The Case For and Against The Satanic Verses

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Errr...I recently re-read Stanic Verses (agree, not as good as Moors Last Sigh)...and I enjoyed it and found Rushdie`s (mis?)use of language impressive. (People, it`s true hard core Bombay Urdu/English, not an incorrect version of our Northie stuff.)

What struck me this time round was that the hullaballoo was about some hypothetical brothel-owner naming hypothetical prostitutes after the Prophet`s wives, rather than the (very funnily presented) POSSIBILITY of appocryphal verses being sneaked into the Koran Sharif.

(In any case, wasn`t the Koran only written down years after the Prophet`s death? And NOT dictated the afternoon after revelation? Somebody please correct me if I`m wrong.)

What gives?

Saimaji - I didn`t really see how Rushdie`s perspective was more ``Pakistani and Muslim than Indian and British``. I would agree that his perspective is antithetical to any idea of religious purity, and its politicisation, but that is not quite the same thing. His (IMO highly Westernised and irreligious) sensibility, certainly, seems to be of upper class Bombay in the years immediately preceding and after Independence (said by some to be Bombay`s golden years), and its that which he seems to be mourning in parts of many of his books - or at least that part of it which was open and unbigotted.

Regards

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DR.subroto
It was not worth my time to proceed beyond this kohinoor.

[Yet such an initial response may be followed by another very different set of sincere and vital emotions. Upon reflection and a second reading, it is possible to feel exhilaration, delight, even the calm of a Shia Muslim spiritual experience from the book. These may be accompanied by a conviction that Rushdie has produced a significant work of art even if he himself remains unaware of its nature. ]

How does one acquire `...the calm of a Shia Muslim spritual experience from the book.` ?

That is exactly what Ayotullah Khomeini experienced.

No wonder that mentioning of DAKTAR and phD and Faarin degrees and PRAFESSURRR allows you to get across some very select intellectual & cultural turnstiles.

Please read again what you have written and sue the pants off the CHOWK editors for considering it worthwhile to print. Why else are they here for? and it is your derivative reputation which is at stake.

Then e-mail this to cellman rushdick.

Zafar:

You`re back!! Did you get my messages? I called your house a couple of times, always ended up missing you though. Good trip?

Parag