Rushdie speaks at Royce Hall
By Andrew Lee
Oct. 21, 2003 9:00 p.m.
Toward the tail end of Salman Rushdie’s appearance at
Royce Hall last night, a patron asked the internationally renowned
author if one of the night’s main topics ““ storytelling
““ could possibly work itself into the political debate and,
in turn, enrich it.
Rushdie’s response was more serious in tone than his
generally whimsical responses to other queries. He wondered aloud
why, after the 2001 election, the media didn’t turn to the
novelists who shaped their literary careers around the
world’s political debate: the Don DeLillos or Philip Roths,
or even the Salman Rushdies.
“Here (in the U.S.), people would argue, “˜what the
hell does a novelist know about politics?’ To which the
answer is, “˜what the hell does anyone know about
it?'” he said.
In the context of Rushdie’s entire presentation, the words
carried weight. In spite of his towering status as a literary
dissident that already approaches mythical proportions, Rushdie
spoke to the nearly full Royce audience with a humble directness
that outweighed his intellectual fervor.
The author’s latest tour was inspired by the release his
new book “Steps Across the Line,” which compiles his
non-fiction columns, essays and memoirs from 1992-2002. There was
no mention of the book throughout the night, either from the author
himself or the patrons who were able to ask him questions during a
short question and answer session.
Instead Rushdie dealt indirectly with the topics contained in
his latest wide-ranging compilation. He transitioned with ease to a
number of issues, applying the literary style of “magic
realism” to try and understand the recent California
election, or evoking Saul Bellow’s work “Deans of
December” to compare novelists to barking dogs. The author
took a few minutes to point out the inherent awkwardness of patrons
paying to hear a writer speak, but Rushdie proved himself at
ease.
Rushdie’s presentation shows that he remains preoccupied
with thoughts of the world’s political problems, and by the
constant struggle for free speech as shown by the government-issued
fatwa that made him a marked man for nearly two decades. But as any
almost well-traveled thinker has shown, a good way to handle it is
with at least a bit of humor.
“The biggest lie in this world is that things are
normal,” Rushdie said. “And it’s the telling of
stories that reveal the truth.”
