EAST, WEST: SALMAN RUSHDIE"S REFLECTIONS ON FICTION AND REALITY

Rocío C. Dm·i.\ UNIVERSIDAD DE NAVARRA

Abstrae/ This paper wi/1 ww/yze Salman Rushdie 's collection of stories, "l:ast, West" as a manifes­tation of the postcolonial writer ~- ideas on jic­tion and reality. As a postcolonial immigrant, Rushdie sees himself as occupying a priviledged position from which to rejlect on the between­world condition, (111{/ offer a revision of traditio­na/ly accepted worldviews. The stories in the collection cha/lenge, in diverse ways, stereoty­pes of notions of East cmd \Vest and those of jic­tion and reality. The boundaries between these are blurred as Rushdie hillls ca a new world order that arises from tlu: e haos of immigration and postcolonialism. Through a revisioning of the traditional fromiers between East a/1(1 West that ultimately demonstrates the fact that tlu:se two entities are notas radical/y opposed as they may seem, the awhor invites a re1·iew of the dichotomy between jictional discourse a/1(/wlwt is considered reality.

Salman Rushdic. in his litcrary manifcsto, "lmaginary llomclands" claims that, as immi­grant writcrs, "our idcntity is at once plural and partía!. Somctimes we fccl that we straddle two cultures; at other times. that we fall bctween two stools. 13ut however ambiguous and shifting this ground may be, it is not an infertile territory for a writer to occupy. l f literature is in part the busi­ness of finding new angles at which to enter rca­lity, then once again our distance, our long geo­graphical perspective. may provide us with such angles" (111. 15). These writers, he continucs, "are capable of writing from a kind of double perspective: beeause they, we. are at one and the same time insiders and outsidcrs in this society. This stercoscopic vision is perhaps what we can oiTer in place of 'whole sight''' (!H, 19). In this manner, Rushdie presents the model for an alter­native discoursc, one that is a natural result of this "century of wandering", when traditional cultures are bcing drawn more and more into

Pérez Guerra, Javier. M. Teresa Caneda Cabrera, Marta Dahlgren. Teresa FernAndez-Colmeiro and Eduardo J. Varela Bravo eds. ( 1996). Proceedings of the X/Xffllntemational Conference of AEDEAN. Vigo: Universidade de Vigo.

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contlict and confrontation. And it is thc immi­grant writcr, he implics. who is hcst cquippcd to come up with thc corrcsponding ncw litcrary form: ''thc mingling of fantasy and naturalism" (111, 11-12).

Thc rclationship betwccn liction and rcality is a constant preoccupation of modern literature and Rushdie has made the exploration of this thcmc one of his rnajor literary concerns. !lis novcls. in onc way or another. explore thc nature of fiction and its relation to reality. This is one palpable manifcstation of thc stereoscopic vision thc wri­ter cxpcriences. Cultural displacement, as wcll as thc constant intcrmingling of di verse manncrs of pcrccption, which has forccd thc irnmigrant writcr "to acccpt thc provisional naturc of all truths, all ccrtaintics ... "(lll. 12) also obliges thc writcr to engage in a re-dcfinition and re-des­cription of cvcn the nature of reality. Rushdic secms to consider this cultural displacement an cssentially positive and libcrating experiencc; the fact that he ·'straddles two stools" of culture also allows him to straddle thc stools of fiction and reality and cnablca him lo spcak with autho­rity of what he sccs from that vantagc point. Has!, Wes1, publishcd in 1994. is anothcr of Rushdic's excrciscs in dcfining this rclationship as he prcscnts us with thc rcsults of thc intcrac­tion of general! y opposcd polcs: on thc onc hand, thc cultural constructs of East and Wcst, and on thc other, thc world of fiction and that of rcality.

