[Max Goodman]

In The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, the phrase "It was so, it was not" appears several times, usually introducing new sections of the tale.

Originally Posted by Rushdie

And one day (it was so, it was not so), he...

Originally Posted by Rushdie

It was so, it was not, that...

Sometimes it's part of a rhyme:

Originally Posted by Rushdie

It was so, it was not, in a long time long forgot, that there lived...

This (without the rhyming addition) is similar to a Hungarian construction for introducing fairy tales, and I'm told there's also something similar in Turkish.

I'm assuming, then, that this is an Indian way of introducing fairy tales. Can anyone confirm this? Is the "in a long time forgot" a common part of the formula?

Thanks in advance for anything you can tell me.

[Julie Steiner]

Max, this fairy-tale introductory formula, equivalent to "Once upon a time" in English, seems to be Arabic or Persian in origin, not Hindi.

It pops up in various languages on this Wikipedia page, most of which have obvious links to Arabic or Persia (Armenian, Turkish), but some of them don't (e.g., Czech and Lithuanian).

The Turkish version of the formula is quite elaborate, after the initial bit.

[Max Goodman]

Thank you, Julie!

It's interesting to see how many (and how few) cultures have adopted formulas that simultaneously claim and deny the reality of the story to come.

Originally Posted by Julie Steiner

The Turkish version of the formula is quite elaborate, after the initial bit.

It's hard to believe the list is in that case and a few others comparing apples to apples.

Thanks for the help!

Apparently the rhyming bit, "It was so, it was not, in a long time long forgot, " was Rushdie's invention.

[Jan Iwaszkiewicz]

There may also be an echo in Kipling with his “Just so…” Max.

[Max Goodman]

Interesting thought, Jan.

[Shaun J. Russell]

Antithesis (as a literary term) is a popular folklore technique. It carries a sense of the philosophical without actually saying anything at all. Dickens famously does something similar to start A Tale of Two Cities, though I'm obviously more partial to Rushdie (I'll be teaching his Haroun and the Sea of Stories in a future semester).