Who else wrote a Ghazal?

     So I wrote a ghazal for the paper and I am curious to see how other people went about it, if you chose to write your own could you post it on the blog? I would like to see how other people approached the format and what structural elements they used or did not use. Mine is posted below

A few words and a quick look into those eyes,

I’ve already fallen into their depth, into her.

She hides her emotions behind a wall, tall and strong like herself,

Although imposing, I can feel more than see, a crack appear, a hope. 

Everyday I learn something about her, something small but important,

The way she stands, how she likes her coffee, little pieces of that amazing puzzle.

It might be over, I dug too deep, I found out too much,

She has retreated behind her wall, behind her fears.

A brick tumbles loose, a hole appears, tiny in size but huge in possibility,

A ray of light, of hope, shines through, as she forgives me.

We are friends, partners, and lovers but only in our minds,

She acts as if nothing has changed, but a smile here, and a touch there proves it has.

Fear, anger, sorrow, I don’t know what to feel as she lies there,

She is fading, I am losing her, so I tell her, it might be my last chance.

She came back, she is here but my confession fell on deaf ears, she isn’t ready to hear it,

I will hide my love if it means I can see her again, that is enough, for now.

She is worried, we both have baggage and she needs closure, she needs time,

She needs to know I won’t leave, she’ll only do this once, so I plan to prove it to her.

Something has changed, she smiles more, and her laughter comes easily, 

Does she know? Can she feel what I feel? Is she ready? Does she know I love her?

Such a tease! A temptress! She knows what she does to me, she enjoys it,

Making me want, making me wait, and I will, what else would I do? She is the one.

It is done, the wall has come down, the last bricks lie scattered at our feet,

We fly to each other, years of waiting, of wanting, of loving, we are both ready.

Eldorado: Voltaire's Ultimate Satire

      A main theme during our class conversation today was the desensitization of Voltaire's cast of characters to the awful atrocities committed during the course of the novel. Murders and rapes are seen as just a part of life, mere facts that can be dealt with. Voltaire's true commentary of these atrocities does not come full circle until Candide's discovery of the city of Eldorado. During the two chapters that Cacambo and Candide spend in Eldorado, Voltaire allows the reader to realize the ridiculousness of European terror as it is placed against the tranquil rationality of this utopia. Voltaire communicates some of his social and governmental ideals to the reader during these chapters.
     In terms of governance in Eldorado, Voltaire speaks of his constitutional ideals, "'they ordained, with the consent of the people" (46). The idea of a government that rules with the consent of the people was an overarching theme of the Enlightenment period. Voltaire expands on this commentary when addressing the royalty of Eldorado. When Candide is introduced to the King of the city in chapter 18, he asks what kind of absurd gesture of subservience he will have to participate in to demonstrate inferiority; the guide responds "'The custom... is to hug the King and kiss him on both cheeks.' Candide and Cacambo accordingly threw their arms around the neck of His Majesty, who received them with every grace, and invited them politely to supper" (48). Candide and Cacambo proceed to have a fantastic time with the royals from Eldorado as they are treated as welcome guests. Voltaire uses this example to poke at the crookedness of the European royal political system both in the book and the real world. Eldorado is the true ideal system. Unfortunately, Candide abandons this city because of the worldly greed he finds there in the form of gold and precious stones. Thus outer greed infiltrates the untouchable Eldorado in the form of Candide and Cacambo. Perhaps this is Voltaire's way of hinting at the profound power of worldly evil.

