Salman Rushdie

His soon to be ex-wife.

I haven't read any of his books and I doubt I ever will, but I have to say: the man has taste in women.

and the question is?

Are cats pies?

The question is in the top bit (which also mentions the fact that he is getting divorced!)

I realise that in my attempt to do a Rushdie-like long sentence I missed a question mark off.

Read some of Midnight's Children, couldn't get into it. Read some of Satanic Verses, couldn't get into it. Read reviews of his latest two or three, they sounded dire. Most overrated writer of the current canon? That overripe, look-at-me-mum style of writing hasn't dated well.

Your opinion might be more valuable if you'd actually managed to *finish* one of his books.

zelda zonk otm - my experience exactly, except i tried the ground beneath her feet first. i tend to say in public that the fatwa is outrageous but secretly i would cheer inside if someone assassinated him.

well done padma, bleed him dry!

xpost
Yeah, maybe. But life is too short to finish enormous tomes that I can tell after 50 or so pages that I don't really like. I think I've read enough to say something about the style.

To give Rushdie credit I guess he invented a literary genre that's still going strong: the "colourful" Indian novel, written in English but by someone with an Indian background. On his coattails rode Arandhati Roy, Ghosh, Mistry and others. It's ultimately a pretty middlebrow genre, though: exotic, but not too exotic either, not like translated from another language or anything, and in general fitting into a Western idea of the Booker-centric literary novel.

i think arundhati roy does this style much, much better.

midnight's children = classic. satanic verses is uneven but the best bits ascend into the realm of magic realism, the later works are spotty.

but secretly i would cheer inside if someone assassinated him.

you're a total fuckwit

I am reading Midnight's Children at the moment. Have been for a while, actually. But I am nearly at the end now.

The narrator of that book is actually telling the story (sort of) to a female character named Padma, so I guess that's the answer to the first half of the question. Possibly Ned Trifle II already knew this and I am slow.

Read some of Midnight's Children, couldn't get into it. Read some of Satanic Verses, couldn't get into it. Read reviews of his latest two or three, they sounded dire. Most overrated writer of the current canon? That overripe, look-at-me-mum style of writing hasn't dated well.

-- Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, 3 July 2007 09:23 (1 hour ago) Link

With all due respect going from 'couldn't get into' to 'most overrated writer' is a bit of a stretch I think. I don't really understand the last sentence.

xp to Jeff. I wish I were that clever. I was really just trying to open up the whole poll question beyond just saying what was the best one to what was the worst one. I stuck with him to Moors Last Sigh (which I liked a great deal) but did not enjoy TGBHF and haven't bothered with Fury.

With all due respect going from 'couldn't get into' to 'most overrated writer' is a bit of a stretch I think. I don't really understand the last sentence.

Probably a bit of a stretch, yes. But when I think of his Bookerish contemporaries, I just don't think he holds up so well compared with Coetzee, Ishiguro, Chatwin etc. As for my last sentence, what I meant is he's got a very conspicuous, show-offy style of writing, the sort whose meta-signification seems to be "look at this, this is real, proper literary writing this is"

To be fair, I probably didn't give Midnight's Children the go it deserved, several people whose opinions I respect have said they liked it.

xp
I know what you mean but I kind of like that! Which is why I'm not sure I understand whether it's held up or not. I think MC had such an impact on me (being as I was 19 all those years ago and mostly into Jane Austen)that it's difficult for me to look at it critically. I think you're probably right in so far as he hasn't moved on that much since then (at least up TMLS which, as I say, is the last one I read all the way through).

Has anybody read Grimus? It's always got cool SF covers but for some reason I've never picked it up. I bet SF fans don't like it.

I think his writing style is of his era - a lot of those Oxbridge writers who started out in the seventies and got big eighties go for the very self-conscious "I-am-writing-literature" styles, with complicated sentence structures and abstruse vocab. Martin Amis, for example. I don't know, I find it offputting, but maybe it's just a question of taste. Whenever reviewers want to praise a writer's style, they always quote some overly complicated or recherché metaphor which has me thinking: "but for me, that's bad writing!"

Midnight's Children is just fantastic - I had an abortive tilt at it when I was 18, then tried again a few years later when I wasn't quite so drunk. Glad I did.

The only other Rushdie I've read is The Ground Beneath Her Feet, which is fun in a preposterous sort of way. I should catch up with a bit more.

His style's certainly rich and florid, but hell, I like that.

i tend to say in public that the fatwa is outrageous but secretly i would cheer inside if someone assassinated him.

Your only semi-valid excuse for statement is that you don't know who the fuck he is.

mightnights children is so so great - some of the others are quite nice too.

also there are people on this thread saying completely idiotic things.

as for attracting the model - the ground beneath her feet seems like the obv suspect.

I always disliked his public persona, so I was pretty surprised when I had to read Shame for a literature class at how much I enjoyed it. Yes, there was *some* of that smugness emanating from the pages, but for the most part it was well-written, well-paced, and even though the ending came perilously close to being an oh-so postmodern* deus ex machina, it still managed to be satisfying rather than anti-climactic. So, I'm voting for that one, as it might get me to read his other stuff at some point, a feat which I didn't think possible.

