Saleem as Flaneur (With thanks to Victoria, Kimmy and yesterday's lecture)

I think that Kimmy and Victoria's ideas can both be linked together inasmuch as Victoria's point about Saleem claiming to be inextricably linked with his external world whilst constantly trying to interject with reflections on his personal life, which ultimately collapses and disintegrates towards the end of the novel hints at a separation and isolation from the external as an individual. Kimmy mentions that the expectations of the city are subverted and the idea of the flaneur (excuse the fact I cannot add the accent) in the Baudelaire sense is one that can be attributed to Saleem in relation to the city. The idea was pushed further in the lecture yesterday suggesting that, ultimately, Saleem fails to choose between representing the external world he exists in and the private world of the Flaneur which he partakes in during moments of exploration in the vast cosmopolitan city. It is this failure to choose that means that Saleem's project disintegrates as the novel draws to a close. Such a claim is one that I think is worth thinking about as we analyse the novel.