Satanic Verses

 SATANIC VERSES

Salman Rushdie

Books for Bigots

How do we proceed in talking about SATANIC VERSES?  It has been established by Fatwa that bigots not only will not enjoy this novel, but should not read it.  I'm not sure of the consequences if one simply admits to reading it; I can only assume there might be some.  The Ayatollah Khomani declared a Fatwa against the book including the demand that Rushdie, his publisher and editors be killed.  Not a happy thought for those who might be inclined to read it.

It is not an easy book to read either: it takes you many places, you meet many characters, and it bounces from plot line to plot line which seems to be a normal manner of proceeding when this book was written in 1988 and then there is Saladin morphing into a goat and Gabreel an angel.  I'm not sure of the reason for this bouncing about but it does occur rather frequently in our modern novels.  Are our lives as disconnected from one aspect to another as they are portrayed to be?  I don't admit to that.

Considering this book had a world-wide impact, I have no excuse for not reading it sooner, but now I can admit publicly that I have read at least one, currently banned book.  Our religious brethren have always had difficulty with books.  I don't believe the Catholic Church's Index of Banned Books was officially dissolved until 1966 after four hundred years or so of its attempt to keep the faithful from reading books.  The early Christians not  only destroyed books but those who possessed them.  Hence the paucity of knowledge from antiquity.

One must realize that most active anti-book people are motivated by one religion or another.  The reason should be obvious; books contain ideas.  Ideas are not objects as such, but  have the ability to engage people in thought: always anathema.

Your religion gives you a set of beliefs.  The first premise of this set of beliefs is their truth.  To be a follower of a particular religious doctrine, one must believe it is inherently true and no other belief or doctrine is.  Belief has no factual basis hence it is incontrovertible - but at the same time easy to develop since no facts are involved. As a result,  religious beliefs can pop up just about anywhere.   The most significant danger to a belief is another belief; hence the war on books which has endured since writing first began.

Rushdie's book has the ability to make one consider one's beliefs simply by presenting various characters and activities and the effects religion has on them.  And then there are those who try to live and maintain in a land requiring belief; those who simply are trying to get by, who don't buy in, but simply want to go about their business without someone ordering them about.

Islam is not the subject of this book, it is simply described as it is and its effect on the lives of the people who adopt it (admittedly a little satire thrown in).  A portrayal of a belief through the people believing and its effect on others is sufficient to send a message to the reader that all is not what it purports to be.  Bigots understand this.  Do not read anything that even hints of difference in belief or of no belief or of anti-belief and for sure don't create characters who don't believe or say things not in keeping with the proclaimed faith which is the case in Satanic Verses.

Not much was actually said here about the book itself, but it did not need to be said when considering it as a Book for Bigots.  It is not a book for Bigots, even though they would not know what they are reading in any event.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo