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This earth, hot like burning coals: Alchemical Transmutation in Animals People thou art an animal fierce and free in all the world is none like thee in fires forge thy back did bend my bitter fire be thy end1 Forged in the scorching flames of chemical fires, Animals People is a harrowing fictionalization of the Bhopal disaster of 1984 a catastrophe deemed the Hiroshima of the chemical industry.2 From the twisted, smelted spine of the four-legged narrator, Animal, to the Khaufpurianss burning thirst for justice against the Kampani, images of fire and intolerable heat serve as a searing indictment of corporate negligence and the project of neoliberal globalization. With alchemic power, Animals People transmutes the sweltering pain of That Night (the Bhopal disaster) into a cathartic narrative of spiritual and cultural transformation a process within which identity categories (Khaufpurian/American, human/animal, rich/poor) are transformed and metamorphosized. Out of the intense pain of This Night (a politicallycharged repeat of That Night), Animal becomes enveloped into a magical, apocalyptic world set aflame by scorching clouds of toxic chemicals, the molten misery of the hottest season in Khaufpur (Nautapa), and by his burning lust (dautura). Animals People is a glowing narrative sifted out of the embers of industrial catastrophe. A fusion of historical tragedy and magical realism, Sinhas text sensitively acknowledges the suffering of the past, while also imaginatively transforming it in a defiant act of postcolonial alchemy.3 Infused by the rich history of alchemic

Animals People 342. According to the Bhopal Medical Appeal (http://Bhopal.org). 3 I use the term, postcolonial alchemy, to refer to the imaginative fictionalization of the Bhopal disaster in Animals People. Written from the perspective of a member of the postcolonial underclass and
1 2

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practice which includes the invention of the study of organic chemistry, Carl Jungs psychoanalytic formulation of the collective unconscious and Braj Kachrus examination of the alchemy of English Animals People aims to represent the spiritual and cultural transfiguration that arises out of the cinders of suffering.

The History of Alchemy

Comment [Default1]: Consider inserting more headings into the text when appropriate.

The history of alchemy, as Allison Condert contends, stretches from ancient Medieval science and religion to modern science and pyschology, and can be broadly defined as the transformation of something of little or no value into something of greater or noble value (13). In their quest for gold and the elixir of life, Condert continues, ancient alchemists went beyond the bounds of convention, science, religion, and even reason. They may never have transmuted base metal into gold or attained immortality, but chemistry was born in their laboratories, psychologists learned from their visions, [and] surrealism borrowed from their art... (11). With such a broad history, alchemy is itself a compelling blend of mythology and science, melded together by its first practitioners in an attempt to expand the bounds of human knowledge. Given the connection between science, psychology, and art, it is no surprise that alchemy is a reoccurring motif in Animals People. The inception of the study of organic chemistry in the early nineteenth century, for instance, led to further industrial processing even, interestingly, to the development of corporate chemical plants like Union Carbide the factory responsible for the toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate that killed over 15,000 people in Bhopal, and which has led

structured by a narrative framework of transformation, Sinhas work wields an alchemic power capable of transmuting existing accounts of Bhopals industrial catastrophe particularly those generated by Western media into a specifically postcolonial narrative. Given the use of magical realism in postcolonial literature (if alchemy can be considered a form of magical realism), I hope to detail the ways in which Animals People fuses together elements of history and magic for the purpose of harnessing the voices of postcolonial subjects.

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to continued birth defects, fatal cancers, and irreversible ecological destruction.4 Moreover, the corporate shape-shifting of Union Carbide to Dow Chemical that followed the Bhopal disaster is, in and of itself, a kind of alchemic transformation (Nixon 459). Bought out by Dow Chemical, the Union Carbide corporation (and the disaster indelibly associated with it), evaporated, further confounding the quest in Bhopal for environmental justice, compensation, remediation, and redress (Nixon 459). The use presence of alchemy in Sinhas text thus serves to bind together the connections between the study of organic chemistry that led to the development of chemical plants like Union Carbide, and to the eventual alchemical transmutation of the corporate name as a way of disclaiming responsibility. On another level, the motif of alchemy is also used to explore the complex problems associated with universal psychic expression, as well as with the notion of a peaceably unified global culture that is unmarked by the strife caused by corporate negligence or racial conflict. From Carl Jungs theoretical construct of the collective unconscious developed from the study of alchemic imagery, to Braj Kachrus formulation of the alchemy of english as a neutralizing language of power and prestige, alchemy has often been associated with the binding together of identity categories. As I will argue, however, the engine of Sinhas text is fuelled by spiritual and cultural metamorphosis, rather than by the fusion of identity categories. To be sure, Animals People is a text that is wary of dissolving difference, since such harmonization may result in a negation of the pain and suffering experienced by Khaufpurian civilians. For example, Carl Jungs psychoanalytic formulation of the collective unconscious, characterized by the mystical transcendence of the psyche, hinges on the idea of universal psychic expression that is irrespective of racial differences (Jung qtd in Condert149). While the dissolution of conflict along racial lines may be productive in some contexts, Animals People adamantly
4

Comment [Default2]: It might be helpful here to provide a brief appositive here describing what these two companies do.

