Hybridity of narrative form and language in 'Haroun and the Sea of Stories' Reading 'Haroun and the Sea

of Stories' as a book for children vs. as a work of postmodernist metafiction

Published in 1990, Salman Rushdies Haroun and the Sea of Stories is not only a book for children as it might seem at first sight, but it also incorporates a multitude of intertextual and intercultural references as a post-modernist technique meant to awaken in the adult reader a multicultural consciousness. In order to explore the implications of story-telling, Rushdie adheres to a hybrid literary genre, namely magic realism, which combines European realism with magical stories, thus deconstructing the notion of rationality characteristic of the Western Enlightenment movement. The fantasy framework that is set up even from the first lines: There was once, in the country of Alifbay, a sad city, the saddest of cities, a city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten its name. is shaken up by the reproachful protest of the incredulous rational mind, in this case Haroun, who cannot believe his fathers explanation about the provenance of stories: Haroun found this statement intensely irritating. Where do you keep this hot water, then? he argued craftily. In hot-water bottles, I suppose. Well, Ive never seen any. Haroun represents here the skeptical reader who does not accept the Coleridgean willing suspension of disbelief in reading a fictional work and who needs empirical evidence in order to be satisfied. However, as Haroun gets to the source of stories in Kahani, the Earths second Moon, he learns that imagination is not only useful, but also necessary, as Iff the Water Genie emphasizes it: Africa, have you seen it? No? Then is it truly there?... Kangaroos, Mount Fujiyama, the North Pole? And the past, did it happen? And the future, will it come? Believe in your own eyes and you'll get into a lot of trouble, hot water, a mess. Another allusion to Samuel Taylor Coleridge is made in the stanza opening the novel: Zembla, Zenda, Xanadu:/All our dream-worlds may come true./Fairy lands are fearsome too./As I wander far from view/Read, and bring me home to you. The theme of the power of
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imagination discussed through the metaphor of water the sacred river in Kubla Khan is reiterated in the metaphor of the Ocean of the Streams of Story in Rushdies novel. Furthermore, the famous Water, water, every where,/Nor any drop to drink. is turned into Water, water everywhere; nor any trace of land as a subtle complaint about the interdiction of free expression where plenty of imagination would be possible. Haroun and the Sea of Stories is centered on the quest that will eventually bring Haroun the answer to the question he uttered in a moment of despair, after he found out that his mother had left him and his father: Whats the point of it? Whats the use of stories that arent even true? The instant effect of this remonstrance was an Unthinkable Thing, namely Rashid Khalifa, the legendary Ocean of Notions, the fabled Shah of Blahhad run out of stories to tell. This novel operates in a subtle way on several levels, as India Today states: Haroun and the Sea of Stories can be enjoyed by adolescent and adult alike, read as it can be on several levels: as fable, fantasy, adventure, allegory, and by those obsessed by topicality as an oblique, lyrical defence of his artists license, so rudely and terminally impounded by the Islamic gendarmes. The book can be regarded like an allegorical defiance of censorship, as Mark McDannald puts it in his essay and in this respect Rushdies persona becomes apparent in Rashid Khalifa, the famous story-teller that loses his creative abilities. The silence imposed on the storyteller alludes to autobiographical elements from the period of the fatwa imposed upon him by the Ayatollah for the writing of his preceding novel The Satanic Verses. Getting at the core of the problem and defeating the oppressive cultmaster, cleverly named Khattam-Shud, attests Haroun and the Sea of Stories as a document universally opposing the oppression of writers1. Postcolonial intertextuality meant to generate meaning is developed by Rushdie into an encyclopedic allusiveness, as Keith Booker affirms. In Haroun and the Sea of Stories European stories are harmoniously intermingled with Eastern tradition and mythology. In this successful blending, the experienced reader will identify traces of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and of the Eastern folk tale collection Arabian Nights, as even the houseboat from the Dull Lake is called Arabian Nights Plus One. Mr. Buttoo anticipates Harouns