*I actually like postmodernism a lot, but the 'oh so postmodern, aren't I clever?' brigade annoy the hell out of me.

rushdie's writing has diminishing returns and i think that marrying padma turned his brain to mush (but can you fault him? krowr) satanic verses and midnight's children are classic and great though.

whatever excerpt i read of "fury" was pretty hilariously bad and involved the narrator checking out puerto rican girls or something?

Midnight's children is one of my favorite books. I saw him read/speak last year and it was fantastic - he was really funny, charming, and of course, intelligent.

im (re)reading midnights children right now and its fucking fantastic, again. whatever annoyance might be generated by the sometimes cutesy (tho never as irritatingly cute as, say, eggers or dfw can be at their worst) metafictional tropes (ie the constant reference to the act of the writer writing, long digressions, gleeful skewering of traditional narrative structure, etc) is more than countered by the incredible thematic & metaphorical depth of the thing

Let's not forget: friend to Bono!

I'm constantly baffled by why people would interpret a style like the one in Midnight's Children as being somehow "complicated" or demanding or anything but basically fun: to me, a lot like with White Teeth, it's the sound of a writer taking a whole lot of unpretentious joy in writing, making things happen on the page, and just generally singing and delighting in the whole possibility of it at all. It's just puppyish and energetic.

I still don't understand what the question is:

which of his books first attracted the model ... and which one finally made her give up on him

is two questions, and the answer is "who knows," and I'm assuming you just want us to vote for BEST RUSHDIE, right?

I mean, I can understand finding that style hyper or overly puppyish or hectic or whatever, but talking about it like some dense, demanding, complicated thing seems off the mark.

"Energetic" is a compliment, "puppish" most certainly is not, as it's only one degree removed from "cloying" or "ingratiating." Rushdie's style isn't at all like this.

Grimus is... an interesting failure. It's clumsy and not sci-fi at all and more of an amateurish re-write of the far superior Mount Analogue by Renee Dumal. I agree with the thread consensus here that he has diminishing returns, his last few books are so self-consciously constructed their practical parodies of his earlier work - which probably peaked with Midnight's Children/the Moor's Last Sigh/Shame. Haroun and the Sea of Stories was a great little diversion from his normal template, and definitely is better off for it.

In terms of his personality the guy seems like a horrible creep, and Cronenberg's rejection of Rushdie's more self-centered plot ideas for Existenz is rather telling in that Rushdie rarely steps out of himself far enough to really go anywhere interesting. And his literary spawn - Roy et al - I find tiresome and irritating in the extreme, but you can't fault someone for having poor imitators...

t's ultimately a pretty middlebrow genre, though: exotic, but not too exotic either, not like translated from another language or anything, and in general fitting into a Western idea of the Booker-centric literary novel.

Seems you're imposing his audience's taste on Rushdie! Besides, his narrators exploit their educational and generational distances.

middlebrowily enough i've read and loved satanic verses (tho it's got probs) and nothing else except essays here and there

lex what the fuck is wrong with you

he's a fun speaker, he spins a pretty good yarn about becoming a stock villain in sub-bollywood muslim cinema. apparently one film has 'salman rushdie' as a mossad torturer or something

I think the Ground Beneath Her Feet is where he really started to go wrong - his alternate universe rock-n-roll history is so unconvincing and clumsy, and it was hard for me to not read the whole book as some sort of adolescent wish-fulfillment silliness that Bono encouraged him to indulge in.

You may not be wrong, Shakes.

lex what the fuck is wrong with you

-- gff, Tuesday, 3 July 2007 16:19 (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

he's a fun speaker, he spins a pretty good yarn about becoming a stock villain in sub-bollywood muslim cinema.

your point?

the second one answers the first, duh

salman rushdie talking about how he's a villain character in movies made for a muslim audience is what's wrong with lex?

It's meta, get with it grandad.

His wife's hot. First the fatwa, now this. Poor guy!

I still don't understand what the question is:

which of his books first attracted the model ... and which one finally made her give up on him

is two questions, and the answer is "who knows," and I'm assuming you just want us to vote for BEST RUSHDIE, right?

All I wanted was for us to talk about what his best book was (and vote for that) and where it all went wrong (or even if it did all go wrong). I didn't make that very clear. So anyway VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE and then tell me about when you stopped reading him (if you did). I have never met anyone who read Fury, but it sold a few copies so I'm sure someone must have.

Fury is terrible. I read it on vacation in Barcelona and it just made me want to hurt people with its stupid puppet-maker conceits and and internet-economy jokes and hamfisted "satire".

To give Rushdie credit I guess he invented a literary genre that's still going strong: the "colourful" Indian novel, written in English but by someone with an Indian background. On his coattails rode Arandhati Roy, Ghosh, Mistry and others. It's ultimately a pretty middlebrow genre, though: exotic, but not too exotic either, not like translated from another language or anything, and in general fitting into a Western idea of the Booker-centric literary novel.

-- Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, July 3, 2007 10:36 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Link

i kind of wonder what you know about indian literature, or what language you think he ought to write in, or whether there's something wrong with colour that i should know about. i mean if it's exotic to you, that's cool, whatever, or if it's not exotic enough, also cool, though sorry about that -- if there are novels in translation you think are better, i'm all ears. because, of course, novels in translation aren't aimed at a Western audience...

what I meant is he's got a very conspicuous, show-offy style of writing, the sort whose meta-signification seems to be "look at this, this is real, proper literary writing this is"

-- Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, July 3, 2007 12:09 PM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Link

use of 'meta-signification' = "look at this, this is real, proper literary criticism this is"

if there are novels in translation you think are better, i'm all ears.