Adultery Across the Ages

While reading The Home and the World we came across the issue of marital unfaithfulness.  In a previous blog post I described Bimila as “being a slut in her own home.”  When addressed with the question of why I did such a thing, I stood by my opinion.  In my mind, for having the idea to cheat on her husband she is deserving of such a title.  When a discussion of this led to the topic of adultery, I was quite certain in my claim that adultery is morally wrong.  Because this is a blog based on opinions, I will freely admit that I was raised as a Christian, and I believe in the Ten Commandments which say “thou shalt not commit adultery.”  But moreover, Christianity is not the only religion the expressly forbids adultery, counting it as a crime, often deserving death.  The Ten Commandments also apply to Judaism, and the same words are found in the Torah.  In Islam, verses about adultery are found in the Qur’an proclaiming it wrong.  One such verse is, “Say, 'Verily, my Lord has prohibited the shameful deeds, be it open or secret, sins and trespasses against the truth and reason.”  Even the Laws of Manu in ancient India forbid the practice.  Throughout time there have been different punishments for such crimes, usually inflicted on the female party.  In ancient times a woman would be stoned for committing the crime, in later years they were often ostracized from society.  A literary example of this is Nathaniel Hawthorn’s The Scarlet Letter, in which the main character is forced to wear a scarlet A as a symbol of her crime, and due to it she is outcast from society.  Even Bimila feels as though she deserves a punishment for her actions.  “I continually had the feeling that, if only I could die, all this turmoil would come to an end.  So long as I was alive my sins would remain rampant, scattering destruction on every side,” (Tagore p. 203).  Even in more modern times, though in western cultures adultery is no longer a crime, adultery and sleeping around are looked down upon.  In the movie, Easy A, Emma Stone’s character is virtually shunned by her peers because of all the rumors about her.  It may be callous of me to think poorly of girls and women as sluts because of their indiscretion, but I am morally opposed to adultery.

            To counter that I will also briefly mention the theory that adultery is looked down upon so much due to patriarchy.  That it is because of men not being able to continue their family name due to their wives’ sleeping with other men that adultery is viewed so harshly.  Personally, I don’t buy into that, but I would love to hear everybody else’s opinions. 

Also, below I posted the trailer to Easy A, as well as where I got my information from, besides my own knowledge.  The middle of the trailer is the best to see society's reaction to her "sluttiness."

Adultery Info

Candide's Battle on Religion

So far I've read up to chapter 22 of Candide, and while its protagonist has quite literally been murdering a number of religious figures, it seems as though Voltaire is satirically attacking the idea of religion simultaneously. Voltaire seems to look at religion as a means for people to carry out very unholy actions. The driving point in many of the wars, which eventually lead to raping and pillaging in the book, seems to be religious differences. While religion and war run rampant in these awful lands of Europe, when Candide and Cacambo venture to the seemingly ideal land of Eldorado, where there is no violence, there are also no religious fanatics. Voltaire writes:

At length Candide, whose taste still ran to metaphysics, asked through Cacambo whether the people of this country had any religion.
The old man flushed a little. "But how could you suppose otherwise!" he replied. "Do you takes us for ingrates?" Cacambo humbly asked what was the religion of Eldorado. The old man flushed again. "Can there be more than one religion?" he replied. "We have, I believe, the same religion as everyone else: we worship God from night till morning." -"Do you worship only one God?" asked Cacambo, who continued to act as the interpreter of Candide's doubts. - "Evidently so," said the old man, "since there are not two Gods, or three, or four. I must say that the people in your world ask some very odd questions."

The old man goes on to say: "We do not pray to him at all." "We have nothing to ask of him; he has given us everything we need; we thank him unceasingly."

Candide is astounded by this assertion, he wonders whether or not they have disputing monks, governing and burning people alive for believing otherwise. The old man is dumbfounded by Candide's questioning, because no one in Eldorado would consider persecution for religion.

What do you think of Voltaire's opinion on religion? How does he show it in Candide?

Candide: An Assault On Optimism

Candide to me represents the best kind of satire. It's an easy to follow, sensationalist narrative that moves at a breakneck pace and keeps the reader engaged throughout. The adventures of Candide and Co. and the misfortunes they face are exaggerated to the point of absurdity and the majority of the characters are one dimensional caricatures of human nature. Given all this, it's easy to forget that Candide also has a lot to say.

The philosophy of Pangloss is established early in the narrative and its importance to Candide and Cunegonde is immediately evident. Candide believes his world to be the best of all worlds, that everything happens for a purpose, and that whatever he experiences must be for the best. Once this philosophy is established, the entirety of Candide is devoted to destroying it. Disaster after disaster befall Candide and his companions, and the hatred and brutality that man is capable of is grossly evident at every turn. Pangloss does his best to try and explain away all of these dreadful things, but his stubborn optimism only reinforces for the reader just how shortsighted his philosophy is. Candide also holds out hope for the Panglossian way of looking at things at every juncture, as evident by his words while on the ship to Paraguay: "We are going into another world...and surely is must be there that all is for the best. For I must confess there is reason to complain a little of what passeth in or world in regard to both natural and moral philosophy" (Voltaire). This is significant because even as he admits that not everything has been for the best in his travels, Candide still holds out for the philosophy to be true. This passiveness and blind devotion to optimism is what Voltaire is attacking through Candide.


