June 27, 2007
Sir Salman in the sea of blasphemy
Irfan Husain in OpenDemocracy:
The decision to knight Salman Rushdie, announced in Queen Elizabeth II's birthday honours list on 15 June 2007 has provoked a vigorous reaction in Pakistan. As protests continue, they are descending from the genuine to the self-serving. While there no more public demonstrations, politicians are jumping on the bandwagon in an attempt to out-fatwa each other.
Arbab Rahim, the Sindh chief minister, was at least original when he announced he was surrendering the British awards given to his grandfather in 1937, and to his uncle in 1945. Considering that these worthies are no longer with us to voice an opinion, this was gesture of dubious value. In fact, I doubt very much that Tony Blair is greatly troubled by this post-facto, post-mortem rejection of two minor medals the colonial government handed out by the cartload to minor tribal chiefs and feudal landowners. Rahim also urged Benazir Bhutto to similarly renounce the knighthood conferred upon Shahnawaz Bhutto, her grandfather, accusing her of not being sufficiently angered by this "insult to all Muslims".
At the same time, a group of Islamabad traders decided to increase the stakes by announcing a 10-million rupee (around 80,000 pounds) reward for Rushdie's decapitation. The leader of this association, Ajmal Baluch, also called for a boycott of British goods. A ban on bootlegged Scotch would certainly hit Pakistan's elite very hard.
More here.
Posted by S. Abbas Raza at 02:29 PM | Permalink
Comments
The knighthood is not enough. Give him the Nobel he richly deserves, I say.
Posted by: Abbas Raza | Jun 27, 2007 2:33:32 PM
Agreed.
Posted by: ghostman | Jun 27, 2007 5:05:20 PM
Why do you think he deserves the Nobel? It seems like he wrote one excellent book, but many of the later ones are middling to awful.
Of course, the criteria for getting a Nobel are a little strange anyway, so maybe he does.
I'd plump for Ismail Kadare way before Rushdie.
Posted by: Hektor Bim | Jun 27, 2007 5:57:17 PM
Midnight's Children, Shame, The Satanic Verses, The Moor's Last Sigh, Haroon and the Sea of Stories, and The Jaguar's Smile, not to mention several collections of essays and criticism (such as Imaginary Homelands), are all excellent books. Midnight's Children (which won the Booker of Bookers--given to the best book to win the Booker since its inception) took Marquez's writing and updated it, dealing with contemporary themes (like hybridity) in a language by turns shocking, inventive, unashamed, literary, vulgar, (or as Rushdie might put it: literaryvulgar), lacking sentimentality, and holding a pyrotechnical linguistic mirror to the world and all its messiness.
IMHO, no serious writer of world literature today can escape Rushdie's influence. To have read him is to have your own writing affected. South Asian writers can barely escape having their work judged as either imitations of Rushdie, or reactions against him, such is his influence.
He really did make a new vocabulary (of concepts as well as words) available to subsequent writers, and this is a rare achievement even for very good writers.
Yes, he has written a couple of, well, not-so-good books lately (Fury, Shalimar the Clown), but there is enough in his oevre to easily justify the Nobel, and I suspect he would have had it even before Sir Vidhia got his had it not been for the ridiculous Satanic Verses episode.
Of course, much of this is a matter of taste.
If you haven't read Midnight's Children lately, give it another look. It really is astoundingly good and shockingly original. That's what I think, anyway.
Posted by: Abbas Raza | Jun 27, 2007 6:17:45 PM
Abbas,
Weren't you the one defending those calling for the death of the Danish cartoonists last year?
And hey, drop me an email. Let's hang out.
J
Posted by: Jonathan | Jun 27, 2007 6:19:20 PM
Jonathan (jokingly, I am sure) brings up a confusion which is all too common, and therefore could be more sincerely made, so let me clarify:
1) I haver never defended anyone calling for the death of the Danish cartoonists, in fact I clearly condemned them. I actually wrote, "One must condemn anyone who calls for death or violence because of some stupid cartoons." How much clearer could I have been? And I never questioned the right of the Danish newspaper to publish the cartoons. Of course they have that right. All I called for was an understanding of the anger of a brutalized and exploited people who are dealing with a provocation in the form of racist cartoons depicting their prophet (and by implication, every Muslim) as a terrorist, etc. I even quoted Edward Said: "To understand is not to condone."
2) Rushdie has never published a racist word. His book was misunderstood because it was probably never read. (Unlike his most vociferous critics, I have actually seen all the repellent Danish cartoons.) The whole Satanic Verses affair was a shameful episode, and I believe he should be given the Nobel without worry about whom that may offend. Because he deserves it, simple as that.
3) Anyone who wants to read my piece to which Jonathan has referred can do so here and judge for themselves.
4) Jonathan, I'll call you...
Posted by: Abbas Raza | Jun 27, 2007 6:42:01 PM
Abbas,
Somewhere between a joke and an amiable prod. But anyway, glad to have gotten you to clarify your views. And please do call.
J
Posted by: Jonathan | Jun 27, 2007 7:03:35 PM
Midnight's Children was amazing--seminal and all that. LOVE THAT BOOK.--Shame was good. Satanic Verses---okay gave the guy license with the neat trick of Urdlish--out of respect for Midnight's Children-- thought the book went on a chapter or two too long---But I absolutely LOVED IT. The Moor's Last Sigh, also great. Then, the Ground Beneath Her Feet? Lord, I couldn't get past page 15--. Fury? Same thing bloody awful. But all n'all the guy's brilliant-- But given the timing I don't think the British Crown is giving him the knighthood for his literary talents--its more for his nuisance value for getting the "Rage Guy" all over our TV sets and blocking out all the people hankering for democracy and the rule of law--from Pakistan to Palestine. Just like the cartoons--same week as Hamas winning the elections democratically. So this knighthood too is more for the invaluable service of making sure that debate, discussion and moderation extinguishes rather then flourishes. And the image of the "Rage Boy" flourishes. Sir Rage Boy. And unfortunately Sir Salman will be remembered more for that then his way with words. But hey if that works for them--then to hell with everyone else--may the devil take them. Sir Salman it is.
Posted by: maniza | Jun 27, 2007 7:21:50 PM
The Sea of Stories is as good as anything Rushdie has published. Shame was my other favorite.
Posted by: John | Jun 28, 2007 2:58:36 AM
I, too, will cast my vote for Shame and Haroun.
Posted by: David | Jun 28, 2007 1:01:35 PM
Shame and Midnight's Children are my two favorites.
Posted by: Hamza | Jun 28, 2007 10:55:05 PM
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