I prefer R.K. Narayan to almost every other Indian-oriented writer mentioned so far (esp Roy, ugh)

I haven't read a book of his I didn't like - even his travelogue about visiting the US in the 50s was great

look at this, this is real, proper literary writing this is

This is weird, since his early style seems like so much the OPPOSITE. I feel like I read somewhere that after his first novel didn't do so well, he made a promise to his family that if the next one didn't fly, he'd give up trying -- allegedly one reason why Midnight's Children reads so much like someone having fun, at least trying to amuse himself, even if it's his last hurrah. The impulse feels quite far from a devotion to "real, proper, literary writing" -- much more of a "screw it, can I make pull this comic coincidence off? why not!"

yeah, wiiiiiide definition of real, proper literary writing at work here. here being almost 30 years ago. not many english literature professors back then would have considered it quite the thing. it's not like, in england anyway, magic realism or roth or whoever were atop the canon when rushdie started out.

I love the story about how after Midnight's Children Rushdie was very popular in the Islamic world, to such an extent that some big bookshop in Teheran briefly had a huge window displaying saying "Now in stock - The Satanic Verses - the new novel by SALMAN RUSHDIE".

Satanic Verses is one of my favorite books. I like it even more than I like Midnight's Children.

Also, I recently realized that Padma Lakshmi is in the movie Glitter. She is better in it than Mariah Carey, but not by much.

It strikes me that some people may be unaware of just what a stunna Rushdie is losing here...well, any excuse...
http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/images/padma_lakshmi102.jpg

you gotta lock that down, salman.

nom nom nom

I used to watch her Food Network show and thirty minutes later have no idea what she just cooked.

Reminded me of this...
http://santino.blogia.com/upload/p77024afot.jpeg
Miller more of a looker though...

it's the sound of a writer taking a whole lot of unpretentious joy in writing, making things happen on the page, and just generally singing and delighting in the whole possibility of it at all

I always thought I would hate him because everything I read about him made it sound like he was a SERIOUS BIG-DEAL WRITER (aka totally boring), but then I picked up The Satanic Verses in a bookstore and was completely hooked by the end of the first paragraph. I haven't read anything else of his, but that book was wondrous.

i tend to say in public that i would cheer inside if someone assassinated him but secretly the fatwa is outrageous.

"cheer inside" = it's raining out in the stadium so the pep rally will be held in the auditorium

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

ILX System OTM

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

haha apparently practically nobody reads Mister Genius of Popular Fiction

altho glad to see Haroun take second

Voter apathy innit

I missed this poll when it began, but I would have gone with Haroun & the Sea of Stories. I've only read that one, The Satanic Verses, and East, West though, so I'm not entirely qualified.

To be fair, some of Europe's top intellectuals hoped he was killed.

You can unofficially date Hitchens' opposition to religious fascism from the time the fatwa was issued against his good friend, and the Western intellectual's squishy response.

Hitchens is okay with non-white people dying also tho, yeah?

no, you can *officially* date it alfred, because hitchens makes a big point about it whenever it comes up. never mind that most people in britain in 1989 -- and even i can remember the episode, and i was nine y.o. -- supported rushdie, including the thatcher government. perhaps a few no-mark intellectuals were squishy, i don't know.

but he's using it as a smokescreen now. iraq was not a religious fascist state... only it will be now. he has actively promoted religious fascism in the US and in the middle east.

Front page photos in the NYTimes Style section today -- umm ... what's with Russell Simmons's hand all wrapped up in Padma's legs?

dude when is she going to go for an attractive man?

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/09/13/fashion/13jaco600.1.jpg

I don't follow this stuff well: isn't he, like, married? Maybe they just have that kind of leg-stroking friendship.

As the possessor of a big nose and baldness, I am going to knee-jerk object to the idea that Rushdie is particularly unattractive.

they're getting a divorce?

(i think.)

(In fact, if Russell Simmons and Salman Rushdie had a baby, it might wind up looking very generally like me.)

(And I am fine as hell.)

I thought Kimora Lee and Russell had split up but maybe I made that up.

Rushdie used to be a great writer but he is not a goodlooking man. it's not because of the baldness or big nose, though (he doesn't even have a big nose anymore!!! I think he got a nose job in the late '90s!!!)

actually Russell Simmons isn't unattractive. but she's so absurdly hot.

otm

Kimore Lee and Russell=split up.

Padma=not that hot

u mad

Simmons's hotness problem is that he is very frequently dressed like a toddler (literally), and often presents with a weird dopiness that is more or less equally toddler-like.

However we rate the relative hotness of all parties, there is a definite "odd taste in men" thing going on here.

(wait wait wait i retract that padma statement. I was recently on a JetBlue airplane watching TOP CHEF and she looked weird and creepy and almost ugly which surprised me, but it could have been the tiny screen and i just GISed and confirmed, that no, I must have been on drugs, she is hot. SORRY PEOPLE.)

well, Salman Rushdie is possibly a sparkling conversationalist. (I am so mad at him about the nose job, though; like even more than about the falloff in his writing.) she presumably digs smart dudes.

Mr. Que I think she is always under a great deal of strain on Top Chef because for some reason she tries to eliminate all traces of Indianness from her speaking cadences. which makes her voice sound weird and robotic. but outside of Top Chef she's striking.