What I believe Voltaire is trying to say is that one's awareness of the world should not be based on being blindly optimistic and assuming everything that befalls them in life happens for some kind of reason. Live life by continually adjusting yourself to both the good and the bad, not hoping for the best and then making excuses for when it doesn't happen. Being passive and allowing evil to befall you without objection in the name of optimism is no way to lead a fulfilling life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibniz...some information on Leibniz, the philosopher who Voltaire applied his sharp wit and skilled satire to criticizing in Candide

The Curious Case of Candide and Cunegonde

      

      Throughout the book Candide is trying to get back to his lovely Cunegonde as she is the love of his life.  It should be mentioned that his “life” consisted of a sheltered existence in the castle of Baron von Thunder-ten-tronckh where he was instructed by Dr. Pangloss.  Pangloss’ teaching is explained in the book as such, “ He could prove to wonderful effect that there was no effect without cause, and that, in this best of all possible worlds, his Lordship the Baron’s castle was the finest of castles and her Ladyship is the best of all possible baronesses.”  So from the beginning Candide is convinced that Cunegonde is the greatest of all women and there can be no better person to be his wife.  Unfortunately for him this plan falls apart rather quickly as the castle is attacked and everyone inside is raped and killed. Candide escapes and starts to see the world outside the bubble he had been living in and tries to apply Pangloss’ teaching to every event.  He soon learns that Cunegonde did not die, nor did a number of others that return at various points in the book.  From that moment on his every move is focused on getting back to his lovely Cunegonde.  Along the way Candide experiences much of the world and even passes through El Dorado, where he could live happily for the rest of his days in a perfect city, but he continues on to search for his dear Cunegonde.  At long last he is reunited with her only to have lost his fortunes along the way and now she is ugly and bitter, and becoming more so every day.  He expresses his feelings quite clearly in the conclusion, “At the bottom of his heart, Candide had no desire to marry Cunegonde; but the outrageous impertinence of the Baron determined him to go through with the ceremony.”  So poor Candide, after seeing so much of the world and having opportunities to be happy, sticks to his original “plan” and marries Cunegonde, living his meager existence out on a farm.  So what is the point of all this? Why did Voltaire write Candide? It is a satire of Leibniz's view that the world must be the best and most balanced because an all powerful, all knowing god created it and such a god would not create an imperfect world.  The story of Candide and the countless misfortunes that befall the characters is meant to disprove this idea. Any single misfortune from this book could change someone's life in the real world but Voltaire writes misery after misery to de-sensitize us to it. After half of the book, reading about another rape or death seems so trivial and that is exactly what Voltaire wants, for us to look back and see how flawed the world is, to see how ridiculous Liebniz's ideas are. After all that Candide goes through he has still not accepted that the world is obviously flawed and misery and woe are just as much a part of life as happiness and fortune.  Ultimately a character such as Candide could never exist in the real world and I believe Voltaire parallels Candide's impossibility to Leibniz's theory of optimism.  

The Price of Chocolate / Women in Candide

I love chocolate. It is, without a doubt, one of my favorite foods. I probably spend more money on chocolate than I care to think about.  But what if the price I had to pay for chocolate was even greater? What If I had to expose an entire continent to an STD in order to taste chocolate again? This sounds ridiculous because it is definitely not an even trade. However, Pangloss seems to think the opposite in Candide. He says, “For if Columbus, on an island off the Americas, had not contracted this disease-which poisons the source of all procreation, and often even prevents procreation, contrary though this be to nature’s great plan-we would have neither chocolate nor cochineal (11). This is a perfect example of his optimistic, everything-happens-for-a-reason-mentality. He believes that for every bad thing that happens, something good will come out of it. Although this may have been true in the world of Candide, the good that did come out never balanced out the bad. Volatire consistently uses situations like these to poke at optimism. At the very end of Candide, after each of the characters have suffered innumerable tragedies, Pangloss reflects by saying  to Candide, “After all, had you not been expelled from a beautiful castle with great kicks to the behind for the love of Mademoiselle Cunegonde, and had you not been turned over to the Inquisition, and had you not roamed America on foot, and had you not run the Baron through with a fine thrust of your sword, and had you not lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you would not be sitting here now eating candied citron and pistachios” (94) Obviously the events that occurred in Candide’s life were too severe to be balanced out by candied citron and pistachios, unless he really really likes these foods, but Pangloss uses optimism to prove that everything happens for a reason.

