Best Of: Salman Rushdie Is Not Who You Think He Is
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What is the premise of the episode and why is Salman Rushdie’s story being revisited?
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Today on the show, we're re-airing one of my favorite episodes of the last few years. Something that's not non-political, but about something very different than what we're thinking about in the current moment. My interview with Salman Rushdie about his book, Knife.
I feel like I've always known who Salman Rushdie is. Long before I read literary fiction, he just sat in my consciousness as the author of this eerie-sounding novel called The Satanic Verses, a novel so somehow dangerous he had to go into hiding after the supreme leader of Iran said he and anyone involved in it should be killed for blaspheming Islam. So Rushdie sat there in the back of my mind for decades. I didn't think much about him. The whole story felt like this weird relic of the 80s. But then in August of 2022, I saw the news that a fanatic with a knife had tried to carry out the fatwa, had attacked Rushdie during a speech, and nearly killed him.
There was confusion and panic. The attack happened in full view of the audience, with Sir Salman left injured, lying on stage, and eyewitnesses in deep shock. Witnesses say Rushdie's attacker stabbed him 10 to 15 times before members of the audience grabbed him and restrained him. Rushdie is currently on a ventilator, unable to speak. According to his book agent, the 75-year-old's liver was punctured. He suffered severe nerve damage to his arm and will likely lose an eye. Rushdie was attacked yesterday morning in front
of
roughly
25— Rushdie survived, though he lost an eye to the attack, and the recovery and the rehabilitation was grueling. And he began to write again. And his latest book, Knife, is about the attack. It's about his life. It's about his marriage. It's about his children. And I think at its core, it's about something else too. It's about the invention of other versions of him that became more real in the world than he was. Other versions of him that almost got him killed. And this is what I now understand after reading Knife. What I now understand after I went back and read for the first time the satanic verses, I have never known who Salman Rushdie is. And maybe not just him. How many people out there do I wrongly think that I know?
As always, our email for guest suggestions and reflections, EzraKleinShow at NYTimes.com.
Salman Rushdie, welcome to the show. Thank you. Good to be with you. I want to begin with a story you mentioned a little bit offhandedly in the book, which is this story about The Shadow by Hans Christian Andersen.
Yeah, The Shadow, I think it's my favorite story of his. It's about a man whose shadow gets detached from him. and goes away. For many years, he loses his shadow. The shadow has traveled the world. The shadow is quite sophisticated and cool, and in some ways is more interesting than the man. And the shadow returns, and the man and the shadow spend some time together, and then The man meets this princess who he's very taken by and interested in. And the princess decides that she prefers the shadow to the man. And actually the shadow manages to persuade her that he's the real thing and the man is the echo or the phony or the shadow. And so in the end, the shadow manages to arrange for the man to be executed.
So the shadow takes over the life
of the man. So what did that story mean to you? Why put it in this book? It meant to me that
a thing that happens more and more often, I think, is that a shadow self can separate itself from the person and end up becoming in some way more real than the original person.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the premise of the episode and why is Salman Rushdie’s story being revisited?
0:00–8:28
2
How does Rushdie describe the “shadow self” story from Hans Christian Andersen and its relevance to his life?
8:28–17:13
3
What was Salman Rushdie’s experience of fame and political engagement before the Satanic Verses?
17:13–25:33
4
Why did the publication of The Satanic Verses trigger the Iranian fatwa and how did it affect Rushdie’s public image?
25:33–34:24
5
How did the 2022 knife attack at Chautauqua unfold and what does Rushdie recall about its intimacy?
34:24–49:03
6
In what ways does Rushdie say the attack created new “shadow” versions of himself on social media?
49:03–1:02:36