Salman Rushdie

I GOT TO HEAR SALMAN RUSHDIE GIVE AN AMAZING LECTURE! Okay breathe, and end all caps.

I had to get that out. Sir Salman Rushdie visited the humble campus of Miami and gave an incredible speech on, well, I suppose it is a little difficult to boil down (I didn't take notes unfortunately) but Safety, fear, and the liberty humanity seems to be willing to sacrifice in the face of fear. All of these grander ideas were of course constantly paralleled back to the fear and danger he experienced in his own life after the release of The Satanic Verses around 1989/1990. These are some quotes stolen from Morgan's facebook (Who was awesome enough to write down these incredible quotes) Although I have realized that out of the context in which they were said lose a bit of their incredibleness. But believe me, you had to be there. 

"There is no such thing as Safety. There are only varying degrees of unsafety" 

"Fear permits our rulers to do things we wouldn't normally allow"

About the repercussions of the Satanic Verses -- "Had it not been not funny at all, it would have been quite funny"

"Then the excrement hit the ventilation system..."

"...Then later, when they were cleaning the excrement off of the ventilation system..."

About a comment made of a person condemning his book w/o reading it claiming one does not need to walk in a gutter to know what's in it: "I thought, 'good point... about gutters"

"Who should have power over the stories we tell each other? Who owns the story?"

"We all live in stories" [paraphrase] In an open society we have the right to tell, retell, change, and satirize the story. In a society that is not free, "someone else imposes the narrative"

"This almost makes one believe that there is a God -- but there isn't. Sorry."

"Writers' only loyalty is to their talent"

"I'm talking like I run a country -- I'm a novelist"

"To say you can't criticize an idea without being criticized for your criticism is to create a world where we are all dumb"

"Don't ask about the future. The present is hard enough to understand"

And just for the sake of my own memory, I'd like to point out that I came within feet of Sir Salman. As my dad and I were walking back to the car Rushdie came out of the back entrance of Hall auditorium right behind us. Dad and I had a mumbled debate on whether or not I should turn around and say something, but I chickened out. I couldn't see me walking backwards showering Rushdie with praise as turning out very well. I feel like it would go something like this: I'm awkwardly shuffling backwards to face Sir Salman while saying "Great lecture mister Rushdie, now not to act like a thirteen year old girl at an NSync concert, but could have your autograph please?" while simultaneously tripping over a parking block.