some things dont have a price tag. . . .

“Curiosity breeds imagination,” one of the few things I remember ever hearing from my grandfather, who passed away when I was six years old, those words have not fallen on closed ears. Although they meant nothing to me back then, today I can understand and see what he was thinking. In reading the work of Salman Rushdie, it is quite obvious that he is making a sociopolitical statement. This book, East, West, short stories by Salman Rushdie is split into three parts, East, West, and East, West; each section of the book is directed as an over-the-top satire of each target. In the story we read for this week, in the West section, “At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers,” Rushdie points his finger at capitalist pigs of the western world it seems.

            Maybe calling them pigs is over the top, but at least some would disagree. Rushdie likes to be the whistle-blower, but does not want to be boring and overly bland, therefore he comes up with interesting linguistic satirical literature that is both entertaining and appropriate. At “The Auction....” the story is narrated by an ambiguous narrator, which puts an interesting perspective on how to grasp the story untold as well as normally there is a stance that the author/narrator takes in order to challenge or address the reader. Rushdie in this story has opted to abstain and let the reader quarrel over whether Rushdie is entirely serious or supportively disenfranchised from the capitalist perspective that he addresses in this story.

            The shoes are a marketable artifact for Rushdie to use in this representative tale. His wisdom seems to have led him to the slippers because they are something that most people can identify with, something that provides hope and inspiration to individuals who are looking for an answer because as the narrator explains, “we suspect that these limits may not exist." (p.87) It is interesting that Rushdie placed the slippers of higher importance to the society than many other possessions that seem to carry much more weight and value, items like human souls and state secrets. These slippers represent something at a different level though to the auctioneers, something that is beyond that of possibility, even the narrator questions “are we asking, hoping for, too much?” (89)

            Rushdie seems upset with the West and is looking for ways to point out flaws within the system, because he does not completely identify himself with the west, or the east for that matter, this book may actually be seen as an autobiography of Rushdie’s cultural standpoint, and where he draws his lines of belief. I guess it is fair to say that he is at least a little harsh on the Westerners who would agree that “everything is for sale…in the courtroom of demand” (99). It seems that the narrator is trying to connect, and who doesn’t want to just close their eyes, click their toes and feel at home?