If Russell Simmons is a smart dude, he did a pretty good job of dumbing it down in (a) the self-help book of his that I read over someone's shoulder on the subway, and (b) the NPR interview he did to promote said book.

His writing is sub-Shalimar the Clown at best.

ha!

I figure he must be a smart dude (if not a good writer), given his accomplishments. but yeah he lacks charisma.

padma is so freakishly beautiful that she looks kind of like an alien. a really hot alien.

yes, she belongs in the so hot it verges on another species category, along with angelina jolie.

Eh, Jolie still just looks like some chick to me.

^^ this comment suddenly feels gross to me

Maybe they just have that kind of leg-stroking friendship.

hahaha

"but he's using it as a smokescreen now. iraq was not a religious fascist state... only it will be now. he has actively promoted religious fascism in the US and in the middle east."

From before, the second part of this made absolutely no sense.

And who cares whether the fatwa was the catalyst for Hitchens' anti-religious facism stance. His support of Rusdie during that hellish period was admirable.

And Rushdie's wife is totally smoking.

ex-wife, bill, ex-wife.

bill, have you heard of the "law of unintended consequences"? that's what hitch's ideology has fallen prey to in iraq.

oh great we were talking about hotness and russseellll simmmons and how stupid i am w/padma's beauty and now you two are gonna screw it all up. great.

he started it.

I thought he was far too much up Bush's ass from the get-go on Iraq, much agreed. And Hitch made some ludicrously stupid comments about the V. Tech massacre, I don't drink his Kool-Aid. I generally like him though.

I agree with Que, that's boring.

Ex-wife, cool. Maybe I have a shot at her!

aren't you the guy that hires prostitutes?

Well it IS the Rushdie thread we're on, so fatwa stuff is pretty on-topic.

(There was no Lakshimi thread -- maybe this should be on a Top Chef thread or something?)

i saw the word "iraq" and got scared. carry on.

i don't even know what top chef is, but i'm in.

okay upthread this:

i think arundhati roy does this style much, much better.

is crazy talk. also, what style? being indian?

"aren't you the guy that hires prostitutes?"

Why, is she for hire?

who trolls a Salman Rushdie thread?

Bill Magill

Hey, you're the guy who got pissed I was talking about Hitchens. Guess you're the troll

who trolls a Salman Rushdie thread? = Russell Simmons's P.A.

"Salman needs to take a step back and concentrate on Doing Salman, you know? From Gandhi to Bob Marley to Tupac, throughout history, people have been able to change the world by Doing You. Not even because they're confident in their own ability, but because they have such a strong faith in the ability that God has put inside them. They take the time to listen to that voice and have faith in it. Salman needs to work on developing that faith, because once he does, he can use the Law of Do You to take himself to tremendous heights."

i tend to say in public that the fatwa is outrageous but secretly i would cheer inside if someone assassinated him.

ban lex forever

"Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie, has been named the best Booker Prize winner of all time."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/07/10/borushdie110.xml

it deserves the praise.

i'm going to see him in 4 hours 20 minutes! can't wait!

(though it was quite obvious he will win)

I saw him about a month ago in Toronto - we were fifteen minutes late because a friend got stuck in traffic, and when we walked in, the usher escorted us to THE VERY FRONT ROW in front of the spot where he was reading from his new book. We felt like the world's biggest assholes! However, he's very funny and interesting.

lex post is worth a permaban imo

anyone read the new one?

" he's very funny and interesting."

too bad his latest books arent

I haven't read the new one.. I think Fury is the most recent one I read. However, the passage he read was exciting and the story he is trying to tell was good.

this guy's writing went way WAY downhill - Moor's Last Sigh is probably the last time he actually wrote a good book, rather than an obnoxious paean to himself.

i think the first half of Midnight's Children is a masterpiece, and about 70% of Ground Beneath Her Feet, and all of Haroun and the Sea of Stories (one of my all-time favourite books), but other than Haroun I don't think he's ever pulled off an entire novel - all fatally flawed somewhere along the way.

i love ground beneath her feet.

you crazy

that book reads like it was ghost-written by Bono

sorry pal, when i want an opinion on rachel ray fanfic i'll come find you but until then stfu.

oof

b-minus zing

rachel ray fanfic >>>>>> Salman Rushdie U2 fanfic

are there any of Rushdie's genius lyrics from that book online somewhere? I could use the lolz

http://tiny.cc/eVlzF

compilation of the "best" Rushdie lyrics from the book

aren't you a clever bastard

it's a good book imo, though flawed

still so mad about his nose job!

also midnight's children is not "fatally flawed" i'll kill you!

his essay collection Imaginary Homelands has good bits.

ok i googled salman rushdie nose job and the first two results are:

well, Salman Rushdie is possibly a sparkling conversationalist. (I am so mad at him about the nose job, though; like even more than about the falloff in his writing.) she presumably digs smart dudes.

-- horseshoe, Thursday, September 13, 2007 2:04 PM (9 months ago) Bookmark Link

I thought Kimora Lee and Russell had split up but maybe I made that up.

Rushdie used to be a great writer but he is not a goodlooking man. it's not because of the baldness or big nose, though (he doesn't even have a big nose anymore!!! I think he got a nose job in the late '90s!!!)

