The Satanic Verses

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Society was orchestrated by what she called ‘grand narratives’: history, economics, ethics. In India, the development of a corrupt and closed state apparatus had ‘excluded the masses of the people from the ethical project’. As a result, they sought ethical satisfactions in the oldest of the grand narratives, that is, religious faith. But these narratives are being manipulated by the theocracy and various political elements in an entirely retrogressive way.”

The Satanic Verses: 30 Years On review – what an astonishing fallout". the Guardian. 27 February 2019 . Retrieved 11 November 2022. We can’t deny the ubiquity of faith. If we write in such a way as to pre-judge such belief as in some way deluded or false, then are we not guilty of elitism, of imposing our world-view on the masses?” Weatherby, W. J. Salman Rushdie: Sentenced to Death. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers Inc., 1990, p. 126. What didn’t help is the fact that I’m also reading Joseph Anton, Rushdie’s biography. The personal relationship between him and his farther is detailed quite extensively throughout and much of Rushdie’s emotions regarding the matter are paralleled here in different forms. I became confused with events that had happened in Rushdie’s life and those that had happened in the fictional account here because they are so strikingly similar. This meant that a confusing novel became even more confusing.Srinivas Aravamudan's analysis of The Satanic Verses stressed the satiric nature of the work and held that while it and Midnight's Children may appear to be more "comic epic", "clearly those works are highly satirical" in a similar vein of postmodern satire pioneered by Joseph Heller in Catch-22. [11] A novel of metamorphoses, hauntings, memories, hallucinations, revelations, advertising jingles, and jokes. Rushdie has the power of description, and we succumb.” —The Times (London) Buy this book In September 2012, Rushdie expressed doubt that The Satanic Verses would be published today because of a climate of "fear and nervousness". [17] Fatwa [ edit ]

I know this book was widely praised upon release, won at least one prestigious award, and sold like hot cakes. I wasn’t as impressed as I thought I’d be. When does the bias of the material end and when does the bias of the reader begin? If you’re either a Christian or a Muslim, then surely the title of this novel made you pause, if only a little. Or maybe it drove you off altogether. I assure you this novel is not satanic in any devilish way. Now I ask the question: Do we really approach a book with an open mind, or do we give immediate judgment to books based on their titles? Do we read without bias or do we bear impasse to fairness. Do we aim to learn or do we aim to protect our knowledge? These questions, I believe, are critical when discussing reading materials which are controversial in nature. It occurred to me when, during an article review in one of my classes, my group-mates and I discussed the bias of an article about the Gaza affair. My groupmates interpreted the article in favor of Israel while I, on the other hand, viewed it a bit sympathetic towards Palestinians. I realized then that when it came to issues we have forehand knowledge of; people tend to see what they want to see. Justification of its stand is the priority of the mind rather than the absorption of new information. This selective receiving, blindsiding whatever parity the material has, is a greater source of misconstrusion rather than biased material. Sure, there will always be certain biases in all materials we read, but the bias of the mind is the sieve through which comprehension passes, it will only let in biases it supports. This greatly affects one’s comprehension into the mold it wants to see. The bias of a material will be evident to an open mind, but the bias of a reader will affect even the most unbiased material. A good example is the reading of the Bible. The Bible is the foundation of Christianity. Everything that Christians believe in come from that book, but I believe it was Isaac Asimov who said “Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.” It only shows that one’s biases are the hands that mold one’s reading experience. People’s understanding is founded on the guidance of certain assumptions and axioms based on previous knowledge, but this principle can also be taken to an extreme. This “learned” mindset which has become second-nature to us, is a great hindrance to critical thinking and knowledge acquisition. Even the most gifted mind is beset by this problem, and I believe it takes years of practice to be able to read something without any inclinations.

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The Prophet Muhammed is called 'Mahound', an alternative name for Muhammed sometimes used during the Middle Ages by Christians who considered him a devil. My one problem is that I expected this to be an novel set in ancient times, as I thought it had a bigger focus on ancient deities and Islam in general, instead I was greeted by a fantastic study on what is like to be alienated, as an immigrant, a minority. But I will still hope for him to do another work on what I originally expected, it is too good a subject to pass up. One of the most controversial and acclaimed novels ever written, The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie’s best-known and most galvanizing book. Set in a modern world filled with both mayhem and miracles, the story begins with a bang: the terrorist bombing of a London-bound jet in midflight. Two Indian actors of opposing sensibilities fall to earth, transformed into living symbols of what is angelic and evil. This is just the initial act in a magnificent odyssey that seamlessly merges the actual with the imagined. A book whose importance is eclipsed only by its quality, The Satanic Verses is a key work of our times. Praise If you believe that Gabriel spoke Allah's divine words to Mohammad, I bet you don't also think that Mohammad received false words from Satan, do you? Wait a minute, he blinks at his notes, if Iago is evil incarnate, does that not also mean that he is Satan incarnate? Chamcha then is Satan incarnate? Then Othello has to be God? A little bit more corruptible maybe? Let us make him the angel Gibreel, he decided. As an aside, as the angel, he can slip into that reality in his dreams and reenact the story (history?) of Prophet Mohammad in inflammatory fashion, maybe talk about the 'Satanic Verses' since his Satan can't help but gloat over his little jokes. Why not call the novel so too, except that it would mean something else - the verses that the real Satan of the story, Iago, sings in Othello's ear. He knows that this might be cause for misunderstanding, might ruffle a few feathers, but it is just a digression, the real story is beyond that - it is not the Event Horizon. But he can't help himself. He never could keep a story simple.