The Savage Detectives

I started our new book this week, and my brow began to sweat because we keep picking these 600 page Spanish Magical Realism books! However, this book is a happy surprise compared to the others. The narrator is a little whiney and talks about sex too much (Holden Caufield! Get out of my brain!), but the story is strange and interesting. So far it's reminding me a lot of "The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao" and "The People of Paper". I hope everyone has picked up a copy and is ready to read!
Nerd out-
C

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Jan/Feb/March Book - Salman Rushdie

At our meeting on Friday night, Sarah commented, " Why does Chamcha turn into a goat, and then turn back again?" It's been on my mind since then. Maybe Rushdie had dual reasons for Chamcha's metamorphosis. At first, I thought he morphed into a goat because he was commenting on the English's view of Indians. This thought came to me while reading about the police brutatlity on pages 158-159. The thought was supported when the other minorities where also transformed into beasts, one such transformation explained to Chamcha that "they describe us, they have the power of description and we succumb to the pictures they construct" (Rushdie 168). As Chamcha continues his journey and is rejected by his wife, the English, and he is only accepted by his friend Jumpy and some other Indians, he begins to get upset that he is rejected by the English, whom he so longed to be a part of. Finding that his new form is only acceptable in the presence of his own people, his heritage-- who he rejected so long ago --angers him greatly. At this point I think he is projected as a Goat because he is seen as beastly to his own people BECAUSE he rejected them for the Western World. So I think here, Rushdie is actually saying the opposite of above. His transformation is how the Indians view him for rejecting his own culture and trying to assimilate into another. I believe this is supported when Rushdie says, "because what you believe depends on what you've seen -- not only what is visible, but what you are prepared to look in the face" (252). So does this mean that Chamcha is a reflection of himself(Rushdie)?