-- horseshoe, Thursday, September 13, 2007 1:59 PM (9 months ago) Bookmark Link

o_O

yeah i should have clarified that i am the only person i know who thinks he got a nose job. or cares, likely. i know i'm right!

should have posted "still so mad about his nose job that i made up in my head!"

did i tell you about the time i saw him at the food court of lenox mall? he is short!

my people are a short people! omg he was at lenox? where was he eating?

It's funny how Nabisco likes SR as well as Vampire Weekend. He likes Defending The Indefensible!

I have read quite a bit of Rushdie, though not all of it; I have read maybe 4 of the books more than once. I haven't read the recent work at all, since The Ground Beneath Her Feet. I suppose he had, or even has, talent of a sort, an ability to keep spinning. But in all I think he is a pretty dreadful novelist. The Satanic Verses is one of the worst novels I have ever read. The Moor's Last Sigh is wearisomely annoying too - and both of them are of course long. I feel a bit different about Midnight's Children: at least this mode was new then, and he had perhaps invented that voice by himself. But really that book is dreadfully annoying too - it has retained its reputation perhaps partly through people not rereading it.

Some of his 1980s essays are very readable, though actually rhetorically slippery and overdone. I have not read Shame and I suppose it could still be the exception to a few rules.

The comparison to Amis ... they are contemporaries and did come from the same 1970s-->1980s generation, and they shared ambition I suppose; but their styles are not very alike. I think Amis is a more gifted writer, and has produced passages that SR never could, though he is also a desperately flawed novelist.

Amis fails better.

i reread midnight's children last year! it's still awesome! i think what reads as annoying in that book to some people is just fun, like nabisco said upthread. i think later that tendency in rushdie's writing ossified and became gimmicky, but midnight's children is the real deal.

There was a programme about the whole Satanic Verses deal broadcast today that I didn't watch.

Always thought of avoiding the whole Rushdie and his booker type 'imitators' and reading some stories and poems by Tagore instead. Anyone done that?

I own Satanic Verses and Midnight's Children. I've read about 100 pages of the former. It was... kind of beautiful, and enviable, in terms of its lucidity and descriptiveness. But I didn't have a fucking clue what was going on and had absolutely no desire to finish it or even progress further.

so glad dom was banned but we still have lex to threaten me with violence and thrill at the possibility of assassination

this is really a bizarre thread tho

Associated Press reports Padma Lakshmi is engaged to hot new literary critic toyboy James Wood.

this is really a bizarre thread tho
I blame myself for starting it in such an odd way - bound to lead to confusion.

There was a programme about the whole Satanic Verses deal broadcast today that I didn't watch.

I did. It was alright. I was surprised to see Geoffrey Howe on it admitting that he didn't know who Rushdie was when the fatwa was announced. Which goes some way to explaining the somewhat lacklustre response to it at the time. I also didn;t realise quite how many people died as a result of the fatwa.

Anyway you can watch it for yourself here...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00j6bnt/The_Satanic_Verses_Affair/
until next Saturday.

i'm so glad my obsession with salman rushdie's nose has been preserved. :-/

Always thought of avoiding the whole Rushdie and his booker type 'imitators' and reading some stories and poems by Tagore instead. Anyone done that?

Uh, I've read some Tagore, but not in a concious effort to avoid Rushdie or anything. His short stories are pretty rad, mostly very lyrical stuff I seem to remember, plus some E.A. Poe style weird fiction. "A Single Night" I think is amazing.

Sorry I put this badly...its just that I was slightly annoyed that this kinda fascinating figure isn't mentioned (although I did see your old thread) around here so much.

Wonder what his songs sound like...

marquez is the guy who did all the magical realism that roy and rushdie do anyway

reading SVS at the moment - i dont think i know whats going on exactly but i love how its written, have changed my stance from 'this is annoying and a chore and pretentious' to 'kinda magical'

shit, would have voted for shame. or maybe the jaguar smile. books that deserved more than 1 vote...

theyre making a tv series of midnights children btw

oh sorry--rushdie is writing a sci-fi tv series i mean

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/12/salman-rushdie-write-tv-drama

meanwhile there is a movie production of midnight's children

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/pageviews/2012/06/iranian-video-gamers-to-execute-fatwa-against-salman-rushdie

It is not known for which platforms the game will be made available.

It is odd that when SR finally wrote a memoir, JOSEPH ANTON, people weren't that thrilled or fascinated etc for very long as they would once have been.

ah memories.

Both that memoir and Padma's reviewed here: http://blogs.bookforum.com/review/2016/03/24/padma-lakshmi-and-salman-rushdies-scorched-earth-marriage-memoirs/

Not reading any of it but my takeaway isn't that they aren't well-matched but that they are - and that could possibly be the reason Rushdie hated her for it.

Rushdie frequently complains that he can’t get what he wants. Every year that he is not named a Nobel laureate, he becomes “moody and irritable,” and Lakshmi has to comfort him. He eventually concedes, “without irony,” that many great writers have never received a Nobel, and lists the esteemed company he keeps: “Proust, Joyce,” Lakshmi writes. “He lacked self-awareness and, tellingly, a sense of humor about himself.”

Lots of good lolz like this one.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/satanic-verses-salman-rushdie-review-fatwa-muslim-iran-heresy-a8799771.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1551306244

^this took a turn in the last para all the libs on twitter are crying over this.

lol yeah only "the libs" would object to the idea of burning or banning a fucking book

Ignore that bit on my post as its to do with being was picked on by terrible people on my timeline. I posted it here because of that weird last para. Its a nothing review.

