There have been very few writers who have been dogged by controversy throughout their careers. Some have been persecuted in less enlightened times such as Mark Twain, and some have been ridiculed by the press like Edgar Allan Poe. Yet, Salman Rushdie was the first author in the free world to have been pursued from across continents and forced into hiding because of a death sentence by a foreign government. To say Salman Rushdie is a very controversial writer in today’s society would be a gross understatement.
Rushdie in fact could be considered the ideal poster boy for absolute freedom of the press. It is not that Rushdie prides himself on being rebellious, he simply presents his ideas bluntly and it just so happens that his ideas address extremely volatile topics such as the Islam religion. Rushdie’s philosophy was eloquently put when he wrote, “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.”Contrary to many great authors, Rushdie did not endure a traumatic childhood, suffer from alcohol addiction, or live with chronic depression. Instead, Rushdie actually had what many would view as a close to perfect upbringing.
Rushdie was born in 1947 to a middle-class Moslem family in the great city of Bombay, India. His paternal grandfather was an Urdu poet, and his father a Cambridge educated businessman. At the age of fourteen, Rushdie was sent to Rugby School in England where he excelled in his studies. Rushdie went on to continue his studies at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied history. After graduating in 1968 he worked for a time with television in Pakistan as an actor with the theatre group at Oval House in Kennington. Then, from 1971 to 1981 Rushdie earned his living by working intermittently as a freelance advertising copywriter for Ogilvy and Mather and Charles Barker.
Rushdie eventually began his literary career in 1975 when he made his debut with Grimus, a sort of fantastical science fiction novel based on the twelfth century Sufi poem “The Conference of Birds”. Grimus however received little fame and Rushdie truly broke into the literary world with his second novel Midnight’s Children, in 1981, which won him the Booker prize and international fame. This novel began his controversial persona as well. The novel is a comic allegory of Indian history that revolves around the life of its narrator, Saleem Sinai, and the one thousand children born after India’s Declaration of Independence.
Ibn Fadlan and al-Andalusi both travelled much of the same land. During their travels, they wrote down their experiences with other cultures. Despite the fact that their journeys were two centuries apart, they had many similarities as well as differences in their style of writing, interests, and religious interactions. The most prominent similarity is their relationship with Islam; both of them tried to convert the people they met to their religion and their religious customs. They also share similarities in what they choose to write down about a culture. However, Ibn Fadlan was far more interested in the rituals and customs of other cultures, whereas al-Andalusi chose to primarily focus on food, animals, and the resources of other civilizations. They also have distinct differences in how they interact with others and the style of their writing. Ibn Fadlan is far more active in his writing because he describes his judgments and writes more about himself. Conversely, al-Andalusi is more passive, and writes less about himself or his opinions.
Critics have already begun a heated debate over the success of the book that has addressed both its strengths and weaknesses. The debate may rage for a few years but it will eventually fizzle out as the success of the novel sustains. The characters, plot, emotional appeal, and easily relatable situations are too strong for this book to crumble. The internal characteristics have provided a strong base to withstand the petty attacks on underdeveloped metaphors and transparent descriptions. The novel does not need confrontations with the Middle East to remain a staple in modern reading, it can hold its own based on its life lessons that anyone can use.
Rushdie’s novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories, is a fiction novel that talks about and creates a conflict of “what’s the point of stories that aren’t even true?” (Rushdie 20). Stories that aren’t true take us into their world where you get immersed into the plot and build of the story to a point where you feel that you are in the story and get the understanding of how important every detail is and how everything falls into play of the final product. There is always a point to every story, no matter if they are fiction or nonfiction, they get their message across or create entertainment for the audience.
Kurt Vonnegut Served as a sensitive cell in the organism of American Society during the 1960's. His work alerted the public about the absurdity of modern warfare and an increasingly mechanized and impersonal society in which humans were essentially worthless and degenerated. The satirical tone and sardonic humor allowed people to read his works and laugh at their own misfortune.
A mind provoking essay that embodies the fear and concerns of this new entertainment era, author Salman Rushdie highlights the defects within our society, the vain and egotistical side, using personal anecdotes, logos, and pathos to further illustrate his point.
Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 11, 1922. After attending Cornell University from 1941-43 Vonnegut served in World War II and was captured during the Battle of the Bulge. As a prisoner of war, he survived the fire bombing of Dresden by Allied forces on 13 February, 1945 in an underground meat-storage cellar. When he emerged the next morning, Vonnegut was put to work pulling corpses from the ruins of the desolated city once known as "the Venice of the North." In one night the horrific fire-bombing of Dresden killed more people than the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, more than 135,000 in all. Vonnegut's first-hand experiences of this, one of the darkest episodes in human history, would later provide the basis for his most influential work, Slaughterhouse Five (1969), though it would take him more than twenty years to come to terms with his wartime experiences and complete the novel.
