Thoughts On Salman Rushdie

Hadi Matar was charged with attacking and stabbing Salman Rushdie on a lecture stage in western New York on August 12, 2022.

Salman has lived under the threat of death and attack ever since 1989 when the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwah and a €3,000,000 bounty. The fatwah was issued because Salman wrote a novel called 'The Satanic Verses' which had a passage that satirised the Quran. All of this is because of that little offense, and offense that should have rolled of the backs of those offended.

Salman writes in his memoirs of the fatwah, titled Joseph Anton, his life, his career, who he is, his controversies, and as well of course, what it is like to live in captivity. 

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So I'd never read any Salman Rushd books, nor had I really known anything about Salman Rushdie except for his long in-depth on C-SPAN and everything that Christopher Hitchens said about him. In Hitch 22, there is a chapter titled Salman, where Hitchens speaks in great detail about Salman's fatwa from the I tell her money, but then as well just who Salman Rushdie was to Christopher Hitchens and his friends, my name, Sin McEwen, James Fenton, and so forth. How he was this amazingly articulate, intelligent, and just fun fella to hang around. They famously have these word games that they would do, and Salman even helped out Hitchens just off the top of the dome with some black and white piece that Hitchens wanted to write. Basically, you're just left with the impression, from having listened to Hitchens, that Salman Rushdie is an incredible intellectual force, a fun guy, and a brilliant author. Now, I don't read much fiction. I've never read any of Salman Rushdie's books because he is a fiction writer. But since he was attacked a few weeks ago, I've been waiting for Sam Harris to come out with some sort of podcast and I've been actually I've just been waiting for more general commentary on it, but it's been radio silence as far as I can see. So um but after the attack, a few weeks ago, uh Sam Wonarashti was attacked and stabbed several times. He's supposedly lost sight in one of his eyes, which implies that he was either slashed or stabbed with a knife in the face. Uh this happened in New York, and it happened from a man who hasn't been confirmed as motivated by Islamic fundamentalism, so I guess I shouldn't assume, but largely, where there is smoke, there is fire. However, I hadn't read any of Rushdie's books. I still haven't read any of Rushdie's books, except for one exception. He wrote an autobiography titled Joseph Anton. And I'm not sure when he wrote this book, but he had wrote it several years, a decade, maybe 15-20 years into his fatwa. And so after listening to what is now about 75-80% of the book, I wanted to just record this sort of general musing on Salman Rushdie. Because he seems like a really incredible figure, and he's led an incredibly interesting life and is at the center of the great debate of freedom of speech, religious freedom, and just the cancerous spread of fundamentalism. So I'm just going to now go a little bit in the timeline as far as I've gone. I'm not sure what year I'm up to in Rushdie's life in the book, but I think, like I said, about 75-80% through the book. I think I'm just after the point where he's informally met Bill Clinton. This is the late 90s, early 2000s, where I'm up to in the books. He was since knighted and obviously many things. But I will now say a little bit about Salmon Rushdie and his life. He's an Indian man. He was born in Mumbai in 1947, which makes him only a few years younger than Hitch. He came from a very wealthy family. Their family actually changed their name. I forget the reasons why, but Rushdie wasn't his birth name. He had a more, I suppose, upper class family name, which the family wanted to get away from. But it was money that his grandfather had accrued. And Rushdie's relationship with his own father was pretty bad, actually, uh, right up until the end on his father's deathbed, where he sort of made amends with the man. But his father was an alcoholic, and there was a lot of mental illness that ran through the family. And Rushdie was sent off to a UK boarding school early on in his life. I think 13, 14, he was sent off away from Mumbai, Bombay, as it was known back then, and underwent this very typical and classic upper class British education. And this was obviously in the years not long after that that India had become independent of Britain. So you can imagine the type of prejudice and stereotyping that Rushdie had to rub shoulders with every single day. But he's clearly a smart man, so he did well at the uh boarding school. It was called Rugby, I think. Can't imagine a school being called rugby, but I think that gives you a sense for how upper class it was. But Rushdie went on to go to