Mar Shali

More on Shalimar.
I'm the sort of guy who doesn't solve the mystery until Columbo does. Mystery shows and books for me were agonizing because I felt like (and yes the shows and books are for me, for I am Consumer, hear me read!) I should be catching on to vital clues and putting them together. This is only part of the list of ways the world intimidates me. Other items include those pictures that were popular when I was in high school, where a person had to look crosseyed or look beyond in order to see this cool 3-D hippo or something (in the meantime I'm sure those people were being subliminally programmed to eatmoremcdonalds; trivia games, crosswords, sudoku, and video games like Myst. What are those type called again?

To bring it back to the book I'm reading, I was annoyed for a few pages because it suddenly became clear to me why the main guy was killed, and I thought, well now I know how it ends, the big revelation, why keep reading? Annoyance. However, I realized this may have been intentional, that the author was not an buffoon and lousy writer, although it's not as fun now, knowing who took who from whom and had a girl by her and then got killed by the latter who. I realized that the plot is the accompaniment and the characters (with ideas in their heads) are the (what's the opposite of accompaniment?????)

For example I love this gem from p. 162:
He was moved to the Propaganda Section and in the two years that followed went back to what he knew: the creation of false identities. "The reinvention of the self, that classic American theme," he would write in his memoir, "began for me in the nightmare of old Europe's conquest by evil. That the self can so readily be remade is a dangerous, narcotic discovery. Once you've started using that drug, it isn't easy to stop."

One annoying thing I will add though, Rushdie's main characters are so beautiful and talented (the 4 main ones) that it's almost annoying in the sense that he's clearly highlighting the fiction that they are, and leaving only the ideas as the reality. The plot has been taken away in a 1 = 1 sense, the characters are imaginary vessels and only ideas remain.

Pretty good ones, I think.