Tags
Breath, Fiction, Laughter, literature, Novels, Salman Rushdie, Song, The Moor's Last Sigh, Writing
“At times I become my breathing. Such force of self as I retain focuses upon the faulty operations of my chest: the coughing, the fishy gulps. I am what breathes. I am what began long ago with an exhaled cry, what will conclude when a glass held to my lips remains clear. It is not thinking that makes us so, but air. Suspiro ergo sum. I sigh, therefore I am…
In the beginning and unto the end was and is the lung: divine afflatus, the baby’s first yowl, shaped air of speech, staccato gusts of laughter, exalted airs of song, happy lover’s groan, unhappy lover’s lament, miser’s whine, crone’s croak, illness’s stench, dying whisper, and beyond and beyond the airless, silent void. A sigh just isn’t a sigh. We inhale the world and breathe out meaning. While we can. While we can.”
__________
A virtuoso passage pulled from chapter 4 of Salman Rushdie’s aptly-titled The Moor’s Last Sigh.
More Salman:
- An even more beautiful passage from Rushdie, this one about the power of song, pulled from his novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet
- Rushdie clearly illustrates a simple facet of the open society: in it, no one can claim the right to be immune from being offended
- I reflect on freedom, fiction, Cat Stevens, and the 25th anniversary of the Rushdie fatwa
K. A. Brace said:
That was very beautfully put. I’ve never read any of his work. But if there is more like that I might just need to. Reminded me of Durrell. >KB
jrbenjamin said:
It is — Rushdie’s books aren’t easy to read (and they’re honestly not my favorite), though he can segway into these flowing asides which are just incredible. Amazing to think that English is his second language.
What particular work of Durrell do you have in mind? I’ve never read his stuff, but have heard great things…
K. A. Brace said:
Well of Course The Alexandria Quartet, then there are his travelogues like A sicilian Carousel which I think are much better than hyis other novels, but his poetry is quite good too. I think you would find in him more of what you quoted from Rushdie than not. His work is wonderful. I read the Quartet at least once a year. It is considered the best post war Modern novels–there are four, each one in the view of a different perspective and then one that is true to the action. >KB
jrbenjamin said:
That all sounds really interesting, especially the Quartet (a clever plot device borrowed in Kurosawa’s ‘Rashomon,’ among other narratives). I have seen Julian Barnes, a writer who picks his sources carefully, quote Durrell’s poetry, which I definitely need to check out.
Thanks very much for the recommendation.
jmsabbagh said:
I read few of Salman Rushdi’s books .Nice passage.
navigator1965 said:
Once I publish my assertion that ideological feminists suffer from penis envy gender narcissism, I am counting on Mr. Rushdie to be my room mate in hiding.
I’ve heard he has some experience with this.