Cambridge. Now, to go to Cambridge means you're a pretty smart fella. Now I don't remember exactly what Rushdie studied, but nonetheless, he made it through Cambridge, and then very interestingly, in the 13 years between him graduating from Cambridge and publishing Midnight's Children, he was a, from all outside measurements, a relatively unexceptional, maybe not failure is too much to say, but disappointment for someone to have come from Cambridge with these ambitions to be a great novelist, a great writer. To live in obscurity for 13 years is a big thing. And this was a part in the book that I identified with so deeply. Because with my life here, everything I'm doing now, I met with incredible opportunities and excitements and promises and conversations and meetings, and then almost inadvertently, then later met with disappointment and letdown and the question of how did this all just fall apart? And did this person really mean what they said, what they meant, and when is the great opportunity going to come for me? And and and and so forth. So these 13 years between Cambridge and him eventually publishing Midnight's Children, which was his huge breakout, um, I just identified with very deeply because I suppose that meant Rushdie was in his early 30s or perhaps mid-30s when he eventually did publish his breakaway novel. So he spent the majority of those years, all of his 20s, struggling. And, as we all know, those are the years that you're meant to be uh accumulating and compounding on education, wealth, and value and connections and so forth, so that you later on in life can, you know, have financial independence, have a good network, and I don't know, be able to take the foot off the gas of worrying about the future. Things are gonna be alright. But very, very interestingly, Rushdie worked for Ogilvie, which is an international advertising agency. And in an upcoming podcast I'm doing with Rory Sutherland, he actually worked with Rory Sutherland at Ogilvie, and uh Rushdie wrote copy because he is obviously a man of the limerick. He can turn a phrase, and his big campaign that he writes about in Joseph Anton, which is the name of his autobiography, was something to do with a bubbly chocolate bar, and they would just um contort words that ended in um Iable, reliable, substitutable, etc. with reliabuble, substitutabubble, and so forth. Yes. Gripping, thrilling stuff from Rushdie. But he was a copywriter that paid the bills, Barushd also spent a lot of time as an actor. You know, he would dress himself up, he would uh be hanging out with the best of the hippies in London, um, because this is in the you know 70s and early 80s, I suppose. Barushi was a aspiring actor, you know, an aspiring Shagger. He was trying to impress the ladies, and he was as well trying to write books. But eventually, he publishes this allegory for Indian independence from the British, a book called Midnight's Children, which wins the Booker Prize, and as Christopher Hitchens comments that had Midnight's Children not won that Booker Prize, then it might have become the type of prize that is completely forgotten. Because no one can associate the winners of that prize with any of the books. But nonetheless, the Booker Prize has become extremely prestigious, and Rushdie was its debut winner. He really made the prize, as it were. But now Rushdie's a famous author. This is back in the days where writing books could actually really make you quite a lot of money. Um, obviously, now as well, if you're, I don't know, Jordan Peterson or Jay Shetty or something and you sell hundreds of thousands or millions of copies of books, you can make money, but largely no one makes money publishing books. Back in the day, you get the sense that people made a little bit more money. Uh, there are great anecdotes of Gor Vidal, you know, writing from his beautiful castle on Lake Como. I mean, or or is it the Amalfi Coast? One of the two. But there was a time where authors made genuine money, and Rushdie lived through that. And Rushdie published one of the best-selling books of that year, probably of that decade, which was Midnight's Children. So he's a famous author. He makes money, he gets respect, which I think mattered to him the most. So he gets respect from India, his place of birth, but clearly somewhere that culturally he'd been separated from, because he moved to the UK and joined their system at such an early and formidable age. Formidable? No. Impressionable. Rushdie then, several years later, publishes Shame, which again, I've never read any of his books, but supposedly it's one of his best. I think Hitchens actually might have admitted to it being his best. But it is as well another uh book about uh subcontinent issues. Is that the right way to say it? I don't know. I shouldn't pretend to know what I know what the book's about. But nonetheless, he speaks about it in his autobiography, Joseph