Who what am I? My answer: I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I've gone which would not have happened if I had not come. Nor am I particularly exceptional in this matter; each "I", everyone of the now-six-hundred-million-plus of us, contains a similar multitude. I repeat for the last time: to understand me, you'll have to swallow a world.
The quote from Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" offers a profound introspection into the nature of identity. It suggests that each individual is not just a unique being but a compilation of all past experiences, influences, and interactions. This identity is shaped by everything we have encountered and done, as well as by the impact we have had on others. Essentially, who we are cannot be understood in isolation but rather in the context of a complex web of connections that encompass history and relationships.
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All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
Race of Cain, ascend to heaven, And cast God down upon the earth!
