Brilliant Ultimate Revenge

        If you wanted ultimate revenge on someone or something (and were a little deranged) it may seem not only logical to commit suicide but maybe a kind of sick sweet revenge.  I’m no expert, but it has been argued that to most suicidal cases, their actions were not only justifiable but necessary in order for them to finally have control over something they never did. . .their own life.  Whether it is – in relationships, employment, financial or physical, if one is suffering from a ‘chemical imbalance’ taking one’s life could be seen as an ultimate revenge or extreme control, especially, if the author of the story is a known satirist like Salman Rushdie.

        Based upon Rushdies past satire’s; i.e. Prophets’ Hair, it would seem that the only person to make it through the turmoil’s of the story would be the blind woman who gains her sight, but a true satirist would notice, she now can see the “horrors” of the world around her.  Based upon this premise, it wouldn’t be far off base to think of someone who is tormented – either through schizophrenia, depression, genius, jealously, madness or love, to go to great measures to calm the waters that create the waves in their souls.  If one wanted to have ultimate control, it could be argued that taking one’s own life would be considered ultimate if not finite.  Now, I’m not trying to read too much into Rushdie’s short story, Harmony of the Spheres, but based upon the cynical undertones of Prophet’s Hair and Auction of the Ruby Slippers, I believe that not only was Eliot Crane suffering from schizophrenia and depression but he was a genius; a scheming madman, who’s ultimate revenge was for his best friend, Khan to find out about Eliot’s and Khan’s wife’s love affair after his death.

        There are ways of divulging truths.  Some make jokes and refer to the situation in light humor, others talk about their issues 3^rd person, but if you’re Eliot Crane, a schizophrenic genius, you blend truth with madness.  You say something powerful then accompany it with the obscene, the absurd.  Eliot said about his wife Lucy, to Khan, “look out for Lucy, by the way, She lies like a whore (p. 130).” Then proceeded to tell him she also hides microphones in the butter.  Lies or lies.  One could interpret this both ways but if looking at underlying messages, you can start to see the unfolding of a scandal which the following paragraph explains the ‘almost love affair’ between Khan and Eliot’s wife, Lucy.

        Khan was always known in his youth to be “notoriously good (p. 133),” and when Lucy and him zipped their sleeping bags together she kissed Khan on the cheek and “murmured, ‘Madness, love’ and rolled over (p. 132).”  Eliot believed that schizophrenia was nothing more than “a simple biochemical imbalance (p. 134).”  Balance between madness and love can drive anyone crazy; especially forbidden love.  Who knows what makes people want things they cannot have and suffer endlessly because of it?  Was Eliot ensnared in a love triangle between what he had and what he wanted; between Lucy and Khan? 

From Eliot, Khan learned the secrets of several spiritual intricacies and mysteries.  The two of them actually hypnotized one another where Eliot made Khan start taking his clothes off, on cue of the word banana.  Where as Mala, Khan’s wife, shouted to both of them, “Maybe you should go to bed together and we-all can go home and get some rest (p. 139).”  The narrator Khan then skeptically says, “Was that it? No. Maybe. No. I don’t know. No (p. 139).”  Was Eliot passionate towards Khan?  Or was he intrigued by Khan and what made him tick, because he felt a kind of kindred spirit with him?  Or was he toying with Khan knowing all along of the secret his wife and Khan held.  Khan stated how when he first met Eliot he was lost in regards to the idea of home and his identity.  “I was a little unhinged myself – suffering from a disharmony of my personal spheres (p. 139).”  Throughout the story, Khan seemed to be inspired by his friend, maybe even wanting to live Eliot’s life.  Khan acknowledged, “with his (Eliot’s) help, I hoped, I might make a forbidden self (p. 141).”

It is interesting to re-read the works of Salman Rushdie because there are so many levels that can be exposed or revealed each time the story unfolds.  After the conclusion of The Harmony of the Spheres, – “the collapse of harmony, the demolition of the spheres (p. 146)” – the reader understands there may have been an underlying current all along as for why Eliot Crane went mad in the first place.  Early on in the story Eliot explained to Khan that he had found a simple solution for madness.  “I’m also working on a simple cure for paranoid schizophrenia (p. 130).”  The simple cure, suicide, would seem absurd, but to a genius madman, a forbidden love affair and quick-sweet-untouchable-ultimate-revenge; it is not only justifiable. . it's brilliant.