His starting point for an undcrstanding of this collcction of storics may be thc pcrception that "all that is solid has mcltcd into air. that rcality and morality are not givcns but impcrfcct human constmcts" as "thc point at which fiction bcgins" (Rushdic 1990, 9). Thc book is dividcd into threc sections. each containing three storics: "East'', "Wcst" and "East, Wcst", divisions that heighten thc constant rcvisioning of thc stories' principal concerns: thc recxamination of notions EastAVcst and fictionlrcality as opposing !orces. Rushdic incorporales into the fabric of his work a suggcs­tion of the doubleness of human cxperiencc itsclf. In doing so. he has imaginativcly rcaffir­mcd that skeptieism - that suspicion of "all total cxplanations. all systems of thought which pur­port to be complete (111, 280) - which he main-

tains is thc principal lcgacy of thc immigrant's "doublc vision" (Cook 26). Thc consistent use of irony, then. is madc particularly relevan! as, according to Linda llutchcon. it is the rcsult "of ncgotiating thc many dualitics and multiplicitics" that havc come to define immigrants and post­colonials (vii). The very doubleness inhercnt in irony - the need to kccp literal and ironic mea­nings alloat together - disrupts any notions of meaning as single. stablc. complete. or transpa­rent and is graspable only in contcxt and with thc accepwncc and understanding of simultaneou doublc-voicing (llutcheon 1991, 12). Rushdic's diseourse is, ultimatcly. a challengc 10 our per­ception of rcality as eternally unchanging, as he painstakingly subverts acccpted notions.

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Rushdie's pos1l10n as an lndian writer in English, conscious of his doublc literary inheri ­tancc. also allows him to contemplatc how binary categories of cultural classification havc worked in the production of knowledgc and counter-knowledge within what has been a lar­gely dominant orientalist framcwork of litcrary and cultural studies. His mixing of diffcrcnt story-modcs - /\rabian 1 ights, 18th ccntury English tiction, futurist - is an imaginativc cha­llengc to the canonized genres as they prescnt alternativc universes. The "East" scction of the collection is therefore a rcjection of orientalist stcreotypes, as Rushdie tries to construct an alternativc ideology of liberation from thc orien­talist modcs as defined by Edward Said: as the Western corporate institution tor dealing with thc Oricnt by making staternents about it, autho­rizing vicws of it, describing it, by dominating, rcstructuring. and having authority o ver it ( 1978, 7). He distinguishcs the stylc of thought basecl on the East's special place in European Wcstcrn cxpcricnce and subverts thc definition of Europc (or the West) as its contrasting imagc, idea, pcr­sonality, expcrience by focusing on the possibi­lity of counterdiscourses. Thc first story, "Good Advicc is Rarer than Rubies" prcsents many of these orientalist stcreotypcs. only to dcstroy thcrn. Miss Rebana, whosc eyes were ''largc and black and bright..."(5), mccts thc crook. Muhamrnad Ali. outsidc thc British Consulatc. In a convcrsation pcppcred with provcrbs and clichés, Ali tclls hcr what she must do to obtain

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thc coveted visa. His cxperience, he s<~ys. lms shown him thc tmc ch<~mctcr of the lndi<~ns: "lt is thc curse of our pcoplc." he ycllcd. "Wc are poor, wc <Jrc ignorant. <1nd wc complctcly rcfusc to lcarn" ( 12). All thc stcrcotypcs th<lt Rushdic c<Jrc­fully builds up are dcmolishcd when Miss Rchan<~ chooscs to tail thc test and rcmain.

Rushdic's positioning of thc "Wcst" scction aftcr the ' 'East". suggcsts a rcvisioning of thc world. with thc East as thc starting point. l f. as S<Jid points out. thc Oricnt is an idea that has a hislory and a tmdition of thoughl, imagcry and. vocabu­lary that havc given it rcality and prcscncc in ami for thc Wcst ( 1978. 7), Rushdie's rcpositioning of thc two entitics irnplics that lhc idea may work both ways. Thc Wcst is as much a cultural crca­tion :~s thc E:~st, as he provcs by his spcc1acular rcworking of 1hrcc ci<Jssics of Wcstcrn tmdition: a rc1clling of Hamlel in thc stylc of Trístam Shandy, a futuristic auction of Dorothy's mby slippers, all(l <Jn imaginalivc account of lhc rcl<Jtionship bctwccn Christopher Columbus and Quccn lsabcll<l. Rushdic sccms to suggcs1 that not cvcn thc wcll-known evcnts of Westcrn litcmturc and history are bcyond rcvicw. His purposc is clcar. and his irony explicit, <lS he prcscnts, for inst<Jncc,

Yorick 's saga, of coursc; that s<~mc ancicnt accounl which fcll, nc<~r cnough 1wo hundrcd and thirty-five ycars <Jgo. into thc hands of a ccrtain- no. a most unccrtain - Trístam. who (although Yscult-lcss) w<Js ncithcr triste nor ram, thc frothicst, most hc<Jdy Shandy of " fcllow ... Truly a vclluminous history!- which it's my prcscnt intcnt not mercly to <Jbbrcvia­tc, but. in addition, 10 explicalc, annowtc, hyphcnatc, palatinatc & pcnnanganatc - for its a narrativc 1ha1 richly rcwards thc scholar who is competen! to apply such scnsi1ivc tcchnologics (64).