Anton. And then the defining moment of Rushdie's life, whether he likes it or not, unfortunately, this is the defining moment. He publishes a book titled The Satanic Verses. The year is 1989. Now another big thing happened in 1989. The Berlin Wall falls. But as well, the Aitol Hamani, this genius of a man, issues a fatwa against Salman Rashdi. And I think a fatwa is a death warrant that is given to sort of apostates, is that the right word? But people who were of the faith who then betray it and go against it. So me, as someone who's never been Islamic, cannot have a fatwa issued against me. I just have a regular old death warrant on my head. But Rashd as a former Islamic man, because his family was Islamic in India, had a fatwa issued against him. Interestingly enough, which comes out in uh the autobiography called Joseph Anton, uh Rushdie comments that at times it felt like the blackest of black comedy because supposedly the Ayatollah never even saw a copy of the book. Yet this man had decided to issue a fatwa, which is a death sentence against Salman, and the amount of turmoil and disruption to not only Salman's life, but the life of everyone who ever protected Salman, governments that tried to smuggle him in, people that tried to work with him, publishers that tried to get his books out there completely distorted it. So, Salman is on the move. By the way, before I continue, I wanted to mention a very, very funny uh detail that happens between the years of Midnight's Children and the Satanic Verses. These are blissful years for Salman. He's a very famous author, he's traveling the world everywhere he goes, people like him, people want to be seen with him, take photos with him, drink with him, dine with him, all the good stuff. And he somehow falls into a three-year love affair with none other than the great Australian Robin Davidson, who is the author of Tracks, which the movie adaptation is probably my top three favorite movies of all time, but this amazing book about a woman, young woman, who goes to the middle of Australia, uh, adopts and trains a couple of camels, and then crosses the Simpson Desert for however many weeks or months it took for her uh to then get to the coastline. It's a just a brilliant, incredibly inspiring story of adventure. Um and this woman, somehow I was shocked, I was almost flawed when I'm listening to it. Um I went on a long hike through um through Sweden for a couple of days and listened to this book. And I'm walking, I'm like, what the I was almost stocked in my tracks. Robin Davidson? You had a three-year affair with her? So that was a very funny detail uh from Salman. But the blackest of black comedies, because what happens when the Fat Wise issued against Salman is that he goes into a forced hiding because he was considered a threat to the community or the people around him wherever he was, which meant that it wasn't in his own hands to say to the British government, no, you guys back off, stay away, I will take care of myself, I will assume the risk of this fatwa. They said, No, you're a risk to everyone else. We you're forced. You have to have this protection, you have to follow then, therefore, the rules of the protection, which meant multiple men around him at all times, uh, securing rooms that he would go into, securing the properties that he would stay at, securing the cars that he would travel in, securing the people that he would meet. And so it's very difficult to appreciate without having listened to hours and hours or read hours and hours of the autobiography. But this is a prison. It's a nice prison, admittedly. You can still have uh freedom of your time and you can still eat nice things, and with enough uh advanced notice you can uh go places, but it is a prison. Salman could not do what he felt like at a whim. There are great moments in the books where he would romanticize just sitting on a terrace drinking coffee, watching the world go by. A beautiful freedom, one which we all uh take advantage of routinely, which Salman had stripped from him. Plus, Salman at this time had a child and he's had several wives, but uh as he cycles through the wives and um the children remain a constant, these people are also someone who he feels very responsible for, understandably. And if he is going to be having death threats made against him, then he will take every single measure possible to make sure that his children and his family are protected as well. There is a very harrowing anecdote where his um first wife and their son are missing from an apartment that has the front door wide open and the light on, and he's afraid that you know the worst has happened. But the book is called Joseph Anton because that is the synonym. Pseudonym? Yes, not synonym, the pseudonym from by which young Salman goes by. His protection detail, call him Joe. Not Salman. And Joseph Anton is his name. It is