Stick To Your Novel Writing, Mr. Rushdie

Beware of simplistic answers to the world's ills, Giles Fraser warns Salman Rushdie in the Guardian. He believes that Rushdie the novelist has increasingly been overtaken by his public crusading. He should stick to his original vocation because the novelist is in a unique position to enable us to appreciate different viewpoints.

... these dangerous times require the moral imagination of the novel as much as ever. And this in two specific respects: first, in the capacity of the novel to be more humble than the pamphleteer with regard to ideology; and second, in its capacity to listen to and be affected by moral worlds very different from one's own."

Nicely argued.

Just one problem: do the people who need heart and opinion transplants actually read novels?