Furthcr subvcrsion of thc posilional stratcgy is cvidcnt in thc story in which he prcscnts lhc tra­vails of thc ltalian Columbus in the Spanish court, an account that positions thc Wcstcrncr as one of thosc foreigncrs, who, among othcr 1hings. "forgct thcir place (having lcft it bchind)" ( 108). This criticism rcminds us of thc fact that thc "olher'' dcpcnds only on whcrc wc loca te 1hc ccn-

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ter: Forcigncrs can be doggcd. And can al so, on accoum of langu:~gc difficultics, fail to takc :~ hint. Thcn again. lct us not forgct. it is considcrcd de rigucur to kcep :~ fcw forcig­ncrs :~round. Thcy lcnd thc place a ccr1ain cosmopolitan tone. Thcy :~re oflcn poor and conscqucntly willing to perform divcrs ncccss:~ry but dirly jobs. Thcy are, morco­ver, a w:~rning :~gainst complaccncy, thcir cxistcnce in our midst reminding us thal thcrc :~re quartcrs in which (hard :~s it is to acccpt) we oursclvcs would be considcrcd forcigncrs. too ( 1 08).

Thc lin:~l scc1ion is :~ rcvisioning of lhe uní verse in which lhe E:~st and lhc Wcst are fused, expli­citly oblitcrating lhc notion of lhcir irrevocable scpamtion. In a discoursc imbucd by irony. Rushdic prcsenls a world in which an lnclian boy in Kcnsington sings Elvis songs to a baby girl namecl Schchcr:~z:~de and a cousin namccl ·'Chandi was 1raining 10 be an lndian classical danccr, Odissi as wcll as atyam, but in 1hc mcantimc shc drcsscd in 1igh1 black jcans and a clinging black polo-ncck jumpcr ... "(l87); wherc Asían diplomats in Birmingham play out Swr Trek tantasics; whcrc an lndian from Cambridge lcarns about gurus and thc Four Traces of Japancsc Spiritualism from a mad Wclsh occul­tist; and whcrc a sixty-ycar-old 1 ndian ayah is woocd by an old East Europcan portcr o ver gamcs of chcss, 1hc two of lhcrn tmnsforming ''lhc grcat formalisation of war'' into "an a1t of lovc"(l96).

This confusion of thc oricmal and 1hc occidental offcrs a corollary in litcraturc: thc convcrgcncc of liclion and reality. lf thc traditionally opposcd Easl and Wes1 are no1 so diffcrcm aflcr all, Rushdic sccms 10 imply that tic1ion and rcality may also be only be two sidcs of thc samc coin. This sccming conlracliction mus1 be acccptcd bccausc it is ultimatcly a mere rctlcction of lifc and history: "ff his1ory crcmcd complexitics. lct us not try 10 simplify thcm'' (IH, 65), Rushdic wrolc in "lmaginary llomelands", adding that "history is always ambiguous. Facts are hard 10 cstablish. and capablc of bcing givcn many mca­nings. Rcality is built on our prcjudiccs. miscon­ccptions and ignorancc as wcll as on our pcrccp-

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tiveness and knowlcdge" (IH. 25). In this man­ner. he eharges thc fictional with rcality, while reality is shown lo be only a typc of ficlion.

Thc storics contain constan! examples of thc ovcrlapping of fiction and realitics, of the possi­bilities of fiction bccorning realities, realities tur­ning into fictions, and cvcn thc desperate nccd for fiction in a too-real world. In "Thc Prophct's Hair". a grown-up fairy tale, horrors bccomc blcssings whcrc blcssings are curses in disguisc. Huma's cncounlcr with thc thicf. for instancc is a reliving of hcr childhood nightmarc: shc saw

... facing hcr a grcy-haircd giant down whosc lcfl check ran thc mosl sinistcr of scars, a cicatrice in thc shapc of thc lcllcr sín in thc astaliq scripl. She was grippcd by thc insupportably nostalgic notion that thc bogcyrnan of hcr childhood nurscry had riscn up lo confront her, bccausc hcr ayah had always forcstallcd any incipicnt acts of disobcdicncc by thrcatcning Huma and Ana: ' 'You don't watch out and 1'11 scnd that onc 10 stcal you away - thal Shcik Sín, thc Thicf of Thicvcs (40).

