|
Thanks, Bookworm_Girl.
I love the way that Ghosh plays with the sounds of words: the cant of the sailors, the pidgin of the lascars.
As Ibis sails ever eastward, everything becomes easternized - the crew, the language Zachary must use to communicate with the crew, even the clothes he wears (eventually a sarong) and the food he eats:
"...switching from the usual sailor’s menu of lobscouse, dandyfunk and chokedog to a lascar fare of karibat and kedgeree – spicy skillygales of rice, lentils and pickles, mixed on occasion with little bits of fish, fresh or dry. The tongue-searing tastes were difficult to get used to at first, but Zachary could tell the spices were doing him good, scouring his insides, and he soon grew to like the unfamiliar flavours."
Are the colonizers being colonized?
|