Throughout Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman Rushdie provides a fundamental, yet intricate variety of literary usage. These instances of literary usage provide and framework of support for the text which is to follow and to further accentuate the smaller and unnoticeable details of the story in to vital parts which are necessary for better comprehension and understanding of the meaning of the upcoming events. Symbolism is the most commonly used and most imperative literary device used by Rushdie. 'With the land of Chup, on the dark side of Kahani?This looks like the doing of the leader of the Chupwalas, the Cult master of Bezaban.'(H.S.S. Pg 75) This statement from the text has a very symbolic meaning behind it, both in terms of the society featured in the book and of reality during the time, the book was written.
Although there are some limits, the citizens of this country can write whatever they please without fear of persecution by the government. This is an integral part of the society that we live in today, however this does not mean they are not subject to attack and scrutiny from the voices of others. Take for example the controversy surrounding Ward Churchill and his work On the Justice Roosting of Chickens. In the book, Churchill likened those who died in the attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001 to little Eichmanns, technocrats of an empire (Ward). His work was widely published and was in no way censored, yet this did not save him from an endless barrage of scrutiny from all ends of the political and social spectrum. He was invited onto Fox News’ The Kelly File where they debated the implications of his writing and gave him a chance to defend himself. This is the very spirit of dialogue that we must strive to inspire. Freedom of speech cannot be used only to protect the opinions and ideals of only the ‘just’. Absolute freedom of speech must be extended to all ideological minorities regardless of moral standing. Instead of silencing those we disagree with, we must seek change their ideas so that society can move forward
Kurt Vonnegut was born on November 11, 1922. Kurt was born into a very nice normal family. Kurt’s father was a great architect in their city. His mothers name was Edith, her father owned a very blessed Indianapolis brewer. This is where they are from.
No matter how strongly one feels about something, sometimes thoughts and actions can become too intense, too extreme, quite simply: too much. The idea of exceeding normal boundaries is a key idea in the Nation of Islam movement in America in the 1950s and 1960s. The Nation of Islam preached an idea that was very unfamiliar to common thought in America at that time. Ideology practiced by black Muslims, as those people of Islam were known as, was very intense, very driven, very narrow minded, but it made a lot of African Americans feel better about who they were and where they were at. On the other hand, many other African Americans believed that the practices of Islam were far too outrageous to be followed or trusted. James Baldwin, a very influential and respected African American author of the 1950s and 1960s, was a man of this belief. Baldwin had ties to the Nation of Islam movement, having been associated with Malcolm X when he appeared along side him on a television program. But Baldwin shared less ideology with the Muslims than one might expect. In his essay, “Down at the Cross,” (“Cross” for short), Baldwin recounts his encounter with the honorable Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam movement. Baldwin’s encounter with Muhammad shows the reader that although Baldwin certainly had ties to the Nation of Islam movement, some of the views of the movement were too narrow minded and too extreme for him to fully accept. Baldwin refused to believe that all white people are devils and as a result Baldwin depicts himself as a man who respects the efforts of the Black Muslim movement, but cannot be a member of it.
Salman Rushdie is a man who isn't afraid to speak his mind. When Salman Rushdie wrote his novel The Satanic Verses it influenced chaos between the Moslems people and Rushdie. Socrates gained enemies for speculating about things far above and far below the earth. Rushdie can be considered a Socrates of the global village because Salman Rushdie is someone who publicly spoke his mind on what he believed in and gained enemies like Socrates.
Hamid’s fiction deals with varied issues: from infidelity to drug trade in the subcontinent and, in the light of contemporary developments, about Islamic identity in a globalised world. His first novel, Moth Smoke (2000) won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award in 2000. His other novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Decibel Award and the South Bank Award for Literature. This book serves as a testament to his elegant style as he deftly captures the straining relationship between America and Pakistan.
be expert in it. Such knowing provides an opening up. As an opening it up
In his short story, “The Prophet’s Hair,” Salman Rushdie make use of magic realism, symbolization and situational irony to comment on class, religion, and the fragility of human life. The story is brimming with ironic outcomes that add to the lighthearted and slightly fantastic tone. Rushdie’s use of the genre magic realism capitalizes on the absurdity of each situation but makes the events relevant to readers’ lives. In addition, the irony in the story serves as a way to further deepen Rushdie’s commentary on class and religion. Finally, his use of symbolization focuses on the concept of glass, and just how easily it can be broken.
Abu Al-Walid Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Rushd, known in Latin as Averroes, was one of the most influential Islamic philosophers and scientist. He lived in a time where Philosophy was not celebrated in the Islamic world, and philosophers were regarded as unbelievers. He, however, revived the Aristotelian philosophy stressing that it has no conflict with the belief in God, and that was the theme he used throughout his writings. He integrated religion and philosophy challenging the anti-philosophical view of the Muslim scholars at that point. That influenced a group of western scholars who used the same examination and identified themselves as the “Averroists.”