Desani’s writing may not be the same style as Joyce, who held back from the overuse of exclamation points, I would still consider All About a highly modern novel. While much of the flimflam, irony, and culture-clash are rampant in the novel, Hatterr has a relatable personality for all of his life encounters. It would seem at this point in the course the character of H.H. marks a 180 degree turn from the time where we wanted to slip Tambu a chill pill in her damme Nesquik.
Banerrji may have poked his nose in Tambu’s Shakespeare book, but he enjoys displaying his obsession to H. H. and not caring so much for accuracy. At times this Anglicized Indian proves to frustrate Hatterr for his emphasis more on the experience at the sacrifice of maintaining the facts. Desani’s inclusion of this character as a display of how relevant having ridiculousness can be in one’s life. For instance, while colonialism did happen and the effects are difficult to reverse, what you do with the influx of English/Western culture, which in some respects may be bizarre, can be made to be relevant for all those peculiar moments in life.
A few good points here-
ReplyDeletefirst off I agree that Hatterr holds a relatable personality. I think Wole in Ake was highly relatable, and even Swami, because of their anecdotal coming of age tales. They both went through trials and had to learn new things. All About H. Hatterr is unique as it is from the adult perspective but still holds characteristics of a coming of age tale. It promotes the idea that we are continuously learning and going through trials in life, and his humorous misfortunes are the kinds we can reflect on in our own lives and chuckle about.
As far as making the influx of English culture relevant, I think H. Hatterr is doing so by writing in "English". He molds the language to his personal needs and even mocks it at times, but he does not refuse it simply because it stems from colonial education.
I think your point about how Bannerrji would quote Shakespeare without knowing what it really meant to be interesting. In this way, I feel that Desani is mocking all those pretentious people who claim to know about the works of Joyce and Shakespeare even though they really dont. The only reason they claim to like them is because everyone else claims to enjoy them. I think this is just one of the many examples Desani uses to show ridiculous society truly is.
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