Salman Rushdie attacked on stage in New York

[Johnny Vodka]

I've never actually read any of his books. Tempted now.

 

[TopCat]

Hell, if there is one.

Another religious nutjob.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Was always gonna happen, don’t mean it’s good, but thought he had 24/7 police protection..?

Will bet a pound to a pinch of shit that whoever done it never read his book, all Brass Eye territory.

 

[weltweit]

I've never actually read any of his books. Tempted now.

Yes, me too, if only to see what all the fuss is about.

I expect my local library can get me a copy.

 

[likesfish]

Blackpool would learn'em proper.

The isle of sheppy show no mercy

 

[8ball]

He’s in surgery right now. Is that maybe a good sign if they’re doing it this long after the attack?

 

[Ax^]

if he still alive this long after being stabbed in the neck

its about as positive an outcome as you can expect

we will find out in the next few hours

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Yes, me too, if only to see what all the fuss is about.

You won't see what all the fuss is about by reading the book. The fuss was created by a bunch of people who did not read it.

If you want to understand what all the fuss is about, you're better off looking into those who have stoked the flames over the years.

 

[tonysingh]

Hell, if there is one.

Of course there is, have you never been to Chatham?

 

[Ax^]

Rot where?

Kingstanding would be preferable

imagine that accent for all eternity

 

[8ball]

You won't see what all the fuss is about by reading the book. The fuss was created by a bunch of people who did not read it.

Usually there’s one who has read a bit and given a garbled interpretation to the knuckleheads.

 

[xenon]

.

 

[8ball]

if he still alive this long after being stabbed in the neck

its about as positive an outcome as you can expect

we will find out in the next few hours

Yeah. If surgery was needed to stabilise him I think they’d have been on it sooner, so this might be a matter of fixing damage.

I am not a Doctor and wishful thinking disclaimers apply.

 

[RD2003]

Here’s another piece on the impact of Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, 30 years after its publishing, from Kenan Malik for the Guardian:

Sometimes, you just have to shake your head to clear it and look again. Did he really write that? So it was when I read a review in the Independent by Sean O’Grady of The Satanic Verses: 30 Years On, a BBC documentary on the Rushdie affair and its legacy.
But, yes, in the last paragraph, he really wrote: “Rushdie’s silly, childish book should be banned under today’s anti-hate legislation. It’s no better than racist graffiti on a bus stop. I wouldn’t have it in my house, out of respect to Muslim people and contempt for Rushdie, and because it sounds quite boring. I’d be quite inclined to burn it, in fact.”
Even in today’s censorious, don’t-give-offence climate, there is something startling in the casualness with which the associate editor of a national newspaper can proudly proclaim himself a would-be book-burner and book-banner…

Read the full article here.

 

[8ball]

Another religious nutjob.

Burn him!!

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Here’s another piece on the impact of Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, 30 years after its publishing, from Kenan Malik for the Guardian:


Read the full article here.

Good piece, as usual from Malik.

This bit is particularly good.

The significance of the confrontation, however, as Azhar deftly draws out, lay less in what Rushdie wrote than in what the novel came to symbolise. There’s a scene in The Satanic Verses in which one of the characters, Saladin Chamcha, is incarcerated in an immigration detention centre. The inmates have all been turned into monsters. “How?” Saladin wonders. “They have the power to describe,” comes the reply, “and we succumb to the pictures they construct.”

Rushdie was writing of how racism demonises its Others. He could equally have been describing the way the conflict over his novel created its own monsters.

In part, much of the nonsense stems from the fact that some people don't get Magical Realism.

 

[RD2003]

Like for LBJ's post despite suspecting that the vast majority of people haven't even heard of magic realism.

 

[yield]

I hope he makes it, after all these years it must have seemed safe.

Yes, preferred Moor's Last Sigh. Him and Arundhati Roy are the only magic realism I recall enjoying.

Jorge Luis Borges is my favourite. Love Haruki Murakami & Angela Carter too

 

[RD2003]

Jorge Luis Borges is my favourite. Love Haruki Murakami & Angela Carter too

I used to have a lot of time for Milan Kundera, although I struggle to re-read him now. Although that could be because the internet has shot my attention span.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Like for LBJ's post despite suspecting that the vast majority of people haven't even heard of magic realism.

Although ironically enough the vast majority of people who have actually read The Satanic Verses probably have.

 

[Sue]

Although ironically enough the vast majority of people who have actually read The Satanic Verses probably have.

I've heard of magic realism and read TSV. Not a fan of either tbh. (Read a few of his books and just not really my thing.)

 

[passenger]

I am watching A tall story on BBC 4 saved it the other nighth

BBC Four - Arena, A Tall Story - How Salman Rushdie Pickled All of India

Salman Rushdie talks about India and Midnight's Children's autobiographical elements.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I've heard of magic realism and read TSV. Not a fan of either tbh. (Read a few of his books and just not really my thing.)

I've read Midnight's Children and started TSV but didn't finish it. At some point in my life, this stuff, along with the likes of García Márquez and Saramago, felt like something I ought to like. But actually, I often just find it a bit tiresome.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

They all sound fucking boring, who actually reads this shit?

 

[RD2003]

I've read Midnight's Children and started TSV but didn't finish it. At some point in my life, this stuff, along with the likes of García Márquez and Saramago, felt like something I ought to like. But actually, I often just find it a bit tiresome.

Garcia Marquez always sent me scurrying for some kind of lightweight(ish) thriller or something after ploughing through 50-100 pages. It was then that I started to think, 'Maybe I'm not some kind of working class intellectual/ semi-genius after all.'

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Garcia Marquez always sent me scurrying for some kind of lightweight(ish) thriller or something after ploughing through 50-100 pages. It was then that I started to think, 'Maybe i'm not some kind of working class intellectual/ semi-genius after all.

Nobody writes to the colonel.

Very good and very short and no funny business.

I wouldn't bother with much else tbh unless you really do like magical realism.

 

[Pickman's model]

They all sound fucking boring, who actually reads this shit?

90% of copies of the satanic verses languish unread on bookshelves pending their removal to charity shops who then send all but the first editions for pulping

 

[Sue]

Nobody writes to the colonel.

Very good and very short and no funny business.

I wouldn't bother with much else tbh unless you really do like magical realism.

News of a Kidnapping is quite interesting from a recentish history POV though some of it is a bit . Non-fiction mind.

 

[weltweit]

On second thoughts magical realism doesn't sound like a book I have already enjoyed though I do like sci-fi.

 

[8ball]

Pretty sure I’ve read at least one book that was magical realism, and another that kind of went in that direction in the later stages.

Not read any Rushdie, but a friend at Uni raved about Midnight’s Children, so much so that I’ve won pub quiz questions about the book decades after.