Note on this edition: this is an electronic version of the 1999 book ...

258Demonic Texts and Textual Demonsdefines (post)modern subjectivity as something that arises from heightenedawareness of language, and from recognition of “self” as being somethingdefined and redefined by language.We can conclude from this emphasis on the British context and theimmigrant experience, that the Koran itself is not among the real “targets”of Rushdie’s subversive text, but rather the fundamentalist interpretation ofit, as perceived from the “migrant condition.” The change of Islamic names,characters and narratives are nowhere as radical as are the transformationssituated in the Great Britain.The manticore ground its three rows of teeth in evident frustration.‘There’s a woman over that way,’ it said, ‘who is now mostly waterbuffalo.There are businessmen from Nigeria who have grown sturdy tails.There is a group of holidaymakers from Senegal who were doing no morethan changing planes when they were turned into slippery snakes. I myselfam in the rag trade; for some years now I have been a highly paid malemodel, based in Bombay, wearing a wide range of suitings and shirtingsalso. But who will employ me now?’ he burst into sudden and unexpectedtears. […]‘But how they do it?’ Chamcha wanted to know.‘They describe us,’ the other whispered solemnly. ‘That’s all. They havethe power of description, and we do succumb to the pictures they construct.’31Saladin Chamcha was born Salahuddin Chamchawala, and after changinghis name to adopt a career in the West, he has undergone a completephysical transformation, as well. It should be pointed out, that despite thecruel and distressing situation, this section carries its own, absurd humour.Chamcha is described as having hairy goat-legs, a tail and an over-sized phallusas the Pagan fertility god, Pan, and he is called “Beelzebub” or “devil”even by his friends. The main emphasis, however, is not laid on the religioustradition in this section, or on how religious ideas can alter one’s identity.Western philosophical ideas, and the contemporary discussion on how theconceptual representations of reality take part in creating the reality they tryto convey, are the main source of humour here. Especially a reference to therole of Nietzsche and his theory of truth is pertinent here, as the lives ofRushdie’s left-wing intellectuals are immersed in radical discourses, many ofwhich owe something to Nietzsche. Compare Rushdie to the following quotations:What, indeed, does man know of himself! Can he even once perceive himselfcompletely, laid out as if in an illuminated glass case? Does not naturekeep the most from him, even his body, to spellbind and confine him in aproud, defective consciousness […].31SV, 168.