John Updike on Salman Rushdie

Cue the sax, baby. Maybe that catchy little intro from Careless Whisper.


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Salman Rushdie

Profiled in the Guardian.


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Rushdie: normal dude

Despite the ageing price on his head, Salmon Rushdie can now sweep his walk like a normal person... What? He's not sweeping? But what about that broom he's pushing around? Oh, I see. Let's try that again. Salmon Rushdie can now be seen in public with his beautiful bride.


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Satanic Curses: Rushdie goes batty

Apparently, Salman threatened a reporter (who said "mean things" about his wife) with a baseball bat (last item). Gulp. I guess I better not mention the wizened-gnome/wig-on-a- stick thing again.



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More on Rushdie's licence to have a cap busted in his ass

Rushdie, seen here moments before he incinerates someone with the lasers in his eyes, must just be loving this kind of press. "Thanks, guys. You know, people were beginning to forget and joke about it. Now you're reminding them that they can strike it rich by turning in my pelt. Very nice. Thank you."



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Can poor Salman find no love, even today?

Oh yes, he's got that bewigged length of doweling to call his own. And a pack of Predator drone-dodging psychos on his tail.



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Quoth Rushdie: Bring 'em on

"Yadda yadda yadda, kill me dead. Heard it! Um, I'm the one riding around on planes and schtupping the broomstick with the wig here, people. Priorities."



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Rushdie gets political

Salman, pictured here with a rake stapled to a wig (where does she keep her organs?), is taking on America's new reality.

Rushdie was one of several speakers at the House of Representatives in Washington to call for legislation "protecting our freedom of expression".

He said there was "absolutely no security reason" to justify the government scrutinising people's reading habits.

The Indian-born writer, who is president of the US writers' advocacy group Pen American Center, spoke of his own experience of censorship.

Bestselling censorship. Gosh, I wish someone would sentence me to death. With my luck they'd just kill me and my publicity-less book would still get remaindered.



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Fatwarama: the opera

Bartender, can I get one of them Death By Association cocktails? I'll never cease to be surprised by the lineup of people dying to associate themselves with Rushdie. This time in making an opera of Haroun and the Sea of Stories.



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"The marriage is Rushdie's fourth and Lakshmi's first."

No crap. He's had time for four, she hasn't. What kind of a world do we live in where a writer as ugly as Rushdie can nab himself a beautiful starlet like her? A good one. Man, I could sure use a fatwa.



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Profiling the Little Guy

This underground author deserves more attention, so it's nice to see him getting profiled in the Guardian. Oh, yeah - by underground, I meant...



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Claude, good to hear from you on this. And good to hear from you in general--it's been awhile.

I don't think faith is the word for my relationship with writing. I know there has been good writing, or at the very least writing that I have enjoyed and that has affected my life. As for faith in myself, I see it more as a commitment to trying to live up to standards already set. It would be a leap of faith for me to say that I'm as good as Yeats, but not for me to aspire towards and beyond that pinnacle.

In keeping with Kathryn's wishes, I have edited or deleted those posts or parts of my posts which made reference to her posts, or which were off-topic.

I've deleted my posts because I don't want my private views aired in perpetuity however correct I believe them to be. I'd be happy to have this discussion in private with anyone who cares to.

Guys, this is pointless. Yes, on the surface, scientifically speaking, faith in a God (or god) does resemble insanity. But people who want to have faith will find a reason to have it, or they won't find a reason and they'll have it anyway. Certainly, logic and reason are on the side of the atheists, but these tools are useless in a debate against those who value them less than they value faith, or fear, or whatever vestige of the primitive, reptile brain has them in its grip. Put simple, it is a debate that cannot be won by either side, since the two sides are not really speaking the same language, are not operating on the same intellectual platform.

Most religious and spiritual traditions have their roots in the most prehistoric kinds of ignorance and fear. Personally, I think its an embarrassment to humanity that the superstitions persist, but the superstitions cannot be debated away. In time, humanity may evolve beyond the need for them, if we survive, as a species, for that long. To keep this on topic, Rushdie has written eloquently on the need for this kind of evolution in his essays...probably one of the reasons the fanatics want to kill him. They fear his ideas... well, perhaps they just fear ideas.

Zach, about writers having faith that writing is somehow worthwhile. I think that is a very different kind of faith than a faith in God. Having faith in oneself, in one's abilities, has, at least, a tangible antecedant.