Saturday, August 13, 2022

Salman Rushdie

Several years back, as I told gz, Salman Rushdie was speaking at a book store in Harrisburg, PA, some distance from me. I really wanted to hear him, but did not want to drive a couple hundred miles to see him by myself, let alone walk around a strange city by myself at night. 

Tim had zero interest in going, so I asked around but could find no one interested. I did not go.

Imagine my surprise to discover that he spoke at the Chautauqua Institution yesterday. I've been there for other things, but had somehow managed to miss this one. The Chatauqua Institution (pronounced sha TA kwa) is less than an hour from where I live. 

I would have loved to have heard him, but am glad I wasn't there

Who would have guessed that a Iranian fatwa from 1989 would ever have an effect in my corner of the world 33 years later?

28 comments:

  1. He sounds to be in a very bad way. Appalling.

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    1. It is. I cannot help but be shocked that this happened at a place known to me.

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  2. That whole situation is so shocking. Ultimately no one is to blame but the attacker, but I have to wonder why Rushdie wasn't given better security.

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    1. https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/salman-rushdie-lived-more-freely-in-recent-years-didnt-want-constant-security-3250707

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  3. Replies
    1. Yes. And the 'Christian Taliban' will run around decrying this as barbaric even as they try to enforce their own religion on everyone around them. The inability to see this is mind boggling to me.

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  4. That poor man. Living for such a long time with the constant fear of an attack and then this happening.

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    1. It really sounds as if he had begun to disregard it altogether.

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  5. I was shocked when the news broke yesterday. They say he's on a ventilator, may lose an eye, and has damage to his liver and an arm from stab wounds. I can only imagine how horrific it would have been to be in the audience and witness such a scene.

    I've long been an admirer of some of his work. The Moor's Last Sigh is my favorite Rushdie book.

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  6. Attacked by someone who wasn't even born when the fatwa was issued. -Kelly

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    1. Yet he lived long enough to become so radicalized on the issue. It defies logic, really.

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  7. The fatwa has/had no end... so Rushdie determined to live his live as he wanted!! Gutsy man ...great writer!! Hope he recovers!

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  8. I know that it had no end...but like Kelly, I guess that I expected that as the years rolled by, it would fade from people's minds and the furor would die down.

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  9. Rushdie is a very interesting figure. I'm surprised that he lasted this long.

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    1. He is an excellent writer, but he is, like many creative geniuses, a bit of a jerk on an interpersonal level.

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  10. A fatwa seems like the ultimate, listen to me! You must not do this or I will kill you! I've had it with stupid, blind, ignorant people today.

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  11. I remember the eighties, when his life was a daily subject.

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    1. Well, his life will be a daily subject again for quite some time.

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  12. I remember seeing him walk down a Bath street when he was incognito and thinking at the time that they had hidden him in Bath. I stopped and turned round and so did he. Must have been awful all these years checking on people.

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    1. I can imagine that it was. That's pretty amazing that you saw him walking down the street. His face was so publicized, I wonder how long he could stay anywhere without someone realizing who he was.

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  13. It is a wake-up call to all of us.
    Freedom of speech.

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    1. gz, I live in a country that touts its 'freedom of speech' as a constitutional right. But I can tell you that there are plenty of people who will defend their own right to speak and to be heard, while trying to squelch the voice of anyone else they disagree with. There is no debate. There is only right and wrong. Books are being banned in schools. Banned. I don't understand this. Parents should be reading books with their children and discussing anything they think needs discussed, but banning books? It is horrifying to me. From your lips to God's ear: Let it be a wake up call.

      But it won't be.

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  14. Have you ever read the Satanic Verses? I haven't and was surprised to hear how relatively benign the book sounded as someone described on NPR.

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  15. Yes. I read it. I could not understand the furor either. But to be fair, I don't understand the Christian outrage to books. My youngest daughter's Sunday school teacher told her than anyone who read Harry Potter was going to hell. I do not understand the outrage over ideas.

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