Memory, Language, and Society in Salman Rushdie's "Haroun and the Sea of Stories"

Abstract

ashid Khalifa, the storyteller in Salman Rushdie's novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990), loses his wonderful ability to make up and tell stories when his wife Sorya leaves him for the snively Mr. Sengupta, a man who has always complained to Haroun and his mother about the uselessness of storytelling. Haroun, the only child of the Khalifas, blames himself for the breakup of his parents' marriage and his father's disability. In his efforts to restore Rashid's storytelling powers, Haroun manages to trap the water genie Iff, who has come to cancel Rashid's story water supply, and finally, with the help of the genie and his friends, restores his father's storytelling powers and reunites his parents. Rushdie, the real-life storyteller, is currently suffering from a similar kind of disability, imposed by real-life followers of KhattamShud, the archenemy of stories in the land of Kahani. The story of Haroun and Rashid Khalifa, written by Rushdie in his forced exile, deals with the theme of a writer's freedom to make up stories. Rushdie's current predicament is the latest replay of the age-old battle between the proponents of freedom of speech and its enemies. Plato, in his Dialogue, sought to banish poets from his ideal society because of his concern with the impression that false stories might create in the minds of readers and listeners (Jowett 163). It is a similar fear and concern on the part of certain self-proclaimed upholders of universal truth that has led to Rushdie's banishment. Thus the ultimate appeal of stories lies not in what they actually say but in what sentiments they evoke.