''Al thc Auction of thc Ruby Slippcrs", in pcr­haps a vcilcd barb al thc fatwa imposcd on Rushdic bccausc of his fiction, contains a diatri­bc on thc rclationship of fiction lO rcality and thc blurrcd boundary thal scparatcs thcm. In this story, sct in a futuristic lotalitarian stalc, fiction is fcarcd bccausc il funhcrs thought by offcring ahcrnativcs 10 our usual assumplions and crccds and is discouragcd bccausc il offcrs ways of escape. Fictions are dangcrous. thc alarmcd con­sumcrisl narra10r warns, bccausc "wc may simply noat away from our dcsires, and sec thcm ancw, from a distancc, so thal thcy sccm wcigh­tlcss and trivial'' ( 1 02):

This pcrmcation of lhc real world by thc fic­tional is a symptom of thc moral dccay of our posl-millcnnial culture. Hcrocs stcp clown off cinema screcns and marry mcm­bcrs of !he audicnce. Willthcrc be no cnd 10

it? Should there be more rigorous controls? ls the State employing insufficicnt violen­ce? Wc debate such questions oflen. Thcrc

can be linle doubtthal n largc majority of us opposcs lhc free, unrcstrictcd migration of imaginnry beings imo nn nlready damagcd rcality, whosc rcsources diminish by thc dny. Aflcr all. few of us would choose lo u·avel in the opposite direction (though therc are persuasi ve reports of nn i ncrease in such migrations latcly) (94-95).

Btll thc narrator is aware of thc omniprcsence of fiction in his lifc, and his nccd for the ruby slip­pers. themselves a fictional crcation, lo bring him back a reality lhat has become tictionalizcd: "1 am aware thal. aflcr all thcsc ycars of scpara­tion and non-communication, thc GaJe 1 adore is not cntircly a real pcrson. Thc real GaJe has bccome confuscd with my rc-imagining of her. with my privatc claboration of our colllinuing Ji fe togcthcr in an altcrnalive univcrse devoid of ape-rnen. Thc real GaJe may now be bcyond our grasp, ineffable" (96). The ovcrlapping of lhe two worlds has resullcd in thc incapacity 10 sepa­ratc them: therc is an cquivalcncc belween the reality of thc woman he loved and thc nceessary fiction he has had lo create lo maintain hcr alivc.

The neccssity of fiction is also the themc of 'The Free Radio''. the cngaging story of Ram, a ricks­haw-wallah with "thc rarc quality of total bclief in his dreams'' (27), who undcrgocs a vascctomy on the understanding thal a govemrncm-sponsored scheme will rcward him wilh n free transistor radio. While waiting for itlo arrive (ilnever docs). he cyclcs around, holding nn imaginary radio to his ear and warbling an cxcitcd mimicry of radio songs. "as if allthc encrgy of his young body was bcing pourcd into the fictional spaee bctween his ear and his hand, and he was trying lo bring lhc radio into existencc by a mighty, and possibly fatal. ael of will" (28). Mistaking fiction for fact is, in this case, a techniquc for survival - "an acl of magnificenl faith" as the narrator proclaims, Ram's "conjuring rcality out of thc hotthin a ir bct­wcen his cuppcd hand and his car" (32).

"Thc llarmony of the Spheres" al so explores thc qucstion of fiction and realily. The schizophrenic Eliol Cranc, struggling lo be a writer, is befrien­ded by Khan, a skeptical lndian in 1960's Cambridge. Ycars pass, Cranc fails as a writer,

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and kills himself. Looking through his friend's literary remains, Khan finds no real fictional work, but reams of self-pitying discourse, ima­gined personal fu tu res of glory and renown, and fantasies. Khan·s reading of the voluminous manuseripts rcveals a stercoscopic approach to thc qucstion of thc boundary bctwccn rcality and fiction: wc rcalizc that Eliot was incapable of scparating his liction from his real-Ji fe pro­blcms and inadequacics; and, more importantly. K han discovcrs that thc pans of thc manuscript that most appeared fictional. wcrc real.

