In New York, the literary world pays tribute to Salman Rushdie

Figures from the American literary world, such as writers Paul Auster and Gay Talese, gathered on Friday for a reading of the work of Salman Rushdie, in support of the author who was seriously injured in a knife attack last week. A dozen well-known writers, including people close to Salman Rushdie, spoke on the steps of Manhattan’s majestic public library. The author was invited to follow the event online, from his hospital room. On August 12, Salman Rushdie, who wrote The Satanic Verseswas about to speak at a conference in upstate New York when a man burst onto the stage and stabbed him multiple times, in the neck and abdomen.

Evacuated by helicopter to a hospital, he had to be briefly placed on a ventilator before his condition improved. Writer and journalist Gay Talese, wearing his favorite fedora hat, read an excerpt from the novel The Golden Housewhile Irish author Colum McCann recited a passage from the essay Out of Kansaspublished by Salman Rushdie in the New Yorker magazine in 1992. Salman Rushdie “has always risen to the occasion”said Colum McCann. “I think he will have something profound to say”, once recovered, he continued. The American AM Homes – some of whose books, like Alice’s Endcreated controversy – read excerpts from the text “On Censorship” (On Censorship).

“Anti-Creation”

“No writer really wants to talk about censorship”she declaimed. “Writers want to talk about creation, and censorship is anti-creation.” Salman Rushdie set part of the Islamic world ablaze with the publication of satanic verses in 1988, leading Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for his assassination. The author had been forced to live in hiding and under police protection, going from hiding place to hiding place. Hari Kunzru, British novelist and journalist, recited the beginning of this book which radically transformed the life of Salman Rushdie. “Salman once wrote that the role of a writer is to name the unspeakable, to show the impostors, to take sides, to start debates, to shape the world and keep it from falling asleep,” he said.

“That’s why we’re here.” Arrested immediately after the incident, Salman Rushdie’s attacker, Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old Lebanese-American, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault on Thursday in a first appearance following his indictment by a major jury. ‘Not even a blade through his throat could silence Salman Rushdie’s voice’, said Friday Suzanne Nossel, president of the association for the defense of writers in the world, PEN America, at the origin of the rally. Before reading a text in turn, British author Tina Brown spoke directly to Salman Rushdie: “You never asked to play the role of a hero”did she say. “You just wanted to write”continued Tina Brown. “But the tenacity with which you defended freedom of expression made you a hero, and you paid a heavy price.”

For writer and historian Amanda Foreman, Friday’s mobilization “shows that people are not afraid”. “We are all ready to stand up for what we believe in”, she told AFP. Salman Rushdie, born in 1947 in India into a family of non-practicing Muslim intellectuals, had lived in New York for twenty years and had become an American citizen in 2016. Despite the threat, he had appeared more and more frequently in public, often without visible protection, while continuing to defend satire and irreverence in his books. In an interview given to the German magazine Stern a few days before the attack on Friday, he said to himself “optimistic” and confided: “Since I’ve been living in the United States, I don’t have any problems… My life is back to normal.”

---

SEE ALSO – Salman Rushdie in recovery, his family say they are “relieved”