Who's Sane, Who's Insane??

May 11, 2008

What is it to be sane, what is insanity? It's kind of like asking, what is normal? I'm sure we all have met people that one would call “eccentric”, “extravagant” or maybe “just a little crazy.” Yet they are functioning members of society, therefore their form of insanity is one hundred percent acceptable.

In Salman Rushdie's short story The Harmony of Spheres, he questions and comments on what makes us lose our minds, what makes us insane. In the story Rushdie narrates through the mind of Kahn, a Cambridge graduate, who's best friend, Eliot, a writer and fellow alum, is suffering from schizophrenia. Their wives, Mala and Lucy respectively, play crucial roles in understanding these two men and their relationship. First off, Kahn admires his friend Eliot, his every mention of him is with esteem. Even though they are different people, “I was involved in fringe theater, race relations and anti-war protests. He weekended on the country-house circuit...” They are friends because of their mutual interest in the study of the dark arts. Eliot is Kahn's tutor in the history and knowledge of black magic. As one might expect this friendship born of a dark bond results in a similar relationship.

At one point of the story a tale is relaid of an incident where Lucy calls Kahn for help, “They found him going the wrong way on the motorway, doing ninety, with one of these sleep-mask things over his eyes.” I found this to be a very interesting point because throughout the story it seemed, to me, like Kahn was walking around with the wool pulled over his eyes. I got the impression that either he was deceiving himself, being deceived, or both. His wife tells him that his friend is bad for him, but doesn't elaborate, this was before the Eliot goes 'insane' too. Lucy treats him like a naive child and Eliot is condescending. Don't sound like very good friends, yet Kahn defends them all and tries to help.

Could Rushdie be describing parallels between what is, or who, are considered sane or insane. On the one hand you have Eliot, obviously insane, schizophrenic and manic; then you've got Kahn, blind, trusting and seemingly along for the ride. Both are graduates of one of the most prestigious universities in the world, both are, or where, successful in their careers, both are married. They seem to have everything one could hope for, but they're both interested in black magic. Why would these privileged individuals seek out and investigate the corrupt arts? They must both be insane.

I recognize that Rushdie has a proficiency for religious and spiritual satire and I can defiantly see the irony in the story. Not to ruin the tale for any of you that might not have read it, but the story end with Kahn helping Lucy out by going through all of Eliot's “unfinished” manuscripts. In his investigations he discovers that Eliot has ranted and raved in his writing, degrading his friends and writing pornographic content about Mala, Kahn's wife, and wrote “nasty and lubricious” (144) remarks about his wife. Lucy said “It wasn't really him writing... He was sick.” The irony was that they weren't mad ravings but factual portrayals of his view of things. As Mala confesses in the end that she had several affairs with Eliot, the line of sane and insane is blurred. The story is called Harmony of Spheres and everyone present is out of harmony, there is no happy ever after, there's no reshaping of lives. There's just floating spheres in this sea of insanity, each thinking the other is crazy, each believing they are healing their sanity. Yet their blindness keeps them from harmony. Pursuit of the dark arts drives Eliot insane, fear and admiration of the darkness drives Kahn insane, guilt drives Mala insane and fear drives Lucy away. They were acceptably insane and unacceptably blind.