On a different topic....We had a discussion about the role of women in Candide and how they are portrayed. We talked specifically about rape and how often it occurred throughout the novel. I read an article that my sister-in-law had posted on Facebook about the current debate over birth control and health care. I found some interesting parallels in the article to Candide, especially starting at the third paragraph. It is amazing the connections that can be drawn from a novel written in a different time and place to situations we are facing today.

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/23/147284717/the-nation-men-all-men-and-birth-control

Candide

What I like about Candide is that Candide is very adventurous.  The book is very fast paced and there is some sort of action on every page.  Sometimes when I read my mind tends to wander and I realize that I have flipped through a couple pages even though I have not really read them because my mind was somewhere else.  But, with this book it was impossible for my mind to bird walk because there was so much action every second of reading it.  But if I had allowed my mind to bird walk reading this book for even a half of a page, I would have missed a major event. 

Another aspect of the story of Candide that I liked was how you could never be too sure about anything because you could never be sure of anything.  For example towards the end of the story Candide found out that his philosopher Pangloss and his true love’s brother the Baron were not dead even though Candide went almost the whole book thinking they were dead.  Candide saw Pangloss hanged and Candide thought he killed the Baron (Voltaire 86).  Candide ends up finding out that Pangloss was still able to breathe after he was hung and that the Baron was not dead from being stabbed. 

One idea that the narrator tries to convey to the reader throughout this story is that “all is for the best in this world.”  This quote is written a few times throughout the book.  That seems to be the theme throughout this book.  But, it is hard for me to agree with this theme.  I am a believer that everything happens for a reason and that we suffer so we can appreciate what we have more and for the good that is about to come.  But, it is evident that Candide did not end up appreciating what he ended up with at the end of the story.  For example he wanted Cunégonde throughout the whole book, but in the end when he gets her he says that she has become ugly and has a bad temper (Voltaire 90).  Candide wanted to marry Cunégonde throughout the whole book and then at the end his heart does not desire to marry her anymore (Voltaire 89).  So it makes me question the reoccurring theme that everything happens for the best because in the end things do not work out for Candide, because he is not completely happy.

I came accross this image after I did a google search for "voltaire's candide cuture" and this was one of the images that came up.  I would guess thatthis is Cunégonde at the end of the book when she is ugly.  This picture is scary because Cunégonde really does look ugly.  It is hard to imagine that at one time she could have been gorgeous. 

The Ghazal-Beauty

The idea of the Ghazal is a beautiful concept.  I am an English major so I have come across poetry many times.  But, the style of the Ghazal and what it stands for is a different way of expressing poetry and I have come to develop a great appreciation for the Ghazal.  American poetry has rules that many modern poets try to break away from and the Ghazal is the same way.  As explained in the article Masterpieces of Urdu Ghazal from 17^th to 20^th Century the rules in writing a Ghazal consist of: a sher-five to fifteen couplets that rhyme, the matla-the first sher, the radif-meaning that the second line of all the shers must end in the same word or words, and the kaafiya-an internal rhyme before the radif (3-4). The structure of the Ghazal is unique to the Eastern culture. 

          

Although there were guidelines set in place for how to write a Ghazal, just like modern American poetry, Ghazals too are breaking away from the traditional form.  Also, the words get lost in translation.  For example if the same word is on the second line of all the shers, it is that way written in Urdu, however; in English when words are translated it will not look like there is the same word on the second line of all the shers because the words are not the same after they are translated!  The words change when they are translated. 

           

Aside from the problems with translating from Urdu to English, the Ghazal is still unique.  What makes the Ghazal unique is what they are based on.  The Ghazal is written, according to the article Ghazals of Ghalib on “intense moral privacies; and of love—not about love, but of love” (xxiii).  In American poetry we write about love; how it hurts, how it is good, how it makes our existence, etc.  In Urdu they write of love.  Although I appreciate American poetry I also have a great respect how the Ghazal writes on love differently.

           

I found a Ghazal on youtube.com.  I like this Ghazal not only for the words but also for the music, which brings me to another aspect of the Ghazal that I like.  I like how they sing their poetry and although it is not in this video, but I like how the people dress up and dance.  The music in this Ghazal is a bit sad and depressing, but it sounds that there is a glimmer of hope.  And from the words that make up the Ghazal the music reflects the mood of the music.  Of course there are places where it is obvious that some words and meaning were lost in translation.  But although this problem occurs, this Ghazal still has a lot of meaning and it is still beautiful.

