Haroun and the Sea of Stories

The book I purchased yesterday, I read today – and enjoyed (but not on the same level as The Enchantress of Florence, Rushdie’s most recently published book). The short, amusing chapters were just right while I was waiting in a long line. In lieu of a review, I offer up the following list that Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie reminds me of, and if you can’t decide for yourself whether you’ll like it, then it isn’t my fault.

Books that Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie Reminds Me Of:

• Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.
• Arabian Nights, or 1001 Nights.
• The Neverending Story by Michael Ende.
• The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and other books by Roald Dahl.
• The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting.
• Half Magic and other books by Edward Eager.
• The Magic World by E. Nesbit.
• The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett.
• Other books concerning storytelling, magical realism, and precocious children.

Two quotes I particularly liked:

[Haroun] knew what he knew: that the real world was full of magic, so magical words could easily be real.

And,

‘Ahem,’ the Walrus began. ‘Happy endings are much rarer in stories, and also in life, than most people think. You could almost say they are the exceptions, not the rule.’

The Word for World Is Forest

Sometimes I wonder, What are authors thinking? I know that often they are not responsible for the cover art of their novels, but let me at once assure you that there are no female protagonists, that they do not go around partially unclothed, and that the forest does not look like something someone hallucinated.

Next, what kind of a title is The Word for World Is Forest? In the story, the Ashtheans’ word for ‘world’ or, Ashthe, means forest in the same way that ‘terra’ means both ‘earth’ and ‘clay.’ No doubt, with such a title, Le Guin was trying to stress the importance that the Ashtheans placed upon the lovely and life-giving forests of their world…but this was conveyed by the fact that the peacable people committed their first violent act as a society in retaliation of a deliberately set forest fire. Wouldn’t Ashthe have implied the same meaning and been easier to say?

Lastly, the ‘aliens’ are three feet tall, covered in green fur, and can enter a sort of dreaming/waking state that separates ‘world-time’ from ‘dream-time.’ How bizarre is this! If someone asked you what your novel was about, wouldn’t you feel a little embarrassed to tell them, “Oh, it’s about short green furry dreaming aliens who struggle against Earthling colonizers”?

Nevertheless, the thematic thrust of the novel asks the question – as all good science-fiction must do – what is a human? The evil colonizers from earth (redeemed as a race only by the kind sensitivity of the anthropologist, Lyubov) fail to see the Ashtheans as human just like they are. The Ashtheans must persuade the Terrans that all are human together, and that they, the Terrans, should stop enslaving and persecuting them, the Ashtheans. Guess who prevails? [Hint: Forest was written during the Vietnam War.]

Okay, so it isn’t her best novel. But Le Guin fans will be delighted by the subtle way in which she sets it in her Hainish universe, and by the cameo of the ansible, and by the Ashthean culture, which is interesting and well-realized, if too-briefly touched upon.