On Friday, August 19, in the morning, a dozen writers collected in entrance of New York’s primary public library, on the VAnd Ave. Amid them, Paul Auster, Siri Hustvedt, Colum McCann, Reginald Dwayne Betts, journalists Tina Brown, Andrew Solomon and Gay Talese. At the invitation of PEN America, an association of writers committed to liberty of expression, these popular North American authors have appear to categorical their assistance for Salman Rushdie, even now hospitalized immediately after being stabbed various periods in a stabbed attack with a knife. on August 12. About a hundred individuals attended the readings and lifted the signals. Incredibly minor compared to the demonstration that took place thirty-three several years previously, on February 22, 1989, on the initiative of the very same association, pursuing the fatwa introduced by Ayatollah Khomeini, which sentenced Salman Rushdie to dying for his novel The satanic verses.
“The place did you go the solidarity I felt in 1989 ?, asks nowadays John R. MacArthur, the director of Harper’s Journal, indignant that the New York Times he didn’t even publish an editorial following the attack. Where is the well-known entrance to defend freedom of expression? “ In 1989, approximately 500 people today flocked to the Columns, an artsy loft in Soho, in assist of the British writer. In excess of 3,000 other supporters had collected in front of the constructing, braving the rain and chilly. Scattered amid them, some fanatics shouted: “ Demise to Rushdie ! “
Participate in the publication of the e-book
At the origin of the celebration, the journalist John R. MacArthur, who in December 1988 had completely posted the very good sheets of the satanic verses. He as a result regarded it his responsibility to assist Rushdie, who was starting off his underground existence underneath the safety of the British secret services. Susan Sontag, who was president of the PEN Club, undertook soon after her to persuade the authors to participate in a public studying of the satanic verses. He has collected twenty-a single personalities, together with Joan Didion, Claire Bloom, Edward Stated, Don DeLillo or, of course, Gay Talese. It took some pressure for Norman Mailer, but he joined the ranks. Sontag then appealed to the “civic bravery”, au “I refuse to be intimidated”.
“Cowardice is terribly contagious, but this horrible 7 days has proven that even courage can be contagious”, wrote Christopher Hitchens in his Memoirs. The demonstration was not a defeat “Radical stylish”according to the components of Tom Wolfe, who mocked the revolutionary positions of the “Left of Park Avenue”. It was a question of symbolically associating oneself with the publication of the e-book, and as a result of sharing the pitfalls by declaring oneself “Co-liable” of publishing.
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