Magic Doors and their ability to enhance the refugee experience in Moshin Hamid’s “Exit West”

The issue regarding refugees and how to deal with excess numbers of them is very relevant, and very real. In his speculative fiction novel, Exit West, Moshin Hamid provides a very real insight into the lives of these refugees through the eyes of Saeed, and Nadia; two people from a war torn country in the Middle East. In her article, “What it feels like to be on the other: imaginations of displacement in contemporary speculative fiction,” Eva Menger argues that it is through the concepts of space, time, and the novum that Hamid is able to most effectively provide insight into the refugee experience. He also argues that speculative fiction is the best way for readers to “imagine the world of refugees in ways that in ways that other types of contemporary literature cannot.” As much as I agree with Menger’s two claims, I cannot help but wonder if there are more than just 3 tools/themes that Hamid used in his article to help provide this insight. When I read the book, the recurring theme that stuck out to me was the magic doors that allow people to travel from place to place in a matter of seconds. In the case of Hamid’s Exit West, I will argue that the theme: magic doors is a concept that further enhance the effectiveness of time, space, and the novum that Eva Menger claims help provide insight into the refugee experience.

The fact that Exit West is a Speculative Fiction play an important role in shaping our perspective of the novel. Menger articulates that it is the genre’s ability to “encourage their readers to swap reality for an alternate universe” which “can ultimately offer new ways of imagining the refugee experience” that is so essential to this story. Creating a new universe is what allows Hamid to basically start from ground zero with regards to creating circumstances that best illustrate the full experience of the refugee. He is able to manipulate whatever variables of reality he so wishes. More specifically for this novel, Menger claims that the “otherness” associated with the alternate realities the genre can create allow for the reader to distinguish Hamid’s refugee experience from what they know to be real.  Menger articulates, “that this strong focus on Otherness only further enforces the image of the refugee as Other,” which makes the concept itself more foreign to the reader, so they can trust that the refugee experience Hamid is selling them is accurate and authentic. In other words, the genre of Exit West allows for the three aforementioned concepts to be manipulated in a way that pushes Hamid’s agenda.

The term “Novum” is an interesting concept in itself. It is defined as the concept of representing science in the real world, so that the reader may then establish a safe distance from their reality outside of the novel. This distance the reader creates for this novum to exist is known in Menger’s article as Cognitive Estrangement. The magic doors that are used frequently throughout the book represent a world with open borders, where travel without restriction is reality. They also represent the hope for a better future that many of the refugees in the book hold close to their hearts. Although portal doors are not a part of the real world, the concept of them is still feasible. The elements of fantasy associated with the door allow for readers to establish this space for the novum to exist in full effect. Therefore by allowing the reader to easily create this novum space, the doors have served their purpose in enhancing the novum’s ability to provide insight into the refugee experience.

Time in the novel is distorted, and manipulated by the magic doors. The uncanny ability to travel hundreds, even thousands of miles in a matter of seconds makes time a non-limiting factor. And in the grand scheme of Speculative Fiction, the less limiting factors you have, the easier it is for a new reality to be created for the reader. Menger believes that “this, expectedly, is why most speculative fiction chooses futuristic scenarios over present parallel worlds.” In the case of Exit West, Hamid actually combines the two aforementioned time constructs. Saeed and Nadia are living in a present parallel world in many aspects, but the magic doors make the scenario futuristic in a sense. In Exit West, Hamid says that “we are all migrants of time” in an effort to create a common ground between the reader and the refugees encountered in the novel. And the magic doors are what help represent this migration in the book, not just through time, but through space as well… 

According to Eva Menger, space is what “allows the reader to take a step back from reality.” With this in mind, the aforementioned novum and space are very similar in more ways than one. This means that since the novum is enhanced by magic door’s ability to create a divide/space between the reader’s reality and the novel’s reality, so too is the space itself. But on top of this enhancement, I believe that space is able to further immerse the reader in the book by creating such separation between realities. On this matter, Menger claims, “Looking at Exit West and American War, these lands are not just far away from us in a geographic sense, but they are equally far removed from our psychological reality. For many people the refugee narrative is a foreign one, making it hard to understand what living in exile must be like, and speculative fiction can bridge this gap by literally bringing the refugee narrative closer to the reader’s reality.” Essentially she is saying that there exists the reader’s reality and the reality of the refugees in the novel, and the genre, speculative fiction is the reader’s bridge between the two. Since space, time, and the novum are how Hamid takes advantage of speculative fiction’s role in the refugee experience. Meanwhile, magic doors are what enhance the effects of those three concepts. Therefore, it is safe to say there is some relationship between the magic door’s role in the book, and its betterment of the gap-bridging that Menger discusses.
Moshin Hamid’s Exit West may not provide the answer for solving the refugee crisis, but the novel’s role in providing perspective and insight on the topic could greatly further disputes about the issue. As a speculative fiction novel, Hamid was able to create an alternate reality in which he could manipulate the circumstance itself in order to best illustrate the refugee experience. According to Eva Menger, he does this through the manipulation of three concepts dealing with reality: Space, Time, and the Novum. I went on to argue that these three concepts were bettered by Hamid’s use of magic doors throughout the novel, which allowed the characters to travel from country to country in a matter of seconds. The doors only made Hamid’s ability to show the refugee experience that much stronger. The more effective Hamid is at accomplishing that task, the better off the novel is at affecting the minds and hearts of its readers.