Comment [Default3]: The first part of this sentence (about the collective unconscious) is expanded a few sentences later, but this portion doesnt ever seem to be. Consider developing this section sometime later in your paper.

According to the Bhopal Medical Appeal (http://Bhopal.org).

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refuses to neutralize pain and suffering, but rather uses it to spark a fiery confrontation with corporate and racial inequality. If Animals narrative is a blend of historical tragedy and magical realism and if magical realism presents a view of the world that promises not only joy but a fair share of misery as well (Darrow 67, italics added) then suffering is the fuel that feeds the postcolonial alchemists fire. To further clarify this point, it is necessary to highlight the way in which magical realist texts transform pain into fantastical narratives of growth and metamorphosis. Unlike Jungs alchemical notion of the collective unconscious, which represents sameness and universal psychic experience, magical realist texts are characterized by constant transformation. Jungs notion that alchemic images point to a psychic undercurrent of universal human experience is counteracted by another impulse incited by magical realism to centre on processformation...routes, journeys, growth, initiation, death and rebirth, mutation, metamorphosis (Linguinati 6). Magical realist texts at once acknowledge hybridized spaces, coterminous worlds, and the comingling of opposite properties, while at the same time discouraging sameness, stasis, and finality (Linguinati 6). The series of alchemic symbols that occur throughout Sinhas work facilitate the exploration of coterminous spaces and hybridized identities particularly in relation to the pain and suffering caused by the chemical leak. Animals People captures the authentic voice of a struggling member of the postcolonial underclass, Animal a being snagged between categories of animal and human. As we are told, Animals body were chafed with red hot tongs, leading to a smelting of the neck, shoulders, and back leaving him twisted like a hairpin, unable to straighten himself and stand upright like a human (15). While Animal might quite literally be considered the material of alchemic practice (since he is a body smelted in the fiery, painful forge of corporate
Comment [Default5]: Material product/result? Comment [Default4]: Symbols meaning notation for alchemical practice or alchemical metaphors?

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indifference), he is also the master of his narrative. Inventive and transformative in and of itself, Animals account is the product of his own alchemical practice. In other words, Animal is an alchemist of language: the words captured by the tape mashins are, as he narrates, kind of misty, like breath on a cold day but as they lift they change co lours and shapes, they become pictures of things and people (13). According to Animal, his words have transformative power: enchanted, they leap from his mouth, alter in form, and become pictures for his Western listeners. Moreover, Animals narrative is characterized by a unique inventiveness with language, and by frequent proclamations of his autonomous status as fierce and free (342), as well as by an exploration, transgression, and metamorphosization of identity categories and ontological boundaries. For instance, during Animals hallucinogenic dream on This Night (Tape Nineteen), Animal magically disintegrates his Kha-in-a-Jar (jarred, two-headed fetus). With a flick of the thumb, a whoooouf of blue flame, a violet flash, Animal transmutes the unborn, disfigured baby who is, intriguingly, caught between one element and another (life/death, fetus/human) into spiritually transformed being who is located in a peaceful, paradisiacal state (344). Such magical transfiguration points to the way in which magical realism in postcolonial texts ignites political and cultural disruption: magic is often given as a cultural corrective, requiring readers to scrutinize accepted realistic conventions of causality, materiality, motivation (Zamora and Faris 3). In addition to re-writing cultural narratives from the perspective of the (neo)colonized subject, such texts insist upon exploring and transgressing boundaries, whether the boundaries are ontological, political, geographical, or generic and upon tracking the fusion, or coexistence, of possible worlds, spaces, systems (Zamora & Faris , italics added 4). Although the existence of hybridized identities and coterminous worlds points to the fusion of ontological
Comment [Default8]: Earlier in your paper you distinguish between fusion and metamorphosis, and seem to privilege latter over the former. Maybe you could either reaffirm that distinction here or explain when fusion (such as youve mentioned here) is appropriate. Comment [Default6]: It seems like you are making 2 discrete claims here about Animals language: 1. It has transformative power. 2. It explores, transgresses, and metamorphoses identity categories and ontological boundaries. To help clarify your argument, it may be useful to include examples of these claims about language and then comment on them, developing the ideas as distinct but correlated claims. The second idea in particular is one that could use more development somewhere in your paper. Comment [Default7]: Is this an example used to characterize linguistic alchemy? Or magical transfiguration? It may be useful to include more commentary on how this example relates to your previous claims about language. Or, if it has more to do with magical realism transformations, consider including a different example of linguistic transformation.

