Sara Suleri's Meatless Days -- Leading Questions
Sara Suleri Goodyear is a professor of English at Yale University. She is the author of Meatless Days and Boys Will Be Boys. Meatless Days by Sara Suleri, a personal memoir, is split into nine essays rather than chapters as each part revolves around one specific character with whom Suleri shared a certain bond during a certain period of her life. Sara Suleri Goodyear is a professor of English at Yale University. She is the author of 'Meatless Days' and 'Boys Will Be Boys.' -This text refers to the paperback edition. Meatless days by Sara Suleri, 1989, University of Chicago Press edition, in English. Enabling Opposition and Power Relations in Meatless Days Caleb Paull '93 (English 34, 1991) In Meatless Days Sara Suleri reveals her history to us by telling us the histories of the people around her, the people whom she's spent her life with. She speaks of her mother 'writing' her, but makes it clear that she is 'written' by everything which.
Members of English 27, Postcolonial Studies, Brown University, Autumn 1997
[See also questions posed by members of the 1996 class and those from English 171,
No, it is not merely devotion that makes my mother into the land onto which this tale must tread. I am curious to locate what she knew of the niceties that living in someone else's history must entail, of how she managed to dismantle that other history she was supposed to represent. Furthermore, I am interested to see how far any tale can sustain the name of 'mother,' or whether such a name will have to signify the severance of story. Her plot therefore must waver: it must weave in her own manner of sudden retreating, as though I could almost see her early surprise when she found herself in Pakistan, on someone else's land. I, who have watched her read a book, and teach it, should be able to envisage the surrendering of black and white behind her reading of the land. No wonder she nuanced, when her progeny was brown.
Suleri's mother is of Welsh origin; what is it about motherhood that explains that Suleri's mother represents the 'land onto which this tale must tread,' when the story most strongly reflects Pakstani culture, and certainly nothing of Welsch culture? Why does Suleri call her autobiography a tale at this time, notably in this section on how she perceivced her mother, the very creator of the life which she is recounting, and thus to whom she owes its reality? What thematic framework does the association of motherhood, land and storytelling establish in this passage? What is Suleri's mother's relationship to the nation of Pakistan and why does she move through this country, 'with a curious relaxation that seem[s] unencumbered by any judgment?' [Emilie Cassou]
I missed Tillat's children when they left. There are too manyof them, of course--all of my siblings have had too many. Each year Iresolve afresh that my quota of aunthood is full, that I no longer am goingto clutter my head with new names, new birthdays. But then somethinghappens, like finding in the mail another photograph of a new baby, andagainst my will they draw me in again. I did not see Ifat's children forfour years after she had died, and when Tillat and I visited them inRawalpindi, in the pink house on the hill, Ayesha, the youngest, whisperedto her paternal grandmother, 'My aunts smell like my mother.' When sherepeated that to me, it made me tired and grave. Tillat and I slept forten hours that night, drowning in a sleep we could not forestall,attempting to waken and then falling back exhausted into another dreamlesshour.
I think Ayesha speaks a beautiful truth, sisters resemble each other inso many ways which declare their undeniable ties to one another. How elseis Sara bound to her silblings, other than by her scent? Can we discussSuleri's use of the senses? Due to her large amount of food descriptions,Suleri senses never turn off. Although scent is often a difficult sense todescribe, Ayesha captures a familiar comforting scent with ease. Why doesthis realization cause both Tillat and Sara to fall into a deep sleep?What implications does the comment carry? Sara's often describes herdreams and sleep patterns during her states of mourning. Does the authorsleep to escape from the deaths of her relations? Is sleep the closest theauthor can come to dying herself? [Corey Binns]
One of the striking contrasts between Rushdie's Shame andSuleri's Meatless Days is the simplicity or at least 'everydayness,'of Suleri's subject matter, whereas Rushdie makes everything so- grandiose. Where Rushdie wrote about characters whose lives had enormousrepercussions on those around them, the risings and fallings nations'leaders and such, Suleri writes a much more personal tale about her family,in which cooks marked the progression of time. Futhermore, Rushdie tookgreat pains to remind the reader that the bizarre and wild tale he wasunfolding was a made-up story. Suleri, (or her surrogate narrator)presents her text like autobiography (fictionalized or not), a literalprose, much more like a memoir than an epic.
Nevertheless, both Rushdie's and Suleri's works concern (directly orindirectly) Pakistan, and there is overlap of background subject matter:The rise of Islamic fundamentalism, for example, and the unfortunatesuccession of Pakistan's leaders.
