I could not let the end of The God of Small Things pass without a comment on the ending. Class proved helpful in determining that Estha was at least not going to be arrested. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around twin incest. It seems like the plot to a really bad Penthouse letter or something. Taken in context of what is happening with Velutha, it just seems unnecessary. Is the point that Estha can only find companionship with his sister after being abused by the Orangedrink Lemondrink? Is Rahel only allowed an illicit relationship with her brother after returning divorced from American with no prospects of a proper Indian marriage? Even after discussing it in class, I wonder if it is didactic or if it is trying to intentionally offend the Western reader's sense of impropriety to further underscore the injustice and institutional racism implicit in the caste system? I guess those are questions on which I will have to reach my own conclusions.
As for One Hundred Years of Solitude, I am enraptured with this novel already. This novel had me reading when I drove up to school this morning which I thought I had broken out of the habit of. I am already hooked into the flow of events which switch from the magical to the real without blinking. It reminds me of the old Catholics who used to talk about the devil always sitting on the left shoulder while your guardian angel sat on your right and fought over your soul that was being de-emphasized but not wholly obliterated in my early Catholic school education. I imagine that fluidity of reality and fantasy being necessary to conquer new and unfamiliar parts of the world. It reminds me of that Edgar Allen Poe poem "El Dorado". Can't wait to see if that rusty suit of armor Jose Arcadio Buendia found is that mythical knight or not.
El Dorado
Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of El Dorado.
But he grew old --
This knight so bold --
And -- o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like El Dorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow --
"Shadow," said he,
"Where can it be --
This land of El Dorado?"
"Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied --
"If you seek for El Dorado."
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1 comment:
Thanks for the great post and the excellent reminder of the Poe poem.
As far as Roy and incest are concerned, we need, as you say, to think about Rahel and Estha's relationship in terms of shock value. My reading is that incest is the ultimate critique of the caste system. Think about it: Estha and Rahel can only overcome the boundaries of the caste system by trying to erase those boundaries in their incest and return to the oneness of the womb. In my opinion, Roy critiques the caste system in her use of the shocking image of incest.
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