On The Satanic Verses

Jaybird

Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com

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7 Responses

  1. InMD says:

    Maybe I will give it a try. I’ve been thinking about it since the incident.Report

    • Jaybird in reply to InMD says:

      It’s worth it.

      American culture is immersed in Bible stories but isn’t really familiar with stories from the Miscellaneous religions. Rushdie’s book jumps over many of the Greatest Hits to give us the deep, deep cuts that only the true afficionados know about… so, like, don’t think that these are the stories that are important to modern theology. They ain’t! They’re the ones that cause fistfights!

      But aren’t those the really interesting ones?Report

      • InMD in reply to Jaybird says:

        It sounds fascinating. I was lucky enough to have a world religions class in HS where we spent some time on Islam. There was also a fair bit of discussion about it when I was in Catholic school, I believe in part to ensure we understood the differences between our traditions and those of others. Some might simplify it to ‘the difference between us and them’ but I never thought it was quite that simple, even if it often included some brief interlude as to why we Catholics are in the right. Hint: Saladin was not a hero and I doubt Ridley Scott has changed their minds on that in the many years since.

        My main hurdle is that a significant portion of my job is reading dense documents and the last thing I feel like doing after a day of it is opening up a book. Of course I mentioned this to my wife the other day, prompting her to provide me with the insight (as she does) that my whole book shelf is full of dry, non-fiction, so maybe I just need to try something fun. Your review sounds like the Satanic Verses could be.Report

  2. Rufus F. says:

    I’ve read two of Rushdie’s books and I thought about writing about them here and finally decided they were just too rich and funny and filled with ideas for me to have anything clever to say about them. You’ve tagged the thing I think people don’t know until they read his work- they’re dense and smart, but also, when he goes for it, he’ll crack you up.Report

    • Jaybird in reply to Rufus F. says:

      The damage of the fatwa was not limited to the threat of violence.

      It made reading his books something that ought to be done seriously… rather than, you know, because you want a good yarn that is not, is absolutely *NOT*, YA.Report

  3. PD Shaw says:

    I think I read the book in the late 90s after the initial controversy, and only after I’d read Midnight’s Children which I prefer. Agree with Jaybird that there is a lot of humor, slapstick, absurdity, and I think I was surprised that it wasn’t polemical. There are no absolutes in the story. Stuff happens and maybe there is a meaning under it all, but mostly its just that good stuff happens which is good and bad stuff happens and its not so.Report