“Philistine, sanctimonious and disgraceful”
Rushdie and Greer are rowing again, this time over the filming of Monica Ali’s Brick Lane.
Greer had written, bizarrely, that “the community has the moral right to keep the film-makers out” - though she added, quickly enough, that they didn’t have the right to complain if the film was made on some other location presented as Brick Lane.
Here’s Rushdie’s characteristic response:
Germaine Greer’s article (G2, July 24) about the proposed filming of Monica Ali’s novel Brick Lane is a strange mixture of ignorance (she actually believes that this is the first novel to portray London’s Bangladeshi community, and doesn’t know that many Brick Lane Asians are in favour of the filming); pro-censorship twaddle (no, people do not have the “moral right” to prevent the making of a film simply because they have decided in advance that they will not like it); and ad-feminam sneers about Monica Ali. Her support of the attack on this film project is philistine, sanctimonious and disgraceful, but it is not unexpected. As I well remember, she has done this before…Jonathan Heawood of English PEN, writes in the Guardian blog:
To say that local residents have the right to be upset about their portrayal in the media is one thing; to say that anyone representing a “community” has the right to hinder the free speech of writers and film companies and enflame considerable tension, is quite another. There is no basis for it in philosophy or law, and it is no foundation for a healthy pluralistic society. Besides, it’s absurd to say that Monica Ali can’t tell this story because she’s not sufficiently one of them. Who hands out licences to multicultural storytellers? Not Germaine Greer, surely.Here’s Ajmal Masroor of Communities in Action, responding to Heawood:
The film is an extension of that success, but for the community it is another reminder of how they are so often portrayed as a negative, narrow minded, uneducated and backward community. The fact that this is an imaginary novel does not help: the film will be seen and taken by people to reflect some elements of reality. This is where the community feels their lifestyle, their persons and their whole culture is being derided. Ms Ali has the right to freedom of expression and the film makers have the right to make a film but the community has the right to feel offended and organise protests, especially if the filming is going to be done on their doorstep….Sorry, but the right to feel offended stops at that doorstep. Beyond it, the film team should be free to make its film.
>> people do not have the “moral right� to prevent the making of a film simply because they have decided in advance that they will not like it
It cannot be said better.. :))
Wow, Rushdie, You Man!
Comment by Kishore — July 29, 2006 @ 5:34 pm
the film team too should stop at its doorstep perhaps?
Comment by kuffir — July 29, 2006 @ 6:32 pm