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boundaries, it is clear that Animals People is invested in the process of continual transfiguration. On another note, the alchemic trope of narrative fusion that propels Sinhas narrative perhaps coincides, to some degree, with the imperatives of other postcolonial writers many of whom attempt to meld Western histories with non-Western narratives through the use of magical realism. As Zamora and Faris point out, such texts use magic to recuperate the real, that is, to reconstruct histories that have been obscured or erased by political and social injustice (9). Intriguingly, however, the move towards historical reconstruction carries with it the connotation of a universal narrative that has been patched up by non-Western narratives rather than as a series of equally veritable accounts. What is significant about a meta-narrative fulfilled by the voices of victimized subjects is that it masquerades as a kind of desirable historical universalism. To use an alchemic metaphor, it is like gold rendered by the intermingling of base elements; a universally-desirable, narrative truth yielded from lesser components (the accounts of the postcolonial underclass). While Animal revises the history of industrial disaster, he also insists that his story belongs to him alone: as to what happened, well, there are many versions going around, every newspaper had a different story, not one knows the truth, but Im not talking to this tape for truth or fifty rupees or ChunaramskebabsI do not know what name you could give to the things I have done (11). To be clear while Animal tells of the worlds unspoken languages that pronounce their meanings to him, his story is unique, separate, set apart (11). Of course, alchemic practice is based upon the privileging of gold the product of blending, intermingling, and melting. Since alchemy is a key trope in Sinhas text, we might assume that the gold desirable narratives are necessarily the product of lesser, dissolved elements. As a narrator-alchemist, however, Animals individual words have
Comment [Default9]: This whole point could be fleshed out with textual evidence and a description of exactly how its clear that the book is invested in the process of continual transfiguration. Elaborate on this idea of the fusion of ontological boundaries. Define what ontological boundaries you the text demonstrates are being fusedor transfigured, rather.

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transformative power. As such, Sinhas use ofAnimals People as a work of magical realism (particularly with regard to the motif of alchemy) is perhaps unlike some of postcolonial texts that attempt to mend Western narratives. Animals narrative is not simply a stand-in for all members of the postcolonial underclass to the very end, Animal insists, I am Animal fierce and free/in all the world is none like me (366). To make clear the difference between a universal and individual narrative in relation to alchemy (which is, in and of itself, invested in the process of melding components, rather than preserving their distinct forms), it is significant to note that language production itself is an inventive process that is undertaken by individual language-producers each with his own style, tone, and purpose. Since alchemy is defined as the process of transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value (OED), we might extend the metaphor into the realm of language-production by complicating how value is assigned to narratives. In the case of Animal, his narrative may not necessarily be of universal value to his listeners as gold would be for ancient practitioners of alchemy. Rather, Animals narrative is characterized by a haughty attitude, lustful impulses, and sardonic wit unlikely elements in a desirable account. Words like Amrika, jamisponding, Inglis, and mashins, are linguistically unique and delightfully inventive (indeed, a shining example of Animals originality), but it is Animals obsession with sex, enjoyment of scatological humour, and distrust of humans that sets his narrative apart. To be sure, the acquisition of narrative gold does not hinge upon its universal value or its ability to absorb lesser accounts: rather, a narrative like Animals is of value because it demonstrates Animals individuality an individuality that has been transformed in the blazing forge of pain and suffering.

Comment [Default10]: Ground this metaphor somehow. What does it meant to acquire narrative gold? Admit a text into the canon? Ascribe to it a sense of universality?

Comment [Default11]: From what into what?