the first name of two great authors that Salman adores. I forget who the authors are at this stage. Salman Rashdi, it must be made very clear, is probably one of the most literate, widely read people of his generation, which means therefore of the last century. He has read everything, he knows everyone. When it comes to snobby, British, you know, high intellectualism. Salman really sits up there with Christopher Hitchens as just knowing it all. So um, something I very much admire in them. Obviously, leave the snobbiness snobbiness out of it, but to be so well spoken and widely read, I think is a very cool thing. And Salman clearly is one of them. Interesting details about Salman's life in captivity is that the tabloids made a huge deal of the amount of expense that was being spent on Salman to be protected, and you know, understandably so, but unfortunately, it meant that he was portrayed as this arrogant man who was uh someone who just he knew the risks. He knew what he was doing when he published satanic verses. Which, if you, you know, read the book or listen to the book, you you really get a sense for that just being a load of BS. Because although I can't remember exactly the passages that were of problem in satanic verses, the whole issue of the fatwa is Salman essentially plagiarized and took, not plagiarized, embellished and took the piss out of certain verses of the Quran in a fictional novel. It's like a throwaway couple of lines or potentially even a couple of paragraphs of the book. And it culminates in all of this chaos. Millions of pounds of security, of several people's lives being taken, strength, including Salman's. The geopolitical intrigue from all of it. It is um, I mean, it's embarrassing. You think about it, how unhinged the Islamic fundamentalist movement, the Islamic extremists are. It was a couple of lines taking the piss. I mean, one has to question whether there is any sense of humor at all in these people. I think the answer is evidently no. Uh, but Salman ended up being in prison for 20, 30 years for a crime that in many other cultures would have just been laughed away and forgotten of immediately. But as we know with Charlie Hebdo, a couple of cartoonists, you know, published images of Muhammad, not in a bad light, just cartoons of Muhammad, and people were were killed over that. And much with Rashdie, people who were publishing the satanic verses or involved in translation of the satanic verses were killed, uh, including his Japanese publisher, I think his uh Italian no, his Japanese translator, his Italian translator, was attacked, Japanese killed, and Norwegian publisher, the great William Nieborg, who was shot three times, just because he was involved in publishing in Norway the satanic verses. Talk about an unhinged culture, a type of reaction that is just completely unrecognizable, unrelatable to. Where's her sense of humor? Where's her ability to have an open mind to what might be opposing opinions, especially ones that aren't that fucking dramatic? Anyway, I'm now probably coming towards the end of where I'm at in Joseph Anton, the autobiography of Salman Rashdie, but he's in hiding. The press paint him as this arrogant, ugly, vain man who knew the risks that he was taking, and so therefore doesn't deserve the protection of the British people, and the taxpayer shouldn't be subsidizing his lifestyle to keep him and his family safe. It really is quite ugly at times because the truth is that Salman barely had a say in the matter of it at all. But the story ends rather well. I'm not sure how you would consider it well, but he was knighted in 2007, which is something that cements his name in history that creates a legacy for Salman. Would he have been knighted had the Fatwan not been put against him? You know, that's maybe an unfair question to ask, but who knows? Christopher Hitchens, of course, plays a strong role in the autobiography, helping out Salman whenever he would be in Washington, DC. Uh Hitchens was fundamental to Salman's eventual off-the-air meeting with uh Bill Clinton. But now in 2022, 32 years after this after the fatwa, Salman is attacked by some unhinged man. And he potentially lose vision, but he's not dead, so he will return. Hopefully we hear from Salman. I want to hear Sam Harris on this issue. I want to hear other people talking about it, but anyway. This was rather rambly. If you've listened, you're a legend, thank you. But I just wanted to, I don't know, say my thoughts on Salman because anyone who's a friend of Hitchens is a friend of me. And since Salman had an entire chapter devoted to him in Hitchens Hitch 22, I was uh very attracted and enthralled by the story of Salman being attacked. Joseph Anton is a terrific autobiography, it's very, very interesting. And I am a huge fan of Salman now. However, Salman's still around. Hope to hear from you soon, Salman. All the best.