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What I Learned from Haroun and the Sea of Stories


This summer, I have stayed at home for most of the time. In the beginning of the summer, I carefully looked at my bookshelf and asked myself which books did I not read yet. This observation sparked me to finish as many books as I can this summer that are in my house. What motivated me to take on this challenge was that I couldn't go to the library anymore because of COVID-19. Also, I felt kind of bad for wasting money on books I bought but didn't read.

One of these books that I didn't read yet despite being on my shelf was Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. What stopped me from finishing the book a year ago was probably because I didn't give myself enough free time only for reading. This year, I decided to give it another shot with the hopes that I could finish this book. Before I started reading this book the second time, I had this impression that magic or fantasy books weren't suited for me. Also, I thought I was too old to read children books. As a reader, I was committing a horrible crime by judging a book by its cover. As I read more and more, I realized my preconceptions were totally wrong. Unexpectedly, I grew to enjoy this book.

As I read the book, I became mesmerized with this imaginary world that Rushdie created. The author's creativity reminded me of my first time watching Horton Hears a Who in third grade. Although I am no longer a child, Haroun and the Sea of Stories reminds me of the importance of reading stories because they make some aspects of childhood come back to life again. I think as I am approaching adulthood, I tend to forget the importance of reading fictional tales. Sometimes, I am like the protagonist Haroun who asks his dad in the beginning, "What's the point of telling stories if they aren't real?" Even if they aren't real, stories help unite people of different backgrounds. By reading stories, we forget reality for a brief moment and dive into another world.

For me, reading this book made one of my weaknesses quite obvious: I take my life too seriously and I forget to have fun at times. In the book, the antagonist is Mr. Sengupta who despises stories because they are made up. Mr. Sengupta in the real world would be the cranky middle aged man who doesn't know how to relax.

Another thing I appreciated about this book was the dreamy element of the story. The fictional world that Haroun and his dad enters already sounds like a dream. There is a mechanical bird and water genie that accompanies Haroun. One society has an army of pages that make up a chapter and then a book. The other society consists of shadows and darkness. A good metaphorical description of stories in the book was portraying stories as many liquids that make up a vast ocean of various colors. For me, I thought that this scenario sounded like an ocean of memories floating around in my brain when I am asleep. Sometimes, poisons can pollute the ocean and I end up having inaccurate memories. The same goes with stories. 

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