   

The Power of Yellow Mud in Candide

Voltaire playfully writes about rape, disembowelment, murder, and women who have half their buttocks slashed away to feed twenty starving janissaries, to make serious assertions about the dangers of religion and materialism.

After drifting down a river current in total darkness for the span of a day, losing their canoe to rapids, and climbing across boulders, Cacambo and Candide arrive in Eldorado where the pebbles and mud are rubies and gold. To elaborate on the question Jeff asks in his blog post- Why doesn't Candide remain in this utopia? In Eldorado, everyone is a priest. There is such a surplus of food and treasure that it becomes commonplace instead of a catalyst for war and enslavement. But, this is surreal. I believe it is Candide's natural, human craving for progress and empowerment that drive him to leave paradise. He has been raised in a European society that praises material wealth, and he cannot escape this ingrained mindset. In Eldorado, wealth may be yellow mud, but to two men raised in a world that pillages, wages war, and enslaves for the earth’s rocks, the prospect of returning to society with twenty red pack-sheep carrying “more treasure than could be mustered by Asia, Europe, and Africa combined”  is irresistible (51). The most flinch-inducing, painful passage of this novel is not a man being driven through with a sword or a woman’s buttocks being severed, but the idea that two men would throw away the opportunity to live for eternity in perfection because their society has cultivated an insatiable thirst in the core of their beings for meaningless material wealth and power.

Voltaire further condemns materialism in the next chapter with the description of a black amputee who has lost a hand and a leg working in the sugar-mills. "When we work in the sugar-mills and get a finger caught in the machinery, they cut off the hand; but if we try to run away, they cut off a leg: I have found myself in both situations. It is the price we pay for the sugar you eat in Europe" (51-52). The European yearning for material wealth breeds inhumane enslavement and persecution. The slave’s anecdote moves Candide to tears, and he criticizes Pangloss’ optimistic theology yet again, but he is still trapped in a world of corrupt power and materialism. He doesn’t reject societal norms and return to Eldorado, and he is afflicted when his sheep are stolen. Unless- is he a true romantic hero, relentlessly chasing Cunegonde to satisfy the pangs of his heart? “My friend, you see how perishable are the riches of this world; nothing is certain but virtue, and the happiness of seeing Mademoiselle Cunegonde again” (51). If anything redeems him in the eyes of the reader, it is Candide’s unashamed love. You can’t hate a romantic.

The Home and the World: The Flaws of the Main Characters

        Tagore’s The Home and the World is a masterful novel that is rich with thematic density and interesting character dynamics. I was intrigued with our short conversation in class about the relations between the three main characters and their individual idiosyncrasies. In particular, I found it interesting that each of these main characters (Bimala, Nikhil, and Sandip) is flawed in a specific way. For example, Bimala is perhaps too impressionable and lacks any ideas of her own. For this reason she is swept away by Nikhil’s passion, the passion that she has never before seen out of Nikhil. Bimala is a blank slate and can be easily swayed, her name in Bengali means “without mal or blemish”. Although Bimala is unblemished, this is merely because she has little worldly experience.

            Sandip is flawed due to his worldly and personal desires. Though passionate and well-spoken, his imperialistic view for the Swadeshi movement is narrow-minded. His interests are in worldly material gain, “True patriotism will never be roused in our countrymen unless they can visualize the motherland,” (120). Sandip cannot feel or sense anything he cannot see; this is his most inherent flaw. Lastly, Nikhil is flawed in that he is too passive to accomplish or communicate his thoughts. He lacks the passion that flows through Sandip. Although Nikhil may know the problems with the Swadeshi Movement, he is incapable of communicating these thoughts with the passion that Sandip can convey. Bimala is temporarily turned off by Nikhil’s sense of passivity during such a trying time, questioning his sense of masculinity.

Thus, the innate flaws of each of these characters suggest that each character exudes very different, and almost polar, personalities. Bimala, Sandip, and Nikhil, seem to represent a single balanced personality that is divided into three parts as Bimala portrays innocence, Sandip portrays fiery passion, and Nikhil portrays wise cowardice.

