In reading the Calcutta Chromosome, I couldn't help but notice the number of oddly placed, yet awkwardly detailed, sexual narrations within the story -- usually in Murugan's presence. One I first noticed was in one of the chapters in which Murugan is explaining his theories to Antar (around page 90+) with Grigson seemingly getting off on the anomaly Lutchman presents (or maybe just Lutchman himself). (There was another one earlier, but can't remember where exactly to find it.) And many in the chapter on Farley (ch 21). However, one of the most obvious might be in the Umilia chapter in which she and Murugan sit by the Ross memorial in the rain (pg 220-221).
The author seems almost to bring these little descriptions in at random. I'm wondering if anyone has any idea why they might be in the book.
If I were to take him as a bad writer, I would say he's going off the "sex sells" philosophy. However, they're just so oddly placed and overly dramatized, I have to think there's some purpose to it. For example, maybe, as Dr. Tiff had said about the plots multiplying like malaria, the overtly sexual innuendos mirror our human similarities to its reproduction. Since most diseases reproduce in an asexual way, Ghosh highlights malaria's difference in this sense.
Maybe it also links us to the bug in showing that, just like a parasite, we still obey our evolutionary drive to reproduce when placed in a new environment: Murugan gets excited when he finds a new person to tell his stories to, and Farley when he finds himself with a new discovery among strange people, Umilia when she finds herself questioning the world she always knew.
The details in each, as the book progresses, also seem more and more precise; as if each attempt leads to the book's great climax which reveals the answer to everything (or leaves the reader with a bad case of blue balls -- kidding).
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Well I guess im the first to post on this blog. I have noticed some of the same sexual references that you noted in the novel. They do seem a bit strange but I think they play a small role in the novel.
ReplyDeleteI do see some similarity in the way the plot multiplying like malaria, I guess like the reproductive system of a virus. The only problem I see with that is that a virus takes over its host and in the novel I think it kinda changes to the host if that makes any sense.
I think if you were to look at the malaria virus itself and how it is used in the novel then the sexual references make sense. We all know that in the novel the virus is used to shift their personality and such into their new host. I think this is a good representation of the virus rather than trying to compare the plot.
So I guess I see how things can be referenced sexually in the novel. They make some sense when you think about it, but all in all I think it plays in insignificant role in the novel.
Hmm.. these are very interesting points. I see what both of you guys are saying about the relation to malaria thing. However, I think the passage on page 221 more directly relates to experimentation in science. The entire time Urmila refers to her imaginary sex with Murugan as an "experiment." This reference emphasizes the experimentation aspect of science and malaria. It also relates to the Mangala's experimentation on the birds. This indirectly connects Urmila to Mangala; since, after all Urmila is a 'reincarnation' of Mangala.
ReplyDeleteYou guys all made good points about why maybe Ghosh decides to put all these sexual references in the novel.
ReplyDeleteI am most fascinated by what you said though, Marissa, about how the sexual innuendos mirror us being human. I think maybe he threw those "random" references in to remind the reader of how very base we really are. Even though we are advancing in science and in the world with technology, we still seem vulnerable to something so small and seemingly insignificant as a small virus that in turn, as we eventually find out, can turn absolutely everything around.
The world is advancing and changing every second, but we as man are still small in comparison to the multitude of things that can affect us.
Writers can be so tricky sometimes--at least Ghosh is giving us a bit of a challenge when we're reading his work!