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10. The Satanic Verses andthe Demonic TextTo see the devil as a partisan of Evil and an angel as a warrioron the side of Good is to accept the demagogy of the angels.Things are of course more complicated than that.– Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting 1BANNED BOOKIn his essay “In Good Faith” (1990), Salman Rushdie discusses the reactionshis novel, The Satanic Verses (1988; “SV”) has evoked around the world. 2According to Rushdie, his novel has been treated as “a work of bad history,as an anti-religious pamphlet, as the product of an international capitalist-Jewish conspiracy, as an act of murder,” everything but literature, a work offiction. Rushdie is especially mystified by the claims that when he was writingThe Satanic Verses he knew exactly what he was doing. “He did it on purposeis one of the strangest accusations ever levelled at a writer. Of course Idid on purpose. The question is, and it is what I have tried to answer [in thisessay]: what is the ‘it’ that I did?” 3 A critical reader is faced with the samequestion; furthermore, the novel itself seems to question ‘I’ as well as ‘it’: ittests the limits of ‘authorship’ – the idea of an unified, fully conscious andpurposeful author.Both in the analysis of the novel, and in making any comments on theuproar following its publication, the complex role of de-contextualisationshould be given careful attention. Writing is dangerous, as Jacques Derridahas noted. 4 Derrida emphasises the radical iterability of any written communication;it must “remain legible despite the absolute disappearance of everydetermined addressee in general for it to function as writing, that is, for it tobe legible.” In a sharp contrast to the idea of writing as a means to conveythe intended meaning, writing is (sometimes, as in Rushdie’s case, very em-1 Kundera 1978/1996, 85-86.2 I have used the paperback edition now widely available: Salman Rushdie, The SatanicVerses. Dover (DE): The Consortium, 1992.3 Rushdie 1991, 393, 407, 410.4 According to Derrida, writing is dangerous, anguishing: “It does not know where itis going. […] If writing is inaugural it is not so because it creates, but because of a certainabsolute freedom of speech, because of the freedom to bring forth the already-there as asign of the freedom to augur.” (Derrida 1968/1978, 11, 12.)
250Demonic Texts and Textual Demonsphatically) “repetition to alterity.” 5 A written sign “carries with it a force ofbreaking with its context,” and is always drifting away from its author’s intentionsand open to new meanings. 6 It is Rushdie’s purpose in his essay torestore the novel with its “relevant context”; he tries to explain what sort ofnotion about ‘literature’ governed the production of The Satanic Verses, andto “insist on the fictionality of fiction.” 7 Because of his personal predicament,this “restoration” is – albeit elucidating and well justified – somewhatoverdetermined and one-sided. The demonic aspects of this novel’s imageryand textuality make it difficult to construct The Satanic Verses as a “benevolent”and “positive” work – or only that. Rushdie makes a reasonable andsolid plea for positive interpretation. It is, however, possible to appreciatethe conflicting and disruptive aspects of the novel (from the safe distance ofa critical reader, of course). Those features play an important part in thestriking effect that The Satanic Verses has on the reader, and may largely explainhow this novel has been such fertile ground for different “misreadings.”My reading of the demonical aspects of The Satanic Verses will at firstoutline its general strategy of hybridisation. My hypothesis is that the demonicelements are used in the novel to dramatise conflicting and problematicalaspects in the production of identity. The identity in question can furtherbe analysed to have several different aspects or dimensions in Rushdie’stext, which all contribute to my reading of it as a demonic text, a demonicform of polyphonic textuality.The most visible and far-reaching reaction to Rushdie’s novel was thefatwa (religious/legal judgement) dictated by Ayatollah Khomeini:In the name of Him, the Highest. There is only one God, to whom weshall all return. I inform all zealous Muslims of the world that the authorof the book entitled The Satanic Verses – which has been compiled,printed, and published in opposition to Islam, the Prophet, and the Qur’an– and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its content,are sentenced to death.I call on all zealous Muslims to execute them quickly, wherever theymay be found, so that no one else will dare to insult the Muslim sanctities.God willing, whoever is killed on this path is a martyr.In addition, anyone who has access to the author of this book, but doesnot possess the power to execute him, should report him to the people sothat he may be punished for his actions.May peace and the mercy of God and His blessings be with you.Ruhollah al-Musavi al-Khomeini, 25 Bahman 1367 [February 14, 1989]. 8The passionate protests against the novel began among the Muslims inIndia even before the novel was officially published. Twenty-two people lost5 Derrida 1971/1982, 315.6 Ibid., 317.7Rushdie 1991, 393, 402.8 Pipes 1990, 27 [orig. Kayhan Havai, February 22, 1989]. – The fatwa was officiallyrenounced by the Iranian government almost a decade later, in September 24, 1998.
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TAMPERE STUDIES INLITERATURE AND TE
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Tampere Studies in Literature and T
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ments, and also such further lines
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IllustrationsCover: “Possessed Re
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The BeginningsAnd Jesus asked him,
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The Beginnings 3mons form an import
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The Beginnings 5negative, demonic a
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1. The Ancestry of the DemonicÑH.
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2. The Demonic in the SelfBut ancie
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The Demonic in the Self 79Nietzsche
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PART II
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114Demonic Texts and Textual Demons
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Index2001: A Space Odyssey; 207abje
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