i will just put a toe in

[SinisterDexter]

Hi gibreel. It's been a while since I read Midnights Children, but I think that's where I got one of my favourite quotes "Venus Significat Humanitatem". Rushdie is brilliant, but I found The Satanic Verses very difficult to understand. Midnights Children was a much better book IMHO.

Welcome

[gibreel farishta]

the satanic verses is often called the most unread best seller of all time'
when i purchased the book, the retailer said this book is unreadable, gibberish
and no refunds will be accepted.
knowing rushdies writings i could not wait to get it home,
rushdie does a very similar thing to nostradamus ,past ,recent and current
political statements all hidden within a seemingly fictitional or prothetic facade in nostradamus's case or a fictitional fantasy in rushdies
the dust cover of the of the viking edition is the first clue.
From the iranian myths we see rustam killing the white demon,
for rustam read rushdie and for the white demon read American fundamentalism,
after i read the book i could not believe that no one else picked up on what rushdie had done so i rang that well known but must remain nameless journalist , he said that i was right but thought less than 400 people in australia would have picked it

[SinisterDexter]

I got some of it, but the way he jumped between time periods threw me on several ocassions and I didn't get a lot of the subtle Islam references that, I'm sure, a member of the faith (or even an unbelieving member of the Islamic world) would have. It seems to be written primarily for a person with experiences of Islam who no longer believes - an apostate's novel.

I can respect this, and I still got the feeling that the book was better than my imagination could do it justice, but I can't really say I enjoyed or fully understood it - and am unlikely to without doing a lot of research.

Having said that, I thought Midnight Children was amazing. A lot of it gelled in well with the Western superhero ideas and could be understood in those terms even if you don't understand a lot about Pakistani/Indian politics or history. I absolutely loved it.

[gibreel farishta]

really there is no anti islamic message in the book ,i read some criticisms
of the book written by moslem commentators . what they claim to be there
is not there ,i think they were rushdies friends helping with the advertising,
much of the complaint came out the same day as the book, how did they read it so quick. it all got a little out of hand though when the fatwa was announced , all comment on islam occurs within my dreams , so is rushdie
saying 'yeah in your dreams morons

[youngmoigle]

Originally Posted by gibreel farishta

the satanic verses is often called the most unread best seller of all time'
when i purchased the book, the retailer said this book is unreadable, gibberish
and no refunds will be accepted.
knowing rushdies writings i could not wait to get it home,
rushdie does a very similar thing to nostradamus ,past ,recent and current
political statements all hidden within a seemingly fictitional or prothetic facade in nostradamus's case or a fictitional fantasy in rushdies
the dust cover of the of the viking edition is the first clue.
From the iranian myths we see rustam killing the white demon,
for rustam read rushdie and for the white demon read American fundamentalism,
after i read the book i could not believe that no one else picked up on what rushdie had done so i rang that well known but must remain nameless journalist , he said that i was right but thought less than 400 people in australia would have picked it

There was a movie script written the same way: Buffaloe Bill & The Indians (starring Paul Newman)

It was made in 1976 and even today in Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, it is rated with only two stars and described as a dull movie depicting Buffaloe Bill as a flamboyant fraud.

In actual fact, though, it was a satire of the Hollywood Star system and had nothing to do with the real Buffaloe Bill at all.

I watched it first as a "cowboy" movie and later when a friend told me the underlying message, I went back and watched it a second time as if it was a brand new movie on a completely different subject.

The movie only lasted about a week in Australian cinemas, so I doubt even 400 people "got the message". I'll bet I was the only one who paid to see it twice.

[SinisterDexter]

Originally Posted by gibreel farishta

really there is no anti islamic message in the book ,i read some criticisms
of the book written by moslem commentators . what they claim to be there
is not there ,i think they were rushdies friends helping with the advertising,
much of the complaint came out the same day as the book, how did they read it so quick. it all got a little out of hand though when the fatwa was announced , all comment on islam occurs within my dreams , so is rushdie
saying 'yeah in your dreams morons

But isn't the Islamic objection simply in Rushdie seemingly giving any credence at all to the Satanic versus (the period in the Prophet's life when he, supposedly, took dictation from Satan for a while)?

[gibreel farishta]

no the book itself is the satanic verses. a few pages in something like
"i know i saw it all ,but who am i? lets just say , who has the best music?
the book is written first person by the devil, thus the satanic verses
is not as always stated refering to the koran , i notice that when rushdie was interviewed about the book, he seemed to agree with any thing the interviewer came up with,
its an anti feminist book? yes i wasnt sure about doing it
its a story about immigrants. ? yes hiow insightfull of you


why has the devil got the best music , who said that?

[gibreel farishta]

sorry sd i have seemed to miss your point,
no again though, the satanic verse stuff in the koran was not a major issue,it has been done to death over the centuries ,plenty about it on the web.
there were three issues, all supposedly insulting the prophet,
the fair ground incident.
the prophet at a brothel
and staying at a married womens house.
none of it stands up to scrutiny, in fact the prophet is shown to be very kind and understanding by rushdie, but he could not really defend himself without
giving the game away .

[davo]

great to meet you gibreel farishta, I'm sure you will find interesting people here, and looking forward to your contributions to the discussion!

[gibreel farishta]

oh save me , it was on the radio the other day
star trekking across the universe , it takes a week to recover from it ,to get it out of your head
theres life sir but not as we know it not as we know ,
hope i havent re- stirred it . and ta