Thc last story of thc collcction. "Thc Courtcr". is thc one in which thc East/Wcst ami fictionlrcality boundarics are dcfinitivcly dcmolishcd. Hcrc, by an inability to pronounce English wcll . an apartrncnt building poner bccomcs a "courtcr", and thc lndian immigrants at Waverly House residcnts nuctuate betwcen identities and cultural loyalties:

... the Maharaja of P- roaring away towards London's casinoland every night, in a red sportsear with fitted blandes. and of the Maharaja of B- skulking off to Kensington High Street wearing dark glasses in the dark, and a coat with the collar turned up even though it was high summcr; and at the heart of our little univcrse were Certainly-Mary and her couner, drinking chimpanzce tea and singing along with the national anthem of Bedrock: 'Fiintstones! Meet the Flintstones! They're the modern stone age family.' But thcy werc not really like Barney and Betty Rubble at all. Thcy wcre formal, polite. They were ... counly. He courled her, and, like a coy, ringleted ingénue with a fan, she inclincd hcr hcad, and entertained his suit. 'They're a page right out of history' ( 190).

The qucslion of choice, bctwccn Easl and Wesl, belwcen created fictions and occasionally detestable reality, is the ground for a battle lhat will wage within the immigranls. Certainly Mary suffers from an unidentificd illness, unlil the narrator realizes that " ... il was England that was breaking her heart, breaking it by nol being India ... Or was it thal her heart, ropcd by 1wo

differenl !oves, was being pulled both East and West. whinnying and rcaring, like lhose rnovie horses bcing yanked this way by Clark Gable and thal way by Montgomery Cliff, and she knew thal to live she would have to choose" (209). The question of choice is an irrevocable one, but the narralor, faccd with the choice, rebels. To choose scems tanlamount to losing somelhing, bccause. until a choice is eons­ciously made. he may remain in lhe comfona­blc limbo of betwceness. "But 1, too. ha ve ropes around my ncck. 1 have thcm to this day, pulling me this way and that. East and Wesl, the nooses tightening, commanding. choose, chao­se ... Ropes, 1 do not choose bctwccn you. Lassocs. lariats, 1 choosc ncithcr of you. and both. Do yo u hcar'l 1 rcfuse to choosc" (211 ).

What makcs Rushdie's slories significan! is his abilily lo prcscnt altcrnative worlds. Aftcr a point, the boundarics bctwccn East and Wcsl, fiction and thc rcalily, lhc truc and the false, disintegratc. Rushdie uses the intcrvcnlion of fiction 10 makc lhc implausible plausible. Fabulalion. thcn, bccomes a mcdium for the wrilcr to cross lhc conventional frontiers. The question he poses scems to be whelher or not lhc diffcrcnccs bctwcen East and West and fic­tion and rcalily exist as such. His stories imply thal thc classical boundaries betwccn the cnti­tics have bcen eradicatcd. As though 10 rcmind us, as Bill Ashcroft has said. that hybridity is the primary characteristic of all post-colonial and immigrant texts ( 185), Rushdie prescnts us a world of amalgamation. in which the old ways of reading and seeing do not apply, in which plurality of vision provides thc means for comprchcnsion.

REFERE CES

Ashcroft. 13ill, Griffilhs. Gareth and Tiffin. He len ( 1989) The Empire lVrites Back: Theory ami Praclice in Post-Colonial Lilerature. London: Roullcdge New Accents.

Cook. Rufus ( 1994) "Place and Displacemenl in Salman Rushdie's Work" IVorld Literature Today (23-28).

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Hutchcon, Linda ( 1991) Spli11i11g lmages: Co111emporary Canadian lronies. Toronto: Oxford UP.

Rushdic, Salman (1994) East, West. London: Jonathan Cape

Rushdic, Salman ( 1992) Imagina!)' Homela11ds.

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London: Pcnguin.

Rushdic. Salman ( 1990) "ls Nothing Sacred? Thc Hcrbcr! Rcadc Memorial Lccwra. Granta. Fcbruary 6 (2-16)

Said, Edward ( 1978) Orientalism. London: Routlcdgc and Kegan Paul.