“We’re all living under a fatwa.”
Amitava Kumar sends me this link to what he had planned to say while introducing Salman Rushdie at Vassar this week:
About twenty-five years ago, with the publication of Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie met with the reception usually accorded to Hindi film heroes… I guess I would be speaking for a lot of readers, particularly in those parts of the planet that used to be called the Third World, who saw Mr Rushdie as having fought and won against, and made an ally of, the English language, the alien language that had come to us with our colonial rulers. Mr Rushdie has had to fight many other battles since; he has made many friends and enemies; and we (I’m speaking as an Indian here) we, as his readers and as writers, have followed his actions, his songs, his mannerisms, and even when we have chosen not to follow him into the sunset, we’ve always had to define ourselves, and our rebellions, against this image we have had of him, looking down at us from giant billboards at each street-corner of our past.Except that Amitava didn’t get to say it, for reasons that he explains in his post:One of Mr Rushdie’s most heroic struggles has been the one with a cleric who put a price on this writer’s head. Well—as our honored guest has himself remarked, of the two adversaries, only one has lived to tell the tale.
Salman Rushdie came to Vassar College earlier this week to deliver a lecture for the Class of 2010 – but made it clear to the organizers that he would cancel if I was involved in his visit. I had earlier been asked to introduce him, and then, well, I was disinvited.But why didn’t Rushdie want to meet him, wonders Amitava: could it be because of articles like this?
I’m disappointed. Rushdie’s negativity is apparently in a trunk in storage, but clearly his ego hasn’t been packed away. I’m no longer surprised that Fay Weldon accused him of living among the poseurs.
(Pic: Haroun and the Sea of Stories, via)
Update: This comment by SR (or someone claiming to be him) on Amitava’s post says that he didn’t threaten to cancel, he just didn’t want to share a stage with Amitava. Yeah, that explains it all.
‘..of the two adversaries, only one has lived to tell the tale.’
who - khomeini inside rushdie’s body..or mind? rushdie is turning sillier by the day. this not just outrageous..but ugly. something we’d expect a popular actor or..model or others whose accessory-in-trade is nakhras to do, not a writer who’s been the target of exclusion, censorship.. call it what you will, himself. i think he’s stopped reading his own story.
or he’s come to think some folks’ freedom of speech is less important than others’.
Comment by kuffir — September 23, 2006 @ 11:12 am
I think super sized egos, they look down from their self created throne and think I am best. I used to be apart of the ‘fan’ group whose initiator was the author himself. He ‘retells’ indian tales and on the group God forbid anyone puts in a word against his retelling/ views that person is expelled.I remember some poor guy wrote a controversial review on Amazon on his book and he was asked to leave the group. Author want freedom of speech but no one else should have this. This is their birthright only.
Comment by OM — September 23, 2006 @ 2:58 pm
Of course, if Amitava Kumar writes articles like these, despicably distasteful, vicious, repugnent, who the heck Kumar thinks he is, that Rushdie will still allow Kumar to introduce him? I’m glad that Rushdie kicked Kumar out of the whole thing.
Comment by Amit — September 23, 2006 @ 4:35 pm
OM,
plz shed some more light on that topc.
Comment by cicerone — September 25, 2006 @ 2:04 pm
Reminds me of kids in school. But they write so well. I will stick to reading the books :)
Comment by SloganMurugan — September 27, 2006 @ 1:06 pm
it is disheartening to know that a person like rushdie is also afraid of his image..so much so for his writings and his image as a warrior against fatwa!!
Comment by pradip — September 28, 2006 @ 12:50 pm
its disheartening to hear that a person like rushdie who claims himself as a crusader against fatwa, is also carrying out a fatwa against others
Comment by pradip — September 28, 2006 @ 1:22 pm
Midnight’s children was a bad copy of 100 years of solitude. Why isn’t Delhi much better known? Because though it was written in english it was only published in India. And it is better than anything Rushdie ever wrote by about a yard and a half.
Comment by flerrdi — October 5, 2006 @ 11:23 pm