Its no big deal, the guy sounded like he would buy a copy and burn it quietly in his garden or something.

I know a guy, an ex-policeman, who was involved in ensuring Salman Rushdie's security, travelled all over the world with him. From his long time interaction with him, I can confirm that Salman Rushdie is indeed a dickhead.

jfc Sean O'Grady

https://apnews.com/article/salman-rushdie-attacked-9eae99aea82cb0d39628851ecd42227a

Eyewitnesses on twitter saying he was able to walk offstage, thank goodness.

that is good to hear, thanks, the photos are disturbing

NY State Police: "On August 12, 2022, at about 11 a.m., a male suspect ran up onto the stage and attacked Rushdie and an interviewer. Rushdie suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck, and was transported by helicopter to an area hospital. His condition is not yet known." pic.twitter.com/W1SgRti1pz

— Dan Linden (@DanLinden) August 12, 2022

Looks like my previous post may have been incorrect, apologies. His condition is unclear at the moment

https://twitter.com/search?q=%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86%20%D8%B1%D8%B4%D8%AF%D9%8A&src=typed_query

the bounty is supposedly up to 3,300,000 US dollars.

CNN: The bounty has never been lifted, though in 1998 the Iranian government sought to distance itself from the fatwa by p?ledging not to seek to carry it out. But if somebody does get him, without gov assistance---? Just somebody pissed off by foiling of Bolton-Pompeo assassinations??
Witness claims no security, no metal detector, but state trooper (and civilians) intervened, after the stabbing.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/12/us/salman-rushdie-attacked/index.html

any rapper with more than 100k Youtube plays has security, but Salman Rushdie walks around unguarded?

I’ve seen him dining out in my neighborhood a couple of times, never with security. Based on a bit of eavesdropping he seems to have a good sense of humor.

Do we know for sure that he was stabbed for religious/political reasons, and not because he boned someone's wife or something?

maybe litcrit

(see upthread)

source is the NY Post, but fwiw

Hadi Matar, 24, was arrested after he stormed the stage at the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York and allegedly stabbed the author in the neck.

Sources told The Post that an initial investigation suggests Hadi is sympathetic to the Iranian regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

and he'd still be widely fêted for doing allah's work even if it turned out he wasn't an islamist nutjob

Jesus at the damage done.

Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, sent an update on his condition to NYT, saying Rushdie was on a ventilator and could not speak. “The news is not good," he said. "Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged."

— Josie Ensor (@Josiensor) August 12, 2022

fucking hell

and he'd still be widely fêted for doing allah's work even if it turned out he wasn't an islamist nutjob

― f.m. corndog (unregistered), Friday, 12 August 2022 bookmarkflaglink

Who would be doing that?

This is Hitoshi Igarashi, a Japanese scholar of Arabic and Persian literature. He was murdered in 1991 for translating Salman Rushdie's novel. Translators have lost their lives for books. pic.twitter.com/zTuqeDJHEh

— Alina Stefanescu (@aliner) August 13, 2022

xpost maybe not -widely- but: https://www.reuters.com/world/irans-hardline-newspapers-praise-salman-rushdies-attacker-2022-08-13/

The 'widely' is what I was questioning.

"widely fêted by bottom-feeders on twitter" doesn't have the same ring to it, but it takes very little digging to find examples of users praising the attacker and condemning Rushdie, some with hundreds of retweets and thousands of likes:

https://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%B1%D8%B4%D8%AF%DB%8C?src=hashtag_click

https://twitter.com/search?q=%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86%20%D8%B1%D8%B4%D8%AF%D9%8A&src=typed_query&f=top

(tweet dump in spoiler)

My Hero 💕😍#SalmanRushdie #سلمان_رشدی pic.twitter.com/nBPicB6AMb

— HAMID CH (@chamandar_hamid) August 13, 2022

#سلمان_رشدي
There is a big difference between freedom of speech and sacrilege or profanity. He who dares to insult Islam and Muhammad must expect a similar fate. It is not terrorism; it is heroic defence. pic.twitter.com/2I60h2SyYt

— Ali M. (@AliM12002554) August 13, 2022

HERO 👑💖
(Man who stabbed Knife To Blasphemer Salman Rushdi)#سلمان_رشدی#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/wATjXHFV1B

— سید || ☫𓂆 (@SyedZain313) August 12, 2022

MASHA ALLAH Bro❤❤
you are hero of whole Muslim Ummah #سلمان_رشدي pic.twitter.com/5JXCIGD6jw

— Ch Shakoor Mehsi gujjaR(PTI) (@gujjar_mehsi) August 13, 2022

البطل اللّي طعن #سلمان_رشدي
منفّذ تكليف الإمام الخُميني 'قدّس سرّه' 🤍 pic.twitter.com/9iObFX7MHK

— حوراء (@hawraa_fy311) August 12, 2022

هلاك ⁧الكاتب #سلمان_رشدی⁩ صاحب رواية (آيات شيطانية) المستهزئ بآيات القرآن الكريم .. وتم طعنه علي يد شخص في أحد المسارح بنيويورك
تحيا جهنم من أجلكم pic.twitter.com/jZz5sYUhK5

