salman_rushdie epitome of incomprehensibility That_didn't_age_well: in friend-to-friend jokes, my "ambition" to marry Salman Rushdie and then drop a bookshelf on him...killing him just to collect the reward money. The joke wasn't that violence against authors is funny (although the specificity of the method was deliberately absurd), but that "this is the only way to make money in the literary world." But then last week someone stabbed him and injured him in what seemed like a murder attempt. I didn't read why. A fan of the late Iranian ayatollah, the one who put a price on his life? Or just thinking the writing was irreverent? Well, if our dude had actually *read* The Satanic Verses (yes, I'm being That Person...but you try to kill someone, you get snobbed at), he'd see that it was about how different points of view lead to different interpretations of religion/religious experience. One person's mystical experience is another one's mystery or tragedy (there was something about children drowning in misplaced faith, and/or being taken to God - the vision at the end of that scene was ambiguous). Stabby dude might not have liked such an agnosticky theme, perhaps...but the book wasn't trying to make any definitive statement about interpreting the Qu'ran. That part is clear enough. Because all is sacred. Or, nothing is sacred, not even Charlie's weekly martyr complex... ...to quote a poem of mine that makes no sense, but that makes me wonder... ...it's not inconsistent of me to dislike the act of drawing pictures of Mohammed in a deliberate attempt to provoke, is it? In France it has a not-so-veiled racist implication, since the French government has long had an Islamophobic undercurrent. Extreme Free Speechers also have a certain fanaticism. They exalt one value above others that are sometimes more relevant, such as respect and fairness. But I don't think Rushdie is obnoxious/self-righteous that way, whatever his other personal or literary failings. Anyway, no one should have to suffer such an attack. Midnight's Children: has anyone here read it? Would you recommend it, and does it say anything interesting about India's history? I meant to read it and haven't gotten around to. 220816 ... e_o_i Haroun and the Sea of Stories 221015 ... ovenbird Just stumbled upon this! And as it turns out, I have read Midnight's Children. It was long enough ago that I don't have a clear memory of it but my review on Goodreads suggests that I found it very challenging and had to look up a lot of things about Indian history to understand the narrative. But I also concluded that I was glad I persisted. That being said it's definitely not my favourite Rushdie book. Of his novels I really loved Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights. I also recently finished his book of stories called The Eleventh Hour and they were brilliant. I tend to forget that Rushdie is extremely witty. He tends to be thought of as a darkly serious writer, but his books often startle me into laughter at the same time that they're grappling with life, death, and (often and to my great delight) magic. If you pick up anything else I recommend The Eleventh Hour. I've also been meaning to read Knife, which is the memoir he wrote after being stabbed. 260701 what's it to you? who go blather from