Bloom's Literary Themes - ymerleksi - home

196
Salman Rushdie
is to have power. [ . . . ] Unreality is the only weapon with
which reality can be smashed, so that it may subsequently be
reconstructed. (191: 122)
That same “unreality” called “fiction,” the dreams made into stories,
is entwined in the texture of The Satanic Verses to challenge any
open-minded reader—not Islamic clerics—to think about the
world as a kaleidoscope of uncertainties, identities, and experiences,
not as a “flattened world,” as Mimi philosophically concludes in
the book (261). In the novel, the dissent from monotheism, which
imagination and creativity naturally foster in their liberating effect
over the soul, vex Mahound to the extent to sentence Baal, the poet,
to death for “bringing the worst out of people,” through mocking
the sacred dogma. Thus the poet challenges a clear response from
the Prophet,
‘Whores and writers, Mahound. We are the people you
can’t forgive.’
Mahound replied, ‘Writers and whores. I see no difference
here.’ (392)
As Pipes observes in his study of the controversies surrounding the
book and its author, “Rushdie has undeniably great artistic talents, and
The Satanic Verses is a crowded, elusive and sophisticated tale” (2004:
53). Dense as it is, the novel more than welcomes dissent in our own
interpretations as long as the essential freedom to think and to dream
is granted. Ultimately, what Rushdie achieves in his book is probably
the answer to his own question,
How is freedom gained? It is taken: never given. To be free, you
must first assume your right to freedom. In writing The Satanic
Verses, I wrote from the assumption that I was, and am, a free
man. (1991: 396)
“A love-song to our mongrel selves,” The Satanic Verses rejects totality
in favor of the colorful mosaic of pieces (394). Writers, readers, critics,
and prophets all try, with only some success, to put together these
pieces.