full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Iseult Gillespie: Why should you read "Midnight's Children"?


Unscramble the Blue Letters


Over the course of the novel, Rushdie dazzles us with multiple versions of reality. Sometimes, this is like renidag a rsoelcotrealr. Saleem narrates: “Who what am I? My answer: I am everyone everything whose being-in- the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I’ve gone which would not have happened if I had not come. Nor am I particularly exceptional in this matter; each 'I,' every one of the now-six- hundred-million-plus of us, contains a similar multitude. I repeat for the last time: to understand me, you’ll have to swallow a world.”

Saleem’s narrative often has a breathless quality— and even as rhsdiue dpeitcs the cosmological consequences of a life, he questions the idea that we can ever condense hsiroty into a single narrative.

Open Cloze


Over the course of the novel, Rushdie dazzles us with multiple versions of reality. Sometimes, this is like _______ a _____________. Saleem narrates: “Who what am I? My answer: I am everyone everything whose being-in- the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I’ve gone which would not have happened if I had not come. Nor am I particularly exceptional in this matter; each 'I,' every one of the now-six- hundred-million-plus of us, contains a similar multitude. I repeat for the last time: to understand me, you’ll have to swallow a world.”

Saleem’s narrative often has a breathless quality— and even as _______ _______ the cosmological consequences of a life, he questions the idea that we can ever condense _______ into a single narrative.

Solution


  1. depicts
  2. rushdie
  3. reading
  4. history
  5. rollercoaster

Original Text


Over the course of the novel, Rushdie dazzles us with multiple versions of reality. Sometimes, this is like reading a rollercoaster. Saleem narrates: “Who what am I? My answer: I am everyone everything whose being-in- the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I’ve gone which would not have happened if I had not come. Nor am I particularly exceptional in this matter; each 'I,' every one of the now-six- hundred-million-plus of us, contains a similar multitude. I repeat for the last time: to understand me, you’ll have to swallow a world.”

Saleem’s narrative often has a breathless quality— and even as Rushdie depicts the cosmological consequences of a life, he questions the idea that we can ever condense history into a single narrative.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations





Important Words


  1. affected
  2. breathless
  3. condense
  4. consequences
  5. cosmological
  6. dazzles
  7. depicts
  8. exceptional
  9. happened
  10. history
  11. idea
  12. life
  13. multiple
  14. multitude
  15. narrative
  16. questions
  17. reading
  18. reality
  19. repeat
  20. rollercoaster
  21. rushdie
  22. saleem
  23. similar
  24. single
  25. swallow
  26. understand
  27. versions
  28. world