Hi y’all! This note covers Part I, Ch 3 & 4 of The Satanic Verses.
This is a quick one because I’m on fire with my novel manuscript! More on that soon.
When I read a big novel like TSV (The Satanic Verses), I often lose track of which character is which. Sometimes I’ll doodle a significant image to lock that person into their identity.
So, in Chapter 3, which is largely Chamcha’s back story, we have a motif emerge: fish. Once you see it, you’ll notice it over and over. On page 33, Rushdie says that “[t]his face was handsome in a somewhat sour, patrician fashion, with long, thick, downturned lips like those of a disgusted turbot, and thin eyebrows arching sharply over eyes that watched the world with a kind of alert contempt.”
Fabulous characterization through two simple, vivid images. I can imagine precisely the kind of fish-mouth he’s referring to.
Likewise, in the fourth chapter, we have a great description of Gibreel’s under-eyes. Chamcha has a lot of time to observe Gibreel as they’re held hostage on a landing strip in the desert. “[H]is face was impossible to ignore, as the great purple welts of his wakefulness spread outwards like oil-slicks from his eyes.”
This kind of cartoonish imagery reminds me of Dickens and other 19th century writers. They needed to brand each character distinctly because there are so many of them.
Cheers, guys! Happy reading (and sketching)!
xo
Jess