I was born in the city of Bombay… once upon a time. No, that won't do, there's no getting away from the date: I was born in doctor Narlikar's Nursing Home on August 15th, 1947. And the time? The time matters, too. Well then: at night. No, it's important to be more… On the stroke of midnight, as a matter of fact. Clock-hands joined palms in respectful greeting as I came. Oh, spell it out, spell it out: at the precise instant of India's arrival at independence, I tumbled forth into the world. There were gasps. And, outside the window, fireworks and crows. A few seconds later, my father broke his big toe; but his accident was a mere trifle when set beside what had befallen me in that benighted moment, because thanks to the occult tyrannies of those blandly saluting clocks I had been mysteriously handcuffed to history, my destinies indissolubly chained to those of my country.

Basic set-up:

Here is another famous opening, this one of Rushdie's Booker Prize-winning novel Midnight's Children, about a kid born on the night of India's independence who has magical telepathic powers.

Saleem, the narrator of Rushdie's novel, tells us that he was born in Bombay "once upon a time." Then he spends the rest of the passage clarifying and zooming in on the precise date and time of his birth.

The whole novel hinges on this moment in which Saleem is born. "The time matters" because the moment of Saleem's birth coincides with Indian independence, and this moment shapes his whole destiny. As he states, "thanks to the occult tyrannies of those blandly saluting clocks I had been mysteriously handcuffed to history, my destinies indissolubly chained to those of my country."

It might seem weird to mix up a specific moment with "once upon a time," but actually, the birth of a new country, like the birth a person, is a pretty fantastic thing. It's a moment in time that is different from other moments in time, when fantastic things are actually happening.

Rushdie's novel is told in the first-person narrative voice. Saleem's voice in this opening passage calls attention to the fact that we're getting a very specific perspective and point of view. We're getting Saleem's story here, and he's the one telling it to us.

On the one hand, the passage is calling attention to the subjectivity of all stories. After all, every story is told from a particular perspective, right? On the other hand, the passage is also focusing our attention on some concrete, objective facts: such as the fact of India gained its independence on the night of August 15th, 1947.

By having a fictional narrator tell us about real events, Rushdie is bringing together the real with the imagined, the subjective and the objective. Hybridity in action!