After speaking with a few more reporters, Rushdie went to a memorial service for his close friend Bruce Chatwin. Many of his friends were there. Some expressed concern, others tried consolation via wisecrack. “Next week we’ll be back here for you!” Paul Theroux said. In those early days, Theroux recalled in a letter to Rushdie, he thought the fatwa was “a very bad joke, a bit like Papa Doc Duvalier putting a voodoo curse on Graham Greene for writing ‘The Comedians.
Rushdie was in ten kinds of misery. His marriage to the novelist Marianne Wiggins fell apart. He was consumed by worry for the safety of his young son, Zafar. Initially, he maintained a language of bravado—“Frankly, I wish I had written a more critical book,” he told a reporter the day that the fatwa was announced—but he was living, he wrote, “in a waking nightmare.
Ayatollah Khomeini had died by this time, and his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was unmoved. His response was that the fatwa would remain in place even if Rushdie “repents and becomes the most pious man of his time.” A newspaper in Tehran advised Rushdie to “prepare for death.” Rushdie went on, “I just thought, There are various ways in which this event can destroy me as an artist.” He could refrain from writing altogether. He could write “revenge books” that would make him a creature of circumstances. Or he could write “scared books,” novels that “shy away from things, because you worry about how people will react to them.
At the end of “Joseph Anton”—the title is his fatwa-era code name, the first names of two favorite writers, Conrad and Chekhov—there is a movement into the light, a resolution. His “little battle,” he wrote in the final pages, “was coming to an end.” With a sense of joy, he embarks on a new novel:
He need to be wise while dealing with topics related to religions !
Cyclop
Salman Rushdie is a Hero. His writing is quite playful.
Satanic Verses!
This man is what a real hero of free speech looks like elonmusk
Excellent article. Best in months.
samuelchalela another way of seeing...
This man is not really a man. But a genus of a man. Lol-it-Ahhhhhhh!
Or could it be an affirmation of sticking pins into those whom you don’t agree with……there’s all kinds of bullies even literary ones aren’t there , SalmanRusdie
Why didn't he get a Nobel for Literature by now, while so many other mediocre at best writers got it lately, is beyond me.
Another authorship myself may exonerate Salman Rushdie for Satanic Verses, albeit those who made a fuss around his enterprise to humiliate Muslims and their institutions, are greater culprits, as they sowed the seeds of hatred at a time when Global Anarchy looms and loomed.
The eye patch makes him look bitchin.
No point asking Cat Stevens why he enthusiastically endorsed the fatwah
Remnick is a really good writer
RoyaTheWriter Like him, dozens of Iranian women & men have been shot in their eyes by the Islamic terrorist regime occupying Iran. The democratic countries must be tough on Islamic terror. MahsaAmini IRGCterorrists
lol
Ok
20 million people celebrate 44th Islamic Revolution in Iran ✊
The New Yorker might want to do this tweet over again, as the subject of the sentence is Ayatollah Khomeini, not Salman Rushdie. grammar
❤️✌️🙏🏻🎼🌊☀️ مهسا_امینی
Listening to Rushdie being interviewed on NPR and it is pure joy. He is eloquent, passionate, light-hearted and fascinating to listen to. Thank you NPR and for bringing this to us.
Thank you for this article outstanding writing.
Wishing Mr. Rushdie a full and complete recovery and look forward to more of his written words ...
I started with poetry before I went to college then took my time before trying to write more. Still digesting a wider diversity of literature and other fields. Writing about one’s self is helpful but it’s better to find interesting and engaging subjects beyond yourself / myself
I still have my copy of The Satanic Verses I picked up in the early 90’s. It’s a unbelievable book and I’d recommend it everyone.
I was wondering how he was doing
I have a story for you to write about that no one would that needs to be documented for future HISTORY my friend
That’s how I feel trying to fall back asleep
RESILIENCE
The boss is back.
Thanks for the articl. Mr. Rushdie is another victim of the Islamic Republic like the people of Iran, and they don’t want to adopt the role of victim. Hope for freedom of speech, freedom of imagination, and freedom from fear.
How refreshing to read a well written, concise and thoroughly fascinating article. I've never read anything by Salman Rushdie but now I absolutely will.
Rushdie Affair (1989) started with the Rudi Carrell Affair (1987) Remnick, “The Defiance of Salman Rushdie” (2023): Cliteur, “The Rudi Carrell Affair and its Significance for the Tension between Theoterrorism and Religious Satire”:
Why do you insert your political & ideological lies in this story? ‘… abuse of power and the curse of sectarianism—the twin curses of India under its current Prime Minister, the Hindu supremacist Narendra Modi..’
MiaFarrow Dozens of Iranian women & men have been shot in their eyes by the Islamic terrorist regime occupying Iran. The democratic countries must be tough on Islamic terror. MahsaAmini IranRevoIution IRGCterorrists
“The Quran makes it clear—if someone defames the Prophet, then he must die.” —The singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, who had a hit with “Peace Train” and converted to Islam.
Terrific article! The listening version was the best hour and nine minutes being updated I've experienced in 2023. Much appreciation rimmnick. The mullahs who think they've a right not to be offended by other peoples' viewpoints should consult jordanbpeterson. HonestReporting
I always thought this guy was going to get us all killed. Now I look back and wonder if I was played? If the media/CIA crowns a bad guy for all of us to hate?
Fashionable eye-ware for a continued good thinker.
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