Reading Notes W17: Rushdie, Part A

Salman Rushdie is a writer shrouded in controversy when regarding his fourth novel "The Satanic Verses". Rushdie published his fourth novel only to be faced with threats of violence and death for the next decade or two. "On Valentine's Day 1989, Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, then the leader of Shi'a Muslims in Iran, issued a fatwa, or religious decree, urging Muslims around the world to murder Rushdie for his acts of blasphemy against Islam in writing the novel" (1129). As expected these threats caused a major shift in the writers life, especially his personal life: "during his retreat from public view for a dozen years after the Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa, Rushdie's "normal" life was seriously interrupted- two of his first three marriages ended- but seemingly the experience did not affect his creativity" (1129). Even with these threats to his life, the circumstances propelled Rushdie to continue writing, thinking freely and letting his creative juiced flow. 

His creativity continuing regardless of the threats is expressed in the following passage from The Norton Anthology of World Literature Volume F: "In fact, the voluminous, multifarious criticism of his work and the continued threat to his life strengthened his resolve to imagine, write, and speak his mind as freely as possible" (1129.