Haroun and The Sea of Stories- Chapter 9 & 10

(pg. 152) I don't understand how shadows can touch things. It did mention when shadows separate from their original person the person gets traits of a shadow and the shadow gets human traits. Those traits could solidify shadows and give them features. Since Haroun was captured they were taken aboard a shadow ship and everything is shadow, including the people. The ship manufactures all the poison that is ruining the stories. The Sea has millions of little colored streams, and those streams are different stories. It is discovered that Khattam-Shud's shadow is in charge of this operation.

(pg. 155) There are some parts that seem really random like the P2C2E, water genies, disconnecting tools, and mechanical birds, but as I read on everything connects and seems right. Characters connect from both worlds, little details and little things people say connect. For example Khattam-Shud was exactly Mr. Sengupta! The chap who Haroun's mom ran off with. "'I know you,' Haroun shouted. 'You're him. You're Mr. Sengupta and you stole my mother and you left the fat lady behind..." (Rushdie 155) Does every character Haroun's life on Earth have it's own Kahani counter person?

(pg. 162) The Chups took Butt's mechanical brain out and Haroun and Iff have boarded the evil shadow ship. (Goopa and Bagha had to stay behind becuase the pollution was too much, and Mali has dissappeared.) Khattam-Shud happens to be only a "skinny, scrawny, measly, weaselly, snivelling, clerical type." (Rushdie 153) Except this guy is powerful, and plans to plug the Source of Stories so new stories can't ever de-pollute the Ocean. Khattam-Shud's shadow is a typical evil enemy. Instead of killing the heroes right away to get rid of their chances of ever defeating him, he tells them his entire plan and puts them in an easily escapable situation so they escape and foil his plan. Just like Austin Powers and Dr. Evil.

In this case, Khattam-Shud gives Haroun and Iff an entire guided tour of his ship, showing them the generator which controls the entire poison-manufacturing ship. He also shows them his wet suits which protect the Chups when they go in the poisoned waters. Well, now we know how to beat him and how to escape unharmed. And that is precisely how Haroun does it.

(pg. 172) Haroun has escaped Kahttam's evil clutches with Butt's mechanical brain. After several tries Haroun reassembled the brain in Butt's head, and realized he still had Wishwater in his pocket that he first recieved from Iff when first arriving to Kahani. "The bottle was still half-full of magical golden liquid which Iff the Water Genie had offered him what seemed like years earlier: Wishwater. 'The harder you wish, the better it works,' Iff had told him. 'Do serious business, and the Wishwater will do serious business for you.'" (Rushdie 170) Haroun sees the Wishwater as the way to solve the entire problem. Since everything and everyone that is plaguing the Ocean is made of shadow, how else to stop them but with sunlight? "'I wish this Moon, Kahani, to turn, so that it's no longer half in light and half in darkness... I wish it to turn, this very instant, in such a way that sun shines down on the Dark Ship, the full, hot, noonday sun.'" (Rushdie 171) So, of course, it all works. Sun comes to Chup Land and the Dark Ship, the shadow-people, and the Plug that was going to plug the Source of Stories all disintegrated and melted away.

"'Never doubted you for a moment,' replied Butt the Hoopoe without moving its beak. 'Move the whole Moon by will-power? Mister, I thought, no problem.'" (Rushdie 172) Will-power seems to be something really important to have in both books. Like Haroun's will-power to save the Sea of Stories, it was was necessary for the Lost Boys to have will-power to just live. It's something in you that can make you do great things.