http://www.postcolonialweb.org/pakistan/literature/rushdie/haroun1.html

adventure as he boasted: even in all the Arabian Nights you will never have a night like this. Another intertextual reference is clearly visible when Haroun drinks up a Princess Rescue Story very similar to Brothers Grimms Rapunzel. The recurrent motif of the dream in this kind of stories is also exploited: It seemed that the entire adventure of Kahani had passed off in less than a single night! The process of literary creation is revealed to Haroun in his quest and at the same time the author illustrates some of the techniques used by postmodernist fiction - metafiction and intertextuality, to be more specific. The fluidity of water is the quality that makes possible the combination of old stories in order to generate new ones: And because the stories were held here in fluid form, they retained the ability to change, to become new versions of themselves, to join up with other stories and so become yet other stories; so that unlike a library of books, the Ocean of the Streams of Story was much more than a storeroom of yarns. It was not dead but alive. Therefore, the postmodernist principle according to which an ironical review of traditions2 is necessary in order to give rise to a new imaginative and 'multi-cultural' consciousness3 is allegorically sustained by Salman Rushdie. Haroun and the Sea of Stories can be inscribed in a category of novels that surpass the pre-established boundaries of the genre, as although it was conceived as a childrens book, it is also a satire that addresses social and political problems. The social criticism is covered with the fantasy of the two diametrically opposite worlds in Kahani: "The Land of Gup is bathed in Endless Sunshine, while over in Chup it's always the middle of the night". The Guppees love to talk, while the Chupwalas worship Khattam-Shud, the cultmaster, the prince of silence who wants to poison the Ocean of the Streams of Story and even remove language completely. This antagonism can be relevant for the real life situation where freedom of speech is forbidden by an oppressive authority. With the help of these subtleties, Salman Rushdie expresses his discontent with the censorship that forced him to flee his native country. In Rushdies novel, the hybridity of genres is extended to the level of the language as well and the result is an Indianised English that evokes laughter each time. Such an example would be Miss Oneetas funny conclusion: Cause is located in his pussy-collar-jee. It took
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Rashid and Haroun a few moments to work out that she meant psychology. The text abounds with wordplay and witticisms that make the book even more enjoyable. For instance, Welcome to Kosh-Mar can be translated as Kache-Mer- the place that hides a Sea or as Kosh-Mar the word for nightmare. Eventually, the word will prove to incorporate both meanings. In this novel, the dichotomy between language and silence has the role of highlighting language's ability to enlighten, to go beyond boundaries that seem impossible to break. Harouns quest will end with the conventional happy ending from fairy tales, only that in this case the dnouement is a synthesized one, a gift from P2C2E (Processes Too Complicated To Explain). At first, Haroun is discontent with this pretense: Dont you get it? It isnt real. Its just something the Eggheads got out of a bottle. Its all fake. People should be happy when theres something to be happy about, not just when they get bottled happiness poured over them from the sky. However, he will soon realize that the answer to his question from before this adventure Whats the use of stories that arent even true?- is closely connected to what he should feel now. Haroun learned from all that he experienced in Kahani that stories should be enjoyed for their beauty and for the feeling of fulfillment that they inspire, and that if you question their verisimilitude, you will only ruin their beauty. Furthermore, he acknowledged that imagination is a liberating force with the help of whom you can escape a reality that is very often too cruel. Salman Rushdie seems to have found in this fictional work the strength to claim a victory against his oppressors and against silence. His message is clearly delivered: story-tellers cannot be silenced and the Ocean of the Streams of Story will continue to generate new stories from the never-ending intermingling with the traditional ones. Through elaborated stages, the author managed to convince both Haroun and the reader of the soothing and revelatory power of fiction. Rushdie suggests with Haroun and the Sea of Stories that in order to cope with the rough reality, we must also frame a fictional world where we can create our own happy endings. Haroun and the Sea of Stories is therefore a work of outstanding skill which can be the subject to many different interpretations, due to its combination of fantasy and realism. It can be read both as a book for children and as a work of postmodernist fiction which includes postmodernist techniques like the use of events and characters drawn from fantasy, the use of metafiction, the self-reflexively drawing attention to the language that is being used to construct
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the fiction and the disapproval towards fixed ideologies. In this harmonious blending, Rushdie not only militates against censorship and authoritarianism, but he also succeeds in making the reader familiar with the reality of stories, not the stories of reality. Concluding, it might be said that Salman Rushdies Haroun and the Sea of Stories teaches the reader, be he a child or an adult, to attain freedom through fiction and the almighty imagination. Kotoi Nicoleta-Cristina 2nd year, EN-FR