'...Islam predictably took to the streets shaking Bhutto'sempire.'(16)
'By this time Bhutto was in prison and awaiting trial, and General Zuluwas presiding over the Islamization of Pakistan. But we had no time tonotice.'(17)
Just from these lines, I automatically (accurately or not) equate Bhuttoto Rushdie's fictitious character Iskander Harrapa and General Zulu to RazaHyder. In Rushdie, these events were dramatic forces in the book,cataclysmic even. In Suleri, 'we had no time to notice.' Can we betterunderstand the intents or functions of these authors by comparing theoverlap of their novels, and their different strategies of addressing thesame issues? [Jennifer Ellingson]
Suleri's
How could I tell Shahid's story and let Ifat diebefore his eyes? Have I nothing in me, then, to intervene between him andthat great in delicacy?[104]
THis strikes me as the author's expression of percieved inadquacy in theface of her subject. More follows:
How she would shake her head, to see my completeregression into a woman who does not care for character at all and wants tochange only the plot... [154]
...But I was baffled by her lesson: if I am to break out of thestructure of affection, I asked her silently, then what is the idiom inwhich I should live? She would not tell me, but even today -- as I strugglewith the quaintness of the task I've set myself, the obsolescence of ththese quirky little tales -- I can feel her spirit shake its head to tellme, 'Daughter, unplot yoursel; let be.' But I could not help the manner inwhich my day was narrative, quite happy to let Mamma be that haunting worldat which narrative falls apart. [157]
Meatless Days By Sara Suleri Summary
In a way, this is Suleri's way of doing what other author's we have readalso do, examing her role as story teller, asserting the context in whichshe has the right to tell stories. It is interesting to compare Suleri'shumble and at times self-effacing way of doing this with Rusdie'sdevil-may-care, humorous, and perhaps even arrogant way of doing so. WhileRushdie (and others) seems to argue that given the validity of manyinterpretations of an event, his may as well be the considered first, Sulericontinually reminds us that given the complexities of the matters at hand,she regrets she did not have more helping hands (specifically those of heradmired family members) to help her. Examine this in the light of Suleri'srelatively light use of the fantastic.
It made me respect her voice, that she viewed it so humblyherself. It is just these attitudes that make me think I'd rather haveSuleri for a friend and confidant and Rushdie as party entertainment (andcertainly not as a boyfriend!). How do the author's attitudes aboutnarrative and about themselves as story tellers color our reading of theirbooks? How do they contrast with other author's we have read?
A favorite meatless day breakfast, for example, consistedof goat's head and feet cooked with spices into a rich and ungual sauce -remarkable , the things that people eat. And so, instead of creating anatmosphere of abstention in the city, the institution of meatless daysrapidly came to signify the imperative behind the acquisition of all thingsfleshy.(32) [Margaret Hander]
What I found were hunks of meat wrapped in cellophane, and each of themfelt like Mamma, in some odd way. . . .I stole away a portion of that body.It was a piece of her foot I found, a small bone like a knuckle, which Iquickly hid inside my mouth, under my tongue. Then the dream dissolved,into an extremity of tenderness. (44)
This may seem like an obvious question, but in the chapter 'Meatless Day',what is the significance of meat? Suleri seems to be entirely fixated onit. She writes a great deal about her discovery of the actual ingredients(balls)of kapura and describes many childhood encounters with food (e.g.the kidney episode). Again, what does this mean and why does she equate hermother with meat? [Alaka Holla]
In Suleri's
So in the end there was no place left where Ifat couldreturn: in each room she was new. 'Will no one ever let that girl be athome,' I thought, protection spluttering in me like the sulphur flare of amatch that flares beyond the call of duty. Ifat watched my face; 'Itdoesn't matter, Sara,' she once told me ruefully. 'Men live in homes, andwomen live in bodies' (p.143)
How do we read this passage theoretically? Are women always homeless? Or, if women live in bodies (wemight also add that men live in women's bodies...) is it only men who canbe displaced from their homes? [Adam Stolorow]
'When Mustakori first arrived, she at once fell victim to the vagariesof the city and wanted a vocabulary to do justice to the perfect postcardsin her mind. and the word with which she kept rubbingshoulders--dangerously--was 'subtlety.' 'Subtlety': that word cropped upoften when Pakistan attempted to talk about itself in history. It was atthe cutting edge of our border with India, that great divide of siblingrivalry, when India described our portion of the map of the subcontinent asferociously mean and skinny, we bridled and said that actually it wassubtle and slim...'