— المـصــ‏‏ـــــــــرى (@El_Maaaasry) August 12, 2022

في حفظ الله ورعايته ..سلمت يداك ❤#الطعن_المقدس 5️⃣1️⃣ | #سلمان_رشدي pic.twitter.com/IfwRHOsByt

— 𝙼𝙰𝙻𝙰𝙺 ||ملاڪ (@malaksh88) August 12, 2022

كلنا كنا نتمنى أن نكون مكان البطل #هادي_مطر 💪#سلمان_رشدي pic.twitter.com/LR8HAW6uMF

— mazen007 التطبيع_خيانة# (@mazen00711) August 13, 2022

MASHA ALLAH Bro❤❤
you are hero of whole Muslim Ummah #سلمان_رشدي pic.twitter.com/5JXCIGD6jw

— Ch Shakoor Mehsi gujjaR(PTI) (@gujjar_mehsi) August 13, 2022

HERO 👑💖
(Man who stabbed Knife To Blasphemer Salman Rushdi)#سلمان_رشدی#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/wATjXHFV1B

— سید || ☫𓂆 (@SyedZain313) August 12, 2022

This is the #HERO southern #lebanese who stabbed the devil yesterday,
We promise you that we will complete the stab in the heart of "Israel".

Insulting #Islam and all religions should not go unpunished.#هادي_مطر #سلمان‌رشدی #USA pic.twitter.com/7XNZZucmQs

— KamalDaeem🇱🇧🇮🇷🇮🇶🇸🇾🇾🇪🇵🇸🇻🇪🇨🇺🇷🇺🇨🇳 (@DaeemKamal) August 13, 2022

توہین رسالت کے منکر سلمآن رشدی پر چاکو سے حملہ کرنے والا مرد مجاہد
اپنی نبی پاک کی حرمت کے لیے ایک لائیک تو بنتا ہے ناں اس کے لیے pic.twitter.com/hEb4oT1tsz

— مریم نوازکا جانثار سپاہی (@naeemishaq1992) August 13, 2022

سلمان رشدی پر چاقو سے وار کرنے مرد مجاہد کیلئے ری ٹویٹ تو بنتا ہے pic.twitter.com/TJZqo2p3AP

— M Shoaib Bjr (@ShoaibBjr) August 13, 2022

نیو جرسی کے رہائشی 24 سالہ نوجوان ہادی مطر نے سلمان رشدی پر حملہ کیا ❣️ pic.twitter.com/CYah8kTev6

— امارتِ اسلامی اردو (@IEAUrduOfficial) August 12, 2022

ملعون سلمان رشدی کی تازہ ترین اپ ڈیٹس
ایک آنکھ سے محروم ایک طرف سے مکمل پیرالائزڈ اور اس کا لیور تباہ و برباد
کیونکہ اللہ تعالی شاید ان کو اس دنیا میں عبرت ناک سزا دیتا ہے
یہ پورے پی ڈی ایم اور رجیم چینج والوں کے لئے ایک عبرت ہے

— RABBIA BIBI PTI💧 (@Rabbia112233) August 13, 2022

سلمان رشدی پر چاقو سے وار کرنے مرد مجاہد کیلئے ری ٹویٹ تو بنتا ہے نا۔😍 pic.twitter.com/WQXeQVaQ24

— Imran Khan 💙 (@ImraanKhaaaan) August 12, 2022

سلمان رشدی سمیت آقا کریم صلی اللہ علیہ و آلہ وسلم کی شان میں جس نے گستاخی کی، ذلت اور رسوائی اسکا مقدر بنی، عاشقان مصطفی ہر جگہ موجود ہوتے ہیں

— Imran Khan (@_ImranRiazkhan) August 13, 2022

سلمان رشدي مهدور دمه👌
كل من ينفذ هذا القرار وتم امساكه فهو شهيد ومن اعظم الشهداء🙏🙏#سلمت_يداك ايها الطاعن في عنق الشيطان pic.twitter.com/XV43NqPani

— ابو حيدر 🇱🇧🇮🇷 (@hamze313haydar) August 13, 2022

گستاخ رسول صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم سلمان رشدی پہ چاقو سے حملہ کرنے والے نوجوان کی تصویر منظر عام پر آگئی pic.twitter.com/TIaOpSkU7A

— Ikramullah Naseem (@realikramnasim) August 12, 2022

(or not in spoiler, oops)

Yeah man not sure sharing a couple dozen tweets from assholes is really necessary?

Don't know if I needed to see all 50 of those, but...thanks?

I didn't intend to dump those tweets on anyone who clicked on this thread (hence my botched attempt to contain them in a spoiler). but xyzzzz questioned my previous post, so I'm illustrating that the terrorist does appear to have a sizeable support base on social media and that his apologists extend aren't limited to hardline Iranian news outlets

extend

I didn't intend to dump those tweets on anyone who clicked on this thread (hence my botched attempt to contain them in a spoiler). but xyzzzz questioned my previous post, so I'm illustrating that the terrorist does appear to have a sizeable support base on social media and that his apologists extend aren't limited to hardline Iranian news outlets

takes very little digging to find examples of users praising the attacker and condemning Rushdie, some with hundreds of retweets and thousands of likes

At midnight on Sunday, it is the 75th anniversary of Indian independence - and so also of the birth of Saleem Sinai, the fictional protagonist of Salman Rushdie's multitudinous reimagination of modern India. This Picador cover was the edition that I read of it, aged about 16. pic.twitter.com/WHYksb7TLY

— Sunder Katwala (@sundersays) August 13, 2022

Midnight's Children is the only novel of his I've read — I've read some of his nonfiction too — but I don't recall it being dense, exactly. I thought it was a great read, terrific writing.

