Why Salman Rushdie . . . A Footnote from The Killing of an Author

I was just going through "The Killing of an Author," one of the three books of my Freedom Trilogy, and one that often delights me when I reread it, and came upon this Footnote, which made me smile and I must, really must share this with my few readers (there are actually many such passages in this book and in "Impressing the Whites", but this struck me as a wee bit more exuberant--and non-pc-- than the rest):



1.      Why Rushdie, with his literary eminence and wealth, would want to do something so prosaic and academic and policeman-like as edit an anthology of Indian literature and function as doorkeeper, chowkidar, or San Pedro to the gates of his own profession, his own country as it were, beats me. Perhaps it is that Rushdie, even though he has one of the world’s biggest pies all to himself, more pie than he, his wives, his mistresses, their ex-boy friends, and all of their children put together could ever eat, still wants to poke his finger into everybody else’s pie. He wants more prizes (every prize in existence, including the Nobel Prize for Peace, and he’ll angrily thump the table if he’s denied even one). He wants more money, more posts (President of PEN America, U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Arab League if they would give him that), more chelas, more girl friends and wives (and this we have in common: we were both born to have a harem). Such a hugely gifted writer, a writer for the ages perhaps, reportedly a scintillating conversationalist and wit, and yet this greed for power and fame and accolades somewhat diminishes him . . . I wish it hadn’t been so, I wish he hadn’t taken this opportunity to reward his friends and keep out those he perceived as threats. For in doing so, His Cambridgness helped The Constipated Intellectual Brahmins of India, who have always been uncomfortable with an obviously Christian-named subversive Indian writer who does not confine himself to his allotted caste turf, because it hampers their attempts to position, sell, and milk the notion of India the Hindu Exotic Vegetarian Spiritual Yogic Maharajic country—and not, as is the truth, a boisterously diverse country that includes 200 million beefeaters and at least five million dog-eaters. (Arundhati Roy, camouflaged by her more “native” name and desi focus, doesn’t face this problem.) Yes, exoticism sells, and like ghee or gold, fetches more if it is certified 100 percent pure. And the Islamic-Occidental-Agnostic Pope Rushdie’s encyclical (fatwah?) had absolved them from including, in the Indian canon, a writer who makes fun of quasi-Hindu shibboleths (as in “Yoni Goddess”) as well as Christian ones, though not as much as the latter.

 [END OF QUOTE]

This is the kind of  un-repressed, almost irrepressible writing that the Gatekeepers are frightened of, and do not wish to encourage. Yes, they are afraid of people like Salman Rushdie: I'll tell a story, in a future book, of how a rather pompous Indian journalist-cum-socialite was reprimanded for supporting a daringly subversive book of mine, quaked, turned tail, and ran! And this is why, dear reader, I need your help to publish on my own and survive.

I have self-censored many of my books, and many other books lie in wait for publication; but the three books of THE FREEDOM TRILOGY are my free-est books. Please support them (on sale on Kindle for 3 days)!

Please read THE KILLING OF AN AUTHOR, which is available on all these platforms:

http://www.richardcrasta.com/killing_of_an_author.htm
 http://amzn.to/eVghYU
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/killing-of-an-author-richard-crasta/1002873414?ean=2940014487528

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/156727

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-killing-of-an-author/5118357
http://www.xinxii.com/en/the-killing-of-an-author-p-331455.html
Apple: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-killing-of-an-author/id443434428?mt=11
Nook: http://bit.ly/pIL074
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Killing-of-an-Author/126813497416387
 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Scott Meredith Literary Agency

A few pages from the chapters SCOTT MEREDITH LITERARY AGENCY from my book THE KILLING OF AN AUTHOR. THE SCOTT MEREDITH LITERARY AGEN CY If there are thirty things about myself that I hate—and there are possibly more—then Number 23 is my discomfort with the law, a discomfort that makes me sweat or become self-conscious when a cop or a customs officer gives me the once-over or the twice-over (even though, nearly a hundred percent of the time, I have done nothing to be afraid of—don’t snort or smoke or booze or brawl or spit or pee on the pavement, and dreaming of making whoopee with the woman in front of me is not, as far as I know, a felony). So when, in May 1981, I graduated from my Master’s Degree program in Literature and Journalism at American University in Washington D.C.—my stepping stone to the Great American Writing Dream, along with a course in Book Editing at Harvard University’s summer school, taught by a senior Little, Brown editor with the help of Strunk & Wh
Read more

Fathers and Sons, War and Love (3 Book Bundle)

Image
Three generations of fathers and sons come together in "Fathers and Sons, War and Love," which consists of 3 books in one bundle. The first book, "Eaten by the Japanese," is the World War II memoir of John Baptist Crasta, the father of Richard Crasta, who is an editor and minor co-author of his father's memoir, and the author of "Father, Rebel, Dreamer" and  "Letters to My Sons." [June 2015 expanded edition.] "Eaten by the Japanese," written by a recuperating John Baptist Crasta in 1946, was published by his son just two years before his father's death; the act of reading and publishing his 87-year-old father's almost forgotten memoir was a process of discovery and reconciliation for the son. The second book consists of fictional and nonfictional reflections, essays, and humor loosely collected around the theme of "Father, Rebel, Dreamer." The third book is a book of letters from a father to his sons: poi
Read more

Sample Sunday Excerpt from THE REVISED KAMA SUTRA

Image
THE REVISED KAMA SUTRA has been published in 10 countries and was called "very funny" by Kurt Vonnegut. It is a big book, and many of the most energetic and exuberant passages occur after the first 50 to 70 pages. In this passage, Vijay, the protagonist, is around 16 years old and has just made his first (unsuccessful) attempt to lose his cherry with a hooker: Chapter 10 How to Succeed -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o- The confession had taken place on the very evening of the afternoon in which I had failed to unburden myself of my cherry. Heavy-handed Catholicism had captured and nailed down my sinning frame with Inquisitional power; within an hour, I had rushed to Jeppoo Church, a Portuguese-style structure coated with dark green moss and peeling yellow paint. Choosing the oldest and, I hoped, the deafest priest in this saint-rich church, I had confessed, shyly and mumblingly, my inept sin. It was 1969, the year Neil Arm
Read more