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

262Demonic Texts and Textual DemonsANTITHETICAL CHARACTERSThis fragmented and complex novel is given unity by the repeated nameswhich appear and reappear in different contexts in the separate story lines.The material heterogeneity of The Satanic Verses is obvious; Hans Seminckhas argued that the repetition of names functions to underline the thematicconnections between different narratives. 35 It is, however, equally possibleto read the novel’s three narratives as thematically divergent, or even in oppositionto each other. For example, the story of the village’s pilgrimage inIndia can easily be read as the thematic opposite of the Jahilia sequences: thepatriarchal despotism of Mahound is opposed to the feminine mystical experienceshared by the villagers as they walk into the sea. The reiteration ofnames has a perhaps quite uncomplicated basis; Rushdie was originallyworking on different projects, and as the contemporary Western novel becameentangled in the narratives about East and religion, he made severalnames echo each other in these differing constituent parts. This invites thereader to search for – and to produce – thematic analogies between the differentnarratives during the reading process. 36“Rustam killing the White Demon”(the emblem from The Satanic Verses).35Seminck 1993, 39-40.