Thursday, April 19, 2007

Setting the Rushdie Straight

Camilla Gibb dropped me a line yesterday re. the quote about Rushdie which I had picked up from Raman's website. She is clearly upset that one small comment was taken out of context and somewhat sensationalised, and would like to set the record straight:
My goodness – the passion that my comment elicited on your site! I had no idea. I’m glad to see such passion alive in Malaysia, but I do have to say that not only was my comment a cheeky aside in the context of a talk about other, and I hope, much more important things, it was hardly original. To suggest that Rushdie’s career in some way benefited from the exposure of the fatwa against him has been said many times before. I do have problems with his work, but that is another issue and quite frankly, simply one woman’s opinion.
There's no doubt about it, Rushdie does elicit strong feelings, and no doubt we'll go on debating whether we love him or hate him, and whether he is a great writer or not. But then that's the fun of it.

Thanks for writing, Camilla, and I do hope that this puts things right!

7 comments:

David Byck said...

I need some help and this is the first place I thought to look. Can you give me a list of books that are written in multiple first person points of view?

Thanks and peace,

bibliobibuli said...

of the top of my head ... best example "the poisonwood bible" barbara kingsolver - v. good differentiation of multiple voices. tash aw's "the harmony silk factory". peter carey "theft" ...

Argus Lou said...

Whatever some readers say of Rushdie, I remember reading 'The Moor's Last Sigh' more than ten years ago and thinking: "Wow, here's a whole new, bold and inventive way of writing. What fun!"

David Byck said...

That's it. Thanks so much. See you at the book shops.

Peace,

bibliobibuli said...

argus - i felt like that when i read the opening pages of "midnight's children" all those years ago ...

Chet said...

Camilla wrote to Raman and he posted what she wrote as a comment to the KLILF 2007 article on the Silverfishbooks site:
KLILF 2007: Camilla Gibb calls Rushdie a mediocre writer

I wonder if he replied her email cuz he didn't reply the "comment".

bibliobibuli said...

yes. but at least he posted it.