Thursday, December 3, 2009
Shaman's Obsessions
I was really intrigued by the way Shaman had all these passionate emotional connections with the girls that she went to school with. I thought that although it seemed a bit far-fetched at times, I can remember idolizing and wishing I were friends with some of the girls I went to school with. I remember wanting to be pretty like them, or wear my hair the way they did, or smell like delicate, crushed flowers the way they did. I can see how this adoration could lead to quasi-romantic infatuation if the girls were stifled sexually--it seems natural that, if it's not seen or explained, girls who would have a preference for men find themselves feeling those stirrings and conferring them onto other girls, the objects of their adoration. (This is also a very interesting psychological concept that Chughtai--wittingly or unwittingly--employs.)
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Perhaps it wasn't even that they were "stifled" so you say. I mean it is pretty common and we have seen it in her other work the quilt where the boys didn't really have time for girls even if they were together, the older men were after them! However, I guess I can understand what you are saying about idolizing someone to the point of romanticizing them. It is interesting though that Chughtai says this book is kind of autobiographical... is she really making this a ploy about gender or relating what happened to her.. or both?
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