Thursday, November 12, 2009
Omar the Poet
In the beginning of Rushdie's Shame it is mentioned that none of the three women, his three mothers is ever formally educated in any way. I wonder then how Omar became a poet and how the three women could appreciate his writing. Perhaps this is something that gets fleshed out further in the novel, as I haven't gotten too too far into it, it was just something I noticed. The book even claims that Omar was subjected to the same kind of seclusion his mothers were, so it even further peaks my interest on the topic.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I see now he became well red due to his grandfather's book collection. I guess I should just assume perhaps that his mothers did know how to read and thus taught him how as well.
ReplyDeleteI think Omar was only named after a poet, and he is not a poet himself. But the fact that his "mothers" named him after a poet despite having never been educated is interesting, but (I think) possibly more informative of Rushdie than anyone else? (Maybe)
ReplyDeleteFun to think about what Thanawi would say in this situation though.
I never thought about this. I agree with Roberta, Omar's definitely reading off of his grandpa's library shelves. I don't know how to explain his mothers' appreciation of his works except for that we might have to take for granted that they at least had some form of education.
ReplyDeleteLike bigd said in his comment, women weren't really allowed an education beyond learning Urdu and Persian to study holy scriptures. The Shakil's sisters might have been exposed to the alphabet or some form of writings? That should be sufficient in explaining how the mothers could appreciate the poetry...I guess.