Friday, December 4, 2009

Character in Twilight in Delhi

More on character, as it came up talking about TID that the book is not really about characters, but is the story of the city told through the family story. For me that is akin to saying that The Wire is not really about McNulty or Stringer Bell or Omar Little, it's really about Baltimore (I hope this reference is not lost on everyone). The question is just one of emphasis. You cannot have a novel without characters; if a tree falls and no one is around to hear it, no one gives a shit. If you subtract Mir Nihal and Asghar from TID, what are you left with? Crows fighting over a bone? Who the hell would want to read about that?
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5 comments:

  1. RobertaDecember 4, 2009 at 4:30 PM

    I read a historical novel called El Mesquite a year or so ago that is in fact about the life of a tree. There were of course characters around the tree that the talking tree let us know about, but had those characters not been there, it still would have been a cool book. I mean as cool as a book about changing landscape and indigenous crops and animals can be.

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  2. AnonymousDecember 4, 2009 at 6:41 PM

    Unfortunately, the Wire reference is totally lost on me...but Ajai, I think you make an interesting point about subtracting Asghar and Mir Nihal and being left with the crows. I'm not trying to get at this from the same bent as you are, exactly, but consider the implications of that statement...When you subtract the MEN from the novel you are left with the WOMEN a.k.a. crows, which are so easily taken to be insignificant or to be background.

    Another reaction to this post: "YOu cannot have a novel without characters; if a tree falls and no one is around to hear it, no one gives a shit."

    So what if the characters aren't around to hear it, if the audience is?

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  3. JoshuaDecember 4, 2009 at 6:41 PM

    I agree that Ali's descriptions of the landscape, the city, the wildlife, and the people are beautiful, but I have to side with Ajai. The message seems to be in the characters and their relationships, despite the beautiful backdrop Ali paints them against. Without Mir Nihal's perspective, the descriptions of the changing city would lose their significance.

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  4. JoshuaDecember 4, 2009 at 6:45 PM

    Ok, Diana happened to post within the same minute as I did, but upon reading her post, I have a bit more to say. Consider how Bilqeece's character is treated in the novel, as well as the events involving her sister surrounding Bilqeece's death. It could be argued that the women characters are essential to the plot here, and it could also be argued that the women revolve around the men in the novel. What do you guys think?

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  5. emillaneDecember 4, 2009 at 6:59 PM

    I completely agree that the message in the book comes from the characters, and not the city. While the city adds a sort of historical feel to the novel, the novel cannot have heart or any type of feeling associated with it, or anything that the reader could really make a connection with. The characters need to be there so the reader can make a connection with the work. But the city still plays an important part, because the culture of that city is what makes up the characters in the book that the reader is trying to connect with.

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