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While Braj Kachru argues in The Alchemy of English that the English language is a language of power and prestige (291), and is used to neutralize identities (emphasis mine 292), it might also be argued that English can be transformed and drastically modified in ways that may even exacerbate divisionary lines of identity (as well as incite the transformation of each distinct identity category). For instance, Kachru admits that the process of Englishization results in the development of a new caste of language groups (295) suggesting that language production does not simply neutralize identity categories. Moreover, Animals use of language is not wielded as Kachru would argue of postcolonial texts as a powerful linguistic tool of manipulation and control (295). Indeed, such a statement assumes that postcolonial literature exists primarily for the purpose of diverting the currents of power that flow from the nodal point of Western literature. Rather, Animals narrative demonstrates the way in which the construction of language is in and of itself an alchemic practice, but in which the desired product or meaning may not be of universal value to its listeners. To be sure, Animals narrative is not simply a conglomerated fragment in a more authoritative account: it is a product of value because not because it has been assigned as such, but because it has been produced in the first place. Animal represents the postcolonial underclass, but it does not represent him. Aside from the significance of Animal as an alchemist of language, it is clear that the transmutation of identity categories is ignited by suffering but particularly suffering on an apocalyptic scale. In the magical, apocalyptic space of This Night, Animal is consumed by his burning lust (by taking an overdose of dautura pills), while the political reactionaries, including Zafar, suffer from the heat of Nautapa as they undergo a political fast from water and food. On top of this, Elli Doctress clinic is set alight by some protesters an act that ultimately leads to
Comment [Default13]: Name these. Elaborate. You may not do it here, but you maybe could elaborate on this whole idea of identity categories earlier in the paper. And then you could ground the idea of identity categories in the text: what identity categories are transformed? Animals? His cultures? Union Carbide/Dow Chemical? Comment [Default12]: Consider defining your use of the word identity here, or refer briefly to another part of the paper in which youve defined it.

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the return of That Night, in which chemical fires ravage the chemical plant and pour toxic smoke into the city streets. During this apocalyptic moment of intolerable heat, Animal narrates, the dream animals come near, one by one they approach...After this Ive lost every trace of time, voices and creatures are gone, all I remember is being alone, naked, looking for water in that burning jungle...Not the world, its you whore burning, this voice informs me (348). In a collapse of space and being, fire becomes a stand-in for pain and suffering of all kinds: the poisonous, burning rage that not only lies in peoples hearts but in the soil and water of Khaufpur(196); the haughty selfishness and burning lust of Animals nature; the heat of Nautapa. In this apocalyptic world of fire, the hallucinogenic dream commences, with Animal himself as the alchemist. Following the inferno of this dream-vision, Animal imagines that fevers gone, hunger and thirst are no more, body feel slight as a stalk...No fires here, in the shade of the rocks its cool. High, far above my head swallows are nesting. So weak Im, newly born into this new life (351). In a rebirth, Animal arises from the cinders of This Night, a transmuted being in a transfigured world. In an act of spiritual and cultural transformation, Animal emerges from the inferno of pain once ignited by corporate negligence as a newly reborn, postcolonial subject. To be sure, such alchemic imagery amplified on an apocalyptic scale enables the possibility of transformation on multiple levels whether in the corporate global world, in the hearts of devastated Khaufpurians, or in the heart of a four-legged, lustful narrator.
Comment [Default14]: This is an idea that never quite gets developed, although you mention it several times.

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Works Cited Condert, Allison. Alchemy: The Philosophers Stone. Colorado: Shambhala Boulder, 1980. Print. DHaen, Theo L. Magical Realism and Postmodernism: Decentering Privileged Centers. In Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995. 191-208. Print. Jung, C. G. Psychology and Alchemy. Trans. R. F. C. Hull. New Jersey: Princeton, 1968. Print. Kachru, Braj. B. The Alchemy of English. In The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. Eds. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. London: Routledge, 2001. 291-5. Print.

Lembert, Alexandra and Schenkel, Elmar. The Golden Egg. In The Golden Egg: Alchemy in Art and Literature. London: Routledge, 2002. 3-8. Print. Linguanti, Elsa. Introduction. In Coterminous Worlds: Magical Realism and Contemporary Post-Colonial Literature in English. Eds. Elsa Linguanti, Francesco Casotti, and Carmen Concilio. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999. 1-8. Print. Nixon, Rob. Neoliberalism, Slow Violence, and the Environmental Picaresque. Modern Fiction Studies 55.3 (Fall 2009): 443-67. Online. Pinkus, Karen. Alchemical Mercury: A Theory of Ambivalence. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010. Print. Sinha, Indra. Animals People. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007. Slemon, Stephen. Magical Realism as Postcolonial Discourse. In Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. University Press, 1995. 407-26. Print. Faris. Durham: Duke

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Zamora, Lois Parkinson and Faris, Wendy B. Introduction: Daiquiri Birds and Flaubertian Parrot(ie)s. In Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson

Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995. 1-11. Print.