I meant Satanic Verses, not Midnight’s Children, sorry.

Oh yeah, that was my impression of that too.

User unregistered putting “Salman Rushdie attacker good” into search and thinking he did something. Are you actually upset he was stabbed or looking for an excuse to be angry?

I don’t know if you know this about social media, but you can find hundreds of thousands of likes for just about any horrendous sentiment. It doesn’t necessarily indicate this is a widespread sentiment among normal people. Though interestingly when I click on his hashtag the people I see swimming up again and again are bluetick BJP members and assorted other Hindutva. There are always those who take glee from such an incident even as they squeeze out the crocodile tears, and they tend to be the beneficiaries too.

yes, I'm actually upset he was stabbed, and will admit that extremist attacks on artists or authors (or cultural landmarks) have a more visceral effect on me than a lot of other admittedly horrific incidents going on in the world right now. I don't claim that it was healthy for me to go in search of confirmation that the attacker has vocal supporters (by simply entering Rushdie's name in the twitter search box, not "heroic warrior" or whatever), but it was my initial anger at the incident (and my understanding that there certainly is widespread support for the violent application of sharia law) that prompted me to go down that road. assholes like those may not be "normal people" and aren't of course representative of the Muslim world as a whole, but it's disturbing in itself that they proliferate in the thousands on social media. the fact that every abhorrent cause has its adherents doesn't mean their existence isn't concerning or widespread in this instance.

among normal people

not sure that introducing the concept of 'normal' is going to add clarity to the discussion

(xp) Tell us something we don't already know, why don't you?

I find it extraordinary that there were apparently no body searches or metal detectors at the venue. Wondering if this was Rushdie's wish or whether it was just that the organisers didn't take his security seriously enough.

_among normal people_

not sure that introducing the concept of 'normal' is going to add clarity to the discussion

assholes like those may not be "normal people" and aren't of course representative of the Muslim world as a whole, but

I find it extraordinary that there were apparently no body searches or metal detectors at the venue. Wondering if this was Rushdie's wish or whether it was just that the organisers didn't take his security seriously enough.

oh great this is the new charlie isn't it

for islamophobic concern trolls I mean

It's weird that a god who created the universe is so fragile it can't withstand a little irreverent literature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFFZzo0o9M0

Ppl on the right predictably connecting it to cancel culture. Failing to connect it to, you know, banning books.

Attempted murder isn’t the same as being criticised for your views, it’s more in line with, idkkkkkkk, engaging in incitement towards your political enemies

Here is a thread on the fatwa in Iranian politics since it was issued. I'd read that instead.

A thread on ‘fatwas’:

A fatwa is a legal ruling delivered by a religious jurist, these days denoted by the rank of Ayatollah or higher. Fatwas are an integral aspect of Shia jurisprudence which operates on the basis of the continuous interpretation of scripture /1

— Ali Ansari (@aa51_ansari) August 13, 2022

"yes, I'm actually upset he was stabbed, and will admit that extremist attacks on artists or authors (or cultural landmarks) have a more visceral effect on me than a lot of other admittedly horrific incidents going on in the world right now. I don't claim that it was healthy for me to go in search of confirmation that the attacker has vocal supporters"

Seriously this is not good, nor is it accurate to get confirmation this way, which is no such thing at all. You could easily type a search that would churn out a lot of Muslims who would wish Rushdie well (I'm not doing that, nor should you).

At least you acknowledge it's not healthy so I'd pause and reflect on it.

I find it extraordinary that there were apparently no body searches or metal detectors at the venue. Wondering if this was Rushdie's wish or whether it was just that the organisers didn't take his security seriously enough.

― lord of the rongs (anagram)

I was going to say that after such a long time it wouldn't be all that surprising if gradually he preferred not to have security everywhere he goes, if its expensive and/or intrusive

I know a guy, an ex-policeman, who was involved in ensuring Salman Rushdie's security, travelled all over the world with him. From his long time interaction with him, I can confirm that Salman Rushdie is indeed a dickhead.

― The Vangelis of Dating (Tom D.),

But then this sounds like he did have security for a long time, do you know if this was something that eventually stopped? Was it paid for by Rushdie himself?

You can read all about it in Rushdie's memoir, Joseph Anton, which is very readable. Rushdie does indeed come off as a dickhead, although his situation at the time probably wouldn't bring out the best in anyone.

But then this sounds like he did have security for a long time, do you know if this was something that eventually stopped? Was it paid for by Rushdie himself?

I don't know exactly know when this was - I don't think it was right after the fatwa though. My friend was a serving police officer - he'd already provided security for at least one Secretary of State for Northern Ireland - so it would be financed by the UK government, which might explain why it was eventually withdrawn. When I say he travelled with him all over the world, I'm not exaggerating either. I'd love to hear what he makes of this but he's retired and moved out of London.

Sounds like he’s hopefully out of the woods

A family statement… @SalmanRushdie #SalmanRushdie pic.twitter.com/tMrAkoqliq

— Zafar Rushdie (@ZafRushdie) August 14, 2022