Zorro

I have really enjoyed Zorro; it was definitely a huge change from Satanic Verses. It was interesting that the book focused on Zorro’s childhood, which the author, Isabel Allende, said in a question and answer section in the back of the book, that this was the first novel to do so. What interested me the most as I read the book was to see Zorro’s humanity and vulnerabilities. Allende said herself that “Zorro is not a magical character. He is not like Superman, Spiderman… he is a human being, a man who loves life, who is willing to take risks to defend the underdog.” When I pictured Zorro before I read the book, I did see a Superman like character, not necessarily with supernormal powers, but at least with abilities that no other human could match. In this book however, Zorro’s skills are explained through hard work and practice, along with some natural ability. He wasn’t born with these abilities, and most of the time luck helped him just as much as his earned skills. I enjoyed adding another dimension to the Zorro I previously knew, and since Allende’s book is full of adventure as well as history, it was a really entertaining read.

Getting Close to the End...

The last part of “The Satanic Verses” is much easier to follow, since the book tells the story at the current point in time, which means that there is less historical reference. I can understand better now why the book was so controversial, since Rushdie basically implies that Mohammed wasn’t being spoken to by God, but instead pushed his own wishes through the archangel Gibreel. In the story, Mohammed essentially made up whatever rules were convenient to what he wanted and then enforced them as Islamic Law. Also many people in the book disagreed with Mohammed and didn’t want to give up their own gods. I am very interested to see where the story goes, especially since many tangents earlier in the story that I didn’t understand to be important at the time have been brought back into it.
Gibreels character is very interesting too because of his mannerisms in the book. He talks to Chamcha in a specific way: his speech becomes colloquial and full of nicknames for Chamcha. He doesn’t seem to speak to anyone else that way; I think it really shows their complicated connection, friends who got through the hijacking together, but who are then labelled as angel or devil. The book really has shown that Rushdie doesn't believe in pure good or evil-- we are all mixed.
p.s. there was a German word (verboten) used in the story which made me feel good, because Amrita had to translate most of the book… but I did get one word! ;)

Revolution No. 9

No.9?
No. 9?
No. 9?
No. 9?

This may seem superfluous, indeed it has no relation to the general themes of the book. But my favorite quote in the "Satanic Verses" as to yet is:

"The kids in the Street [sic] started wearing rubber devil-horns on their heads, the way they used to wear pink-and-green balls jiggling on the ends of stiff wires a few years previously, when they preferred to intimate spacemen. The symbol of the Goatman, his fist raised in might, began to crop up on banner sat political demonstrations, Save the Six, Free the Four, Eat the Heinz Fifty-Seven."

Awesome indictment of "revolution." Far too often, the most extreme portions of "revolution" are marginalized, and the acceptable parts get rolled into pop culture (here, heinz 57). A strange dichotomy for revolution indeed.

A couple examples: Good music at the turn of the '90s. Nirvana gets rolled into pop; The Cure and Elliot Smith are pushed to the edges...Modern example: Red Hot Chili Peppers become mainstream and Radiohead is marginalized to "weird european stuff."

I guess that's a tangential argument. The point I'm driving at is that every "revolution" -- in our society at least -- has something that is anti-revolutionary. T-shirts and bumper stickers and such. It's a strange phenomenon that I can only hope is isolated here.

Sorry I missed tonight's cooking session but Tech v. Tech was calling.

Prelude to a blog

The selections for this group continue to amaze me. I've never read any Rushdie before, and now I realize that I've been missing out. I was intrigued when I bought the book, but now, halfway into it, I'm finally beginning to appreciate Rushdie's "scatterbrained and almost overly adjectival style". I'll be the first to admit that I'm a little lost at times, often re-reading things multiple times before they are decipherable. That link was very conducive to furthering my understanding abilities, but the lab that I have Thursday evenings that prevents me from coming to group lately is killing me. I'll throw some of my thoughts up here once they are in a more presentable format.