Eldorado: Paradise at The End of The World

When Candide reaches Eldorado, he has finally discovered paradise and should be content. The reason he is not is because he does in fact want to find paradise but he does not want it to be a Socialist society, in which everyone is equal. He wishes to make other people jealous: "If we stay here we shall be no different from anybody else" (82). At this point in the story, Candide's search for "the best of all possibly worlds" is a selfish one because he really only wishes for it to be his own "best of all possible worlds," and not society as a whole: "They were both anxious, also, to show their friends how rich they had grown" (82). Because it is a parsimonious quest, Candide and Cacambo "decided to be happy no longer," and to move on from utopia (83).

Candide has a second reason for leaving Eldorado and that is Cunegonde. He states that he can never be content without her in his life. While this may be, his main focus is on his riches and how they will raise him above others in the world. Lady Cunegonde is merely an afterthought; one that Candide slips in in order to make himself sound less greedy than he actually is. If Candide and Cacambo truly were only concerned with seeing their lovers again, they would not have taken nearly a hundred red sheep loaded with riches on their backs for their journey. While it is true that Candide mentions Lady Cunegonde's possible ransom, he continues on saying, "we will then see what kingdom we can but" (84). This is not the thought of a man who is longing to be reunited with a woman he supposedly loves but rather the machinations of a future tyrant.

Martin's Depressing Realism

Of the characters that were introduced in Candide,  Martin was my favorite.  Up to when Martin was introduced to the reader, there was little verbal opposition to the optimism Candide and Pangloss preached throughout the novel.  Candide would preach so innocently that it was to the point where he was oblivious to the possibility that his teacher could have been incorrect about anything. I found it  humorous once Martin began to gun down Candide's optimism very insensitively.

The tones picked up from Martin in context with the rest of the plot made him fit perfectly into the flow of the story.   His persistent negativity combined with his insight created this character which was the exact opposite of Candide.  Placing the two characters so close together amplified their extremeness on the spectrum of optimism and realism.  Amongst Martin's "I tell it how I see it" dialogues, there were some gems.  My favorite is found on page 74, the prior conversation has Candide keeping high hopes about reuniting with his Cunegonde.  Martin responds by saying:"I hope, that one day she may make you happy, but I doubt it very much." "You are very hard," replies Candide. Martin simply says; "Because I know what life is," which I found to be a very deep and powerful line compared to the sarcastic undertone felt throughout the whole book.

On a different note, I was able to dig up an article I stumbled upon (literally, on stumble upon) which talked about optimism in more of a psychology context as opposed to literature.  The name of the article is Your Brain Won't Allow You to Believe the Apocalypse Could Actually Happen, which appears to be a bit grim, but I found the article interesting.  It talks about surveys that had people estimate the odds of their lives encountering different types of tragedies, and the statistics showed that not only were "normal" people typically too optimistic, but the most accurate guesses came from people that were "clinically depressed."  This does indeed suggest that life is depressing, but I interpret it as saying a little bit of optimism is healthy.  The article is so easily related to Candide, so I figured I would share it for those who are interested.

Here's the link to the article: http://io9.com/5848857/your-brain-wont-allow-you-to-believe-the-apocalypse-could-actually-happen

The Process of Writing Fiction

Salman Rushdie's Imaginary Homelands explains to me why my idea of home is not the same as it is in reality today.  Although I did not move to a different country as Rushdie did after childhood, I did move to a different house after childhood.  So, in some ways, I can understand what Rushdie means when he describes his home as being in part a creation of his mind.  When I think of the first home I lived in, I believe I can remember many aspects of it.  However, being a Psychology major, I know that perhaps most of what I remember is really a creation of my imagination.  People cannot remember all of their experiences with great detail, especially experiences from early childhood.  Thus, people unknowingly fill in missing details of events with best guesses of what they should be when they attempt to remember events.  This is why Rushdie realizes that the India he remembers and writes about is simply "...a version and no more than one version of all the hundreds of millions of possible versions."  (10).  In reality, I believe what Rushdie is describing is basically the process of writing any work of fiction.  Any work of fiction that a writer creates is created by combining his or her experience of past events with other imagined details.  No one can completely imagine a story without using any of their own experiences of the world.  These experiences are necessary to create the illusion of reality, but because a writer is not simply recording past events, he or she must imagine aspects to create a story.  While Rushdie seems to believe the process he describes occurs only when recreating the past in one's mind or on paper, I believe the process he describes occurs when one tries to create any piece of fiction.