© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

Author Salman Rushdie Speaks in Burlington

 Salman Rushdie
Syrie Moskowitz
/
UVM
Salman Rushdie

Author Salman Rushdie is perhaps best known for 1988’s The Satanic Verses, which led to death threats and forced him into hiding for many years. The incident a sparked a debate over free speech and religion that the world is having again this week. Rushdie was at the University of Vermont last night to talk about one of his children’s books, but the recent terrorist attacks in Paris also came up.

Salman Rushdie is the author of three non-fiction works and 11 novels including two children’s books. The Vermont Humanities Council “Vermont Reads” series is featuring his 1990 children’s book Haroun and the Sea of Stories and booked Rushdie to discuss it months ago.
Rushdie spent most of his time speaking about what has influenced him and the art of storytelling.

Rushdie may be best known for his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which resulted in the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issuing a fatwa to kill him. He referenced that part of his life only briefly during his talk.  “My son said,  rather scathingly, why don’t you ever write a book that I want to read? He was ten. And so I said to him, well look I’m just in the middle of this novel right now. It’s a big, long, difficult novel. Let me just finish the novel and then the next book I’ll write a book that you might like to read. And that novel was The Satanic Verses. And it had a somewhat complicating effect on my life and on his.”

Rushdie talked about artists throughout history pushing boundaries.  “What art tries to do is to increase, by some degree, the sum total of what it is that we know, what it is that we understand, what it is that we see and therefore in the end what it is possible for us to be. First of all that’s not easy to do and you can’t do that by sitting safely in the middle ground. That’s risky business and there are plenty of people in the world who don’t want the universe opened up. Who in fact would rather prefer it to be shut down.”

He added that highlights the importance of protecting free speech.  “Art has incredible resilience and strength. But artists are vulnerable and need protection and often suffer terribly for this attempt to push against the forces of darkness and limitation.”

Rushdie spoke about the Charlie Hebdo killings that have shocked Paris during the question and answer session.  “Charlie Hebdo attacked everything. It attacked Muslims. It attacked the Pope. It attacked Israel and rabbis. It attacked every kind of human being because its strategy was to make fun of people. And it was seen as that and it was very loved. These cartoonists were beloved in France.”

He said did not know the cartoonists well, but is upset that some are criticizing the cartoonists.  “The thing that I really resent is the way in which these dead comrades, you know these people who died using the same implement that I use which is a pen or a pencil, have been almost immediately vilified and called racists and I don’t know what else. Which is a dreadful crime against their memory.”

Rushdie calls criticism of Charlie Hebdo a deplorable effort to stifle free speech.  “I’ve got so sick of the *** BUT brigade. And now the moment somebody says ‘Yes I believe in free speech  BUT’ I stop listening. I believe in free speech BUT we shouldn’t upset anybody. I believe in free speech BUT let’s not go too far. The point about it is the moment you limit free speech it’s not free speech. You can dislike Charlie Hebdo, you know not all their drawings were funny. But the fact that you dislike them has got nothing to do with their right to speak. The fact that you dislike them certainly doesn’t in any way excuse their murder.  And the idea that within days of this murder sections of the left as well as the right have turned against these fallen artists to vilify them is I think disgraceful.”

Audio is courtesy of the live stream provided by the University of Vermont and the Vermont Humanities Council.

Related Content