crackerjack
Well-known member
So do I - a bit of retrospective 'wot us guv' spin.
Sir Salman Rushdie
- Thread starter IdleRich
- Start date
So do I - a bit of retrospective 'wot us guv' spin.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Yes, there are nutters of all stripes and persuasions, but when it comes to supressing freedom of speech, those in the Islamist camp seem to be the most egregious. In the paper yesterday it said that an Iranian group had put an £80,000 price on his head.
Saying "Group X are bad and so are Group Y" does not equate to "X and Y are equally bad".
Last edited:
Sorry to pop in at this late stage, but I must confess I'm somewhat bemused at the poverty of the debate here over Rushdie. Leaving aside (the admittedly important) factor of the inherent ludicrousness of the anachronistic UK honours system, I think on literary merit alone Rushdie deserves special recognition. He is, uniquely for a British writer, a literary artist of international repute whose stature is every bit as commanding as that of, say, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Thomas Pynchon, Umberto Eco, Don DeLillo et al (insert other international literary greats of choice here). His work has explored some of the most urgent and pressing issues of the age - extra-terroriality, diaspora, historiography, orientalism, the construction of identity (on the personal, social and national level) and, the issue of 'fundamentalism' in the age of deconstruction (the latter at great and disasterous personal cost to himself). In this has shown himself to be not only intellectually accomplished, but also formally daring (his novels are metafictional in richest sense). Not only has he won several extremely prestigious honours here in the UK (including the 'Booker of Bookers' where Midnight's Children was recognised as the best novel to receive the Booker ever) but he has been awarded the most prestigious awards and recognition in Europe and throughout the world. Typcially, however, back home, all he gets is sniping, back stabbing, muttering and peculiarly British sort of sour acknowledgement of the most bedgrudging sort.
Rushdie too has been the forefront of campaigning for writers and artists persecuted for their work (and no wonder given his horribly unique experience in this area) and was in fact nominated by PEN - an organisation in which he has played a monumental and essential role - specifically for recognition of his work in this area. Plus, he is, to put it bluntly, an Asian immigrant who has disntinguished himself in British public life and one of the few non-whites to make it into the canon of 'English' literature - and given the labour govt's (tokenistic or not) attempts to be seen to widen 'participation' in public life throughout the social, racial and ethnic spectrum of British society then his honour seems entirely fitting with that strategy (irrespective of the validity of that strategy).
A couple of other points: comparing the fatwa against Rushdie with the Crass prosecution is muddle-headed in the extreme: no one threatened death against Crass, least of all a foreign power who then posted an enormous reward to give to anyone who succeeded in murdering them. This is what happened to Rushdie - a uniquly horrible sitution for any individual, least of all a novelist, to find themselves in. At the time, the British state was not simply out to protect his right to 'speak freely', but to protect his very person. This was not a situtation, alas, that was extended to Rushdie's translator in Italy - a gentle, innocent and schorlarly man who was stabbed to death for his involvement with the Satanic Verses, nor again to Rushdie's translator (I think) in Japan who, I believe, was also murdered (although I'd have to research that to check I've got it right, and I haven't had time to check out the links Vimothy posted above).
Rushdie too has been the forefront of campaigning for writers and artists persecuted for their work (and no wonder given his horribly unique experience in this area) and was in fact nominated by PEN - an organisation in which he has played a monumental and essential role - specifically for recognition of his work in this area. Plus, he is, to put it bluntly, an Asian immigrant who has disntinguished himself in British public life and one of the few non-whites to make it into the canon of 'English' literature - and given the labour govt's (tokenistic or not) attempts to be seen to widen 'participation' in public life throughout the social, racial and ethnic spectrum of British society then his honour seems entirely fitting with that strategy (irrespective of the validity of that strategy).
A couple of other points: comparing the fatwa against Rushdie with the Crass prosecution is muddle-headed in the extreme: no one threatened death against Crass, least of all a foreign power who then posted an enormous reward to give to anyone who succeeded in murdering them. This is what happened to Rushdie - a uniquly horrible sitution for any individual, least of all a novelist, to find themselves in. At the time, the British state was not simply out to protect his right to 'speak freely', but to protect his very person. This was not a situtation, alas, that was extended to Rushdie's translator in Italy - a gentle, innocent and schorlarly man who was stabbed to death for his involvement with the Satanic Verses, nor again to Rushdie's translator (I think) in Japan who, I believe, was also murdered (although I'd have to research that to check I've got it right, and I haven't had time to check out the links Vimothy posted above).
crackerjack
Well-known member
I've never actually read any of his books (call me old fashioned, but I like to know what's going on in a novel - tried Pynchon once and gave up). I was actually quite surprised to see this thread in Literature section,
vimothy
yurp
I've never actually read any of his books (call me old fashioned, but I like to know what's going on in a novel - tried Pynchon once and gave up). I was actually quite surprised to see this thread in Literature section,
Read The Satanic Verses. I think you will be pleasantly suprised. It's also kind of shocking just how prescient that novel really is.
crackerjack
Well-known member
I thought consensus was Midnight Children was the best...or do you prefer SV for political reasons
crackerjack
Well-known member
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/6227904.stm
Question Time now. If you're in, watch it.
Question Time now. If you're in, watch it.
vimothy
yurp
Read it!
viktorvaughn
Well-known member
I thought consensus was Midnight Children was the best...or do you prefer SV for political reasons
I think Midnights Children is the best.
Ground Beneath Her Feet and the Moors Last Sigh are both good on the similar family epic tip.
IdleRich
IdleRich
It could have certainly been cut down a little. There is a film which I saw last year but it's not a book that lends itself well to adaptation. There will always be a suspicion that it's a poor man's 100 Years of Solitude won't there?
version
Well-known member
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
Of course, the attack has only served to introduce the book to the younger generations
rubberdingyrapids
Well-known member
The midnights children film is a bit ropey and looks like it was done on a too modest budget. Hope he makes it through but it looks like the attack was brutal AF.