Hello, friendly readers! It’s been too long!
Holiday Mood Prevails over Midwest
It’s officially looking like winter here in Minnesota. We finally have a hard freeze (which I celebrate because it ends my allergy symptoms) and there’s bright white snow that doesn’t melt! My whole family including my MIL and FIL are doing Thanksgiving at my sister’s lake house. It’s a fabulous holiday home: wide views of Lake Carlos, lots of comfy seating, a big, light-filled kitchen.
I’m in charge of the drinks this year. Rumor has it that my brother in law is a fan of cocktails (how did I not know this about Brad?) and I’m trying to decide between Whiskey Sours and Applejack Sours.
We’re lucky to have TWO meats this year: brisket by sister Angie and grilled turkey by my sister’s boyfriend. Yessss.
Satanic Verses Update:
This update covers Part II Mahound as well as Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Part III Ellowen Deeowen.
Gibreel is drawn back in time and through space to Mahound’s mountain. His is connected by an astral umbilical cord to the prophet. We get to spend quite a bit of time witnessing Mahound’s efforts to convince the polytheist villagers that God is one, not many (the town has a proliferation of idols). In an extended negotiation with the town’s grandee, he negotiates them down to three pre-Islamic female goddesses. For a moment, the book’s narrator becomes the point of view. Satan himself inhabits Mahound to corrupt the idea of monotheism. When Mahound wakes up, he tries to walk it back but the town has already embraced the new rules.
I haven’t done a deep dive into this, but my understanding is that the condemnation of the book arose from these scenes, that Rushdie would imagine a fictional version of Muhammad who would possibly bend the rules. I’m reminded of the outrage that many people had in response to the film The Last Temptation of Christ as imagined by Martin Scorsese. I’ve never seen it because a) I was a kid at the time and b) it was considered pretty offensive in my religious circles. But now I wonder if I’d like it. Have any of you watched the film? Scorsese, to me, is generally a fan of religion, though he does show how frail humans are despite their devotion to God. Robert and I loved his movie Silence, about Jesuit priests in Japan. It was pro-faith for sure.
I doubt very much that the people involved in the attacks of Rushdie’s team had read the relevant passages of the book, or had tried to figure out its actual message. So was Rushdie targeted because of his fame or did he become famous after the condemnation? Or perhaps some of both? Have there been other fictionalized novels about Muhammad by an ex-Muslim? If you know anything about this, please leave a comment. I’d like to read some long-form essays on the history of the controversy.
But first, back to the book, and the UK:
In Part III, Ellowen Deeowen, we see Gibreel (of the baggy eyes) and Chamcha (of the fish-mouth) fall to a snowy beach somewhere in England. Rosa, an elderly lady who often sees the ghosts of pirates who passed through these waters, assumes they are trespassers on her stretch of beach. But no, they are very cold men, one of whom reminds her of a former lover in Argentina. Gibreel becomes possessed by the woman’s memories, similarly to how he was possessed by Mahound. He travels back in time to help Rosa rewrite the story of her life. There’s a mini-mystery in here: who stabbed her lover Martin to death? What will she decide is the truth? The settings in the Argentine chapters are glorious. The pampas is like the sea, you get to see a charging ostrich stabbed in the neck by a silver dagger, it’s all very romantic and wind-swept.
Meanwhile, poor Chamcha is metamorphizing into a goat thanks to the dehumanizing gaze of the local police. Three policemen beat the heck out of him. I think of his ride into the town as possibly the worst degradation Rushdie could think of: Chamcha is made to his his own goat pellets. While inhabiting a priapic goat. It’s hard to read! After he’s thoroughly beaten, the cops take him to a hospital full of similar human-creatures. He learns that they are all turned into beasts by merely being described by the locals. Chamcha, being a somewhat hypocritical human, is amused that he can possibly be attracted to Hyacinth, the Afro-Caribbean nurse charged with his chest physiotherapy. The chapter ends with a breakout of the animal/people. Hyacinth escapes with Chamcha, so maybe there’s more about his nonchalant racism forthcoming.
Gibreel and Chamcha seem to be inhabiting perfectly opposite hemispheres: the divine, angelic heights of mysticism and the corporeal, animal depths of degradation. Both of them make their way to London (L-O-N-D-O-N of the section title).
I’m excited to see what happens next!