Rushdie, in the essay “Imaginary Homelands”, urges for an
eclectic use of language and to not have a “ghetto mentality” when it comes to
creating, for “Art is the passion of the mind. And the imagination works best
when it is most free” (20).
We see him take such liberty in his language in Moor’s Last
Sigh as well, through complex word play and dense sentences that draw on
historical and cultural references from both East and West. This is most obviously evident in the manner
in which he localizes the use of English language for his characters: “‘where
worlds collide, flow in and out of one another, and washofy away” and where a
water-creature can get drunk, but also chokeofy” (405).
His use of language also seems to make a bigger political
statement. His disjointed structure, and the amalgamation of at once seemingly
unconnected stories, suggest a renunciation of a certain orthodoxy which isn’t just
limited to writing and art. He says: “Can art be the third principle that
mediates between the material and spiritual worlds; might it, by “swallowing”
both worlds, offer us something new – something might even be called a secular
definition of transcendence?”
By transcendence here he implies that human experience which
is outside of certain confines and boundaries. Within the text this describes the
blends that define Moor’s experience; a Jewish father and a Christian mother and the struggle with unusual physical issues.
Thus, through the mechanics of this novel, Rushdie provides a template
on the writing of an exile. But when read closely with his essay Imaginary
Homelands, he seems to depart from the usual dread that surrounds an exilic
experience and in fact encourages an embracing of it.
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