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Salman Rushdie attacked on stage in New York

Perpetrator in Salman Rushdie attack apparently pleads not guilty to attempted murder and assault.

No idea what he intends, it seems to me he is bang to rights.
 
Murder is unlawful killing. If you claim that you were carrying out the will of the Big Kahuna, presumably you don't think you're doing anything unlawful, because Big Kahuna law trumps human law. There's a logic in that, however batshit.
 
ouirdeaux said:
Murder is unlawful killing. If you claim that you were carrying out the will of the Big Kahuna, presumably you don't think you're doing anything unlawful, because Big Kahuna law trumps human law. There's a logic in that, however batshit.
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In fairness, the Big Kahuna does make one tasty burger.
 
xenon said:
Most people aren’t used to being around violence and reacting. I remember a couple of times when someone else being attacked in the vicinity. A house party and near a takeaway. I mean I wasn’t about to jump in on my own, or anything of the like. But people were just kind of shocked like what is this really happening. I have a mate who is actually just completely oblivious to stuff brewing, when you feel like it’s going to kick off. Raised voices in a pub or something. which is a bit annoying as he tries to carry on a normal conversation whilst I’m trying to earwig what’s happening.
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“Is this really happening” sums it up perfectly.

There have been a few situations where I’ve found it a lot easier once things have kicked off than beforehand.
 
keybored said:
I take it you mean audio books? I'm exactly the same (minus the wine) but with ebooks and regularly wake up having used a kindle for a pillow. It was quite literally stuck to my cheek this morning in this heat :oops:
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Yes audiobooks, which mainly come to me through YouTube these days, which I suppose is why I called them 'ebooks'. Admittedly a category that might exist only in my head.

I often wake up unable to locate my tablet, which I've swiped from the bedside cabinet to the floor in my sleep.
 
BigMoaner said:
yes, this. that's why i keep reading them.

my politics is more pragmatic these days rather than thinking i know what is absoloutly perfect and best for the whole of society. that's lunacy. good literature is one way of weaking my own lunatic energy.
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The opening section of 'Notes from Underground,' is, I found, enough to destroy anybody's faith in all-encompassing political solutions, whatever you might believe in.
 
RD2003 said:
The opening section of 'Notes from Underground,' is, I found, enough to destroy anybody's faith in all-encompassing political solutions, whatever you might believe in.
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I didn't find that one overtly political tbh. Been a long time since I read it though.

Read 'The Possessed' if you really want to know how little Dostoevsky thought of political solutions.
 
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SpookyFrank said:
I didn't find that one overtly political tbh. Read 'The Possessed' if you really want to know how little Dostoevsky thought of political solutions.
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Interesting. I found it political af.
and I’m sure if the unnamed narrator was alive now, he’d be posting on Urban75 and Twitter -a social and class troll before there was such a thing as a social media troll
 
SpookyFrank said:
I didn't find that one overtly political tbh. Read 'The Possessed' if you really want to know how little Dostoevsky thought of political solutions.
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I suppose it's an attack on utopianism of all kinds. It seemed to speak to my experience. Ever since I first read it, when I was about 25, I've struggled with how to be a socialist while having a deeply pessimistic outlook on everything. It made me sort of realise that I'd always been like that, even while believing that 'building a revolutionary party' etc was the answer to most things :).It also provided some sort of answer to the self-destructive behaviour I could see among family, friends, workmates, comrades etc. And my own sometimes.

I like 'Underground' for it's brevity. I enjoy the political arguments in 'The Possessed' and the other long stuff, but there's a fuck of a lot of boring, over-long passsages. I've never really got all the swooning in drawing rooms type shit, and the, often pointless, personal rivalry stuff and so on, and can only think of it as padding due to having to provide material for the weekly periodicals.

Long time since I've read any of it, however, so it's possible I might think differently if I had the time and dedication for it all now.
 
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Orang Utan said:
Interesting. I found it political af.
and I’m sure if the unnamed narrator was alive now, he’d be posting on Urban75 and Twitter -a social and class troll before there was such a thing as a social media troll
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Yes the narrator was clearly ahead of his time with that marvellous combination of malignant narcissism/inferiority complex that now seems to rule the world. But maybe it was just the first time we heard such a person speak so clearly. Dickens created some similar characters.
 
SpookyFrank said:
Yes the narrator was clearly ahead of his time with that marvellous combination of malignant narcissism/inferiority complex that now seems to rule the world. But maybe it was just the first time we heard such a person speak so clearly. Dickens created some similar characters.
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It provides a better explanation of human behaviour than theories of false consciousness and the like.
 
Orang Utan said:
Interesting. I found it political af.
and I’m sure if the unnamed narrator was alive now, he’d be posting on Urban75 and Twitter -a social and class troll before there was such a thing as a social media troll
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There are numerous 'underground men' on here.

Incidentally, I seem to remember Howard Devoto/ Magazine's 'Man From Under the Floorboards,' song drew inspiration from 'Underground.' I know this 'cos I read it in an NME review.


Edit-it was 'Song from Under the Floorboards.'
 
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I've just seen this framed as an Israeli provocation, because obvs they can infiltrate and indoctrinate some young hothead. :eek: I'm going WTF but the other bloke is convinced it's not simple out and out religious bigotry.
 
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