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Join the roomThe God of Small Things is the 1997 debut novel written by Indian author Arundhati Roy. The novel follows the seven-year-old twins Estha and Rahel, raised by a single mother, as they navigate their childhood, the tensions in their family and the circumstances surrounding the arrival of their British cousin to Ayemenem, India, with the twins later reuniting in their thirties. The novel's events are set against the backdrop of social discrimination and political upheaval in 1960s Kerala, with casteism and British colonialism in India being central themes.
“If you are religious, then remember that this bomb is Man's challenge to God. It's worded quite simply: We have the power to destroy everything that You have created. If you're not religious, then look at it this way. This world of ours is 4 600 000 000 years old. It could end in an afternoon.”
“Ammu explained to Estha and Rahel that people always loved best what they Identified most with.”
“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we're being brainwashed to believe.”
“The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.”
“Modern democracies have been around long enough for neoliberal capitalists to learn how to subvert them. They have mastered the technique of infiltrating the instruments of democracy—the 'independent' judiciary, the 'free' press, the parliament—and moulding them to their purpose.”
“"Another world is not only possible, she's on the way and, on a quiet day, if you listen very carefully you can hear her breathe."”
Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.