[Mustakori] would seek out the slender Gandhara statue of the fastingBuddha and its lovely intricacies of sinew and rib. There, she would frownat it, trying to locate the subtlety principle, instead only feelingflummoxed by the obviousness of it all. That she should feel flusteredstaggered me. 'Can't you see, 'I tried to explain, 'that you aren't beingstupid at all? that Lahore plays on the enchantment of the obvious?? thatit is arrogant because it refuses to be anything besides what it seems tobe?'...Mustakor had perfected beyond all normal ken an ability not to seewhich made her terribly nervous about what a subtle thing the obvious canbe. After having tried out every angle of possible explanation, I wasfinally driven to the dead end of proverbs--'wisdom in the vernacular'--asa way to alleviate my extreme sense of irritation...'Is the brain bigger orthe buffalo?' 'Buffalo' blurted Mustakor. Then she ran, and would notstay for a reply.' [56]
What is Suleri's point in mentioning the 'vagaries' of the city, the'perfect postcards'? Is she commenting on the inability of Pakistan to beessentialized, by the western world, or even by insiders like Mustakor.What are we to make of the sarcasm in Suleri's voice when she describes thePakistani response to India's jibes? Is she poking fun at Pakistan'sinsecurities and defense mechanisms which have been developed to fight asense of insignifcance? Or is she commenting, like so many other authors,on the postcolonial subject's need to reclaim words and terms? How can thepassage be applied to Suleri's own writing? What is the significance thather own writing style can be seen as obscure, subtle, if you will, while atthe same time anecdotal and perhaps 'vernacular' as she calls it? [IreneTung]
I could not lay a finger on it at first when I moved to NewHaven, but I knew that a trouble sat on every conversation that I had, andit vexed me to be ignorant. Then one day I realized, why, there are rabbitsin everybody's eyes, creatures who in panic dart around with all theagility of things that can be hurt... with a sigh I knew that I now livedin a world where every conversation threatened to construe itself into ajudgement of the soul. For a talking woman, it felt hard, at first, to haveso many whites of eye in mind that seemed to protect themselves in thewrong direction, veering into publicity of their need. I grew used to it,though, and now when my friends shake their heads and groan, 'Oh,university!' - I answer briskly, 'Rubbish! It's the fault of living in thisugly city and its evil climate.' (102-3)
'Remember,' I said warningly, 'that I've lived many years as anotherness machine, had more than my fair share of being other, so if mybrother or my father start picking up the trend, I have every right toexpostulate!'(105)
[Sahid's] policy was that if he could not make cards then atleast he could make amends: residues of that innocence still quicken hisheart today... But how can I pick up on that Right Path lingo, listing allthe things that Shahid should or should not have done, different ways hecould have plotted out his necessary mistakes... Nevertheless, whether hebreaks or makes amends with habit, I conjure him to remember thesignificant labor he performed when he maintained, through all those years,his astonishing gaiety of soul. 'It's not frivolity,' I urged him, 'it'swork -- painstaking, extravagant work!'(106-7)
Meatless Days By Sara Suleri As An Autobiographical Work
This gaiety of soul which Sahid once had seems to be a far cry from thepanicked creatures with rabbits in their eyes in New Haven. Suleri makes astatement about life in New Haven, and I think, in some ways, Westernculture in general. (i.e. the 'hustle-bustle' of London) Is Western cultureto blame for Sahid's loss of gaiety? Sara seems to retain it yet 'had morethan [her] fair share of being other.' Can you see different priorities inboth Western and Eastern styles of living? What should people in both beworking towards? Why is it so hard to do both? Some concepts I consider areindividualism and fear. [Dave Washburn]
What is Suleri depicting in her sister when she describes Ifat as two?Suleri attempts to identify herself as Ifat's twin, then realizes, '[i]tcannot be, for she was twinned before my time, her face already raising tothe power of some other number, which danced about her shoulder like aspirit miniscule' (131). How is this 'woman of addition' related to theimagery of space, water, and light?
'Oh, home is where your mother is, one; it is where you are mother, two;and in between it's almost as though your spirit must retract...your spiritmust become a tiny, concentrated little thing, so that your body feels likea spacious place in which to live...'(147).
Of Ifat's death, Suleri says, 'A curious end for such a moving body, onethat, like water, moved most generously in light.' 'And so with painfullabor we placed Ifat's body in a different discourse, words as private andprecise as water when water wishes to perform both in and out of light'(148). [Molly Yancovitz]