I know whose blush could heat bath water!

Dear all,

Most of you have ended up here via search strings containing the words “blush”, “heat”, “water”. Or simply by asking one of the questions in the TLS/Faber quiz (see previous post) – verbatim.

So I decided to lend my expertise in the “blush that heats bath water”- issue, by offering you the following excerpt:

[...] the ancient lady bent to kiss the girls and was alarmed to find that her lips had been mildly burned by a sudden rush of heat to Sufiya Zinobia’s cheek; the burn was bad enough to necessitate twice-daily applications of lip salve for a week.

The affliction was real enough. Miss Shahbanouu, the Parsee ayah whom Bliquis had employed on her return to Karachi, complained on her first day that when she gave Sufiya Zinobia a bath the water had scalded her hands, having been brought close to boiling point by a red flame of embarrassment that spread from the roots of the damaged girl’s hair to the tips of her curling toes.

To speak plainly: Sufiya Zinobia blushed uncontrollably whenever her presence in the world was noticed by others. But she also, I believe, blushed for the world.

Salman Rushdie, Shame, New York: Picador, 1983; p. 124 (emphasis mine)

Have fun with the other questions! And do let me know if you find the answers to Trains 1 & 4, Madhouses 2, Bodily Oddities 4 & 5, Criminals 5.

Yours truly,

The Literary Detective