptation is able to capture themes and Symbols. Then my answer is YES, very well to present the whole idea or theme or symbols in the film adaptation. It is very difficult to present a whole thing in a film adaptation but the film is very faithful to the novel. 

What is your aesthetic Experience after watching the film?

If we are given a chance to decide to read a text and watch the film adaptation of the text what we have to select? Obviously we can choose the film adaptation based on the text. Here we see my aesthetic Experience after watching the Screening of "Midnight's Children". This novel is so lengthy, if l watch the Screening of the novel it is a very interesting experience for me because this is very appropriate to the text. And the beginning of the novel and film both have the same beginning lines. Some changes I can find, like in the novel, Padma's character is important but if I see the film that time Parvati's character is presenting a vital Role. I find that Shiva joined the military and followed the rules of Indira Gandhi. Little bit of time is shown in this film But we read this novel in a very long way. One interesting thing is Saleem and Shiva's parents' little bit of confusion solved in this film. And I watched the film so many things were easy to understand and solved my confusion about the characters and other things. We said that the visual images solved the confusion. 

 Stabbing of Salman Rushdie:-

On August 12, 2022, a 24 year old man stabbed Indian born British American novelist Sir Salman Rushdie. He was about to gave a public lecture at the Chautauqua institutions in Chautanqua, New York, United States. 

Rushdie was treated with death in 1989, a year after the publication of his novel "The Satanic Verses", when the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhillah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his assassination and set a bounty of $3 Million for his death. 

August 12 an attacker rushed the stage. The novelist's literary agent Andrew Wylie, said that Rushdie faced the prospect of losing one of his eyes, in addition to the possibility of liver damage. It is terribly new for us. 

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