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Salman Rushdie says provoking people is in his DNA
London:
Author Salman Rushdie, who was once condemned
to death by a former Iranian spiritual leader, has
said that provoking people "is in his DNA". Rushdie's
fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was at the
center of protests from Muslims in several countries.
Some of the protests were violent and Rushdie faced
death threats and a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, then Supreme Leader of Iran. According to
Khomeini, he had portrayed the prophet Mohammed in
irreverent terms - and by doing so had forfeited the
right to life. In response to the call for him to
be killed, Rushdie spent nearly a decade largely underground,
appearing in public only sporadically. Now, while
in his interview with The Telegraph, 'The Enchantress
of Florence' author says he "can't avoid making enemies."
When asked why he provokes such dramatic reactions,
Rushdie says he can't avoid it, as if it's somehow
stamped on his DNA. "There's a quote by Robert Browning
that I'm particularly fond of - "Our interest's on
the dangerous edge of things." Something in me, not
consciously willed, takes me to those edges. But,
at the same time, part of the nature of the artist,
at least as I see it, is to increase - by however
little - the sum total of what it is possible for
us to understand. Nothing of great interest for me
is done sitting safely in the middle of the room.
You want to push the boundaries as much as possible.
But I suppose if you do that then people are going
to push back," he said.
-Dec
30, 2008
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