Salman Rushdie

Today I discovered C-SPAN2 features a monthly in-depth interview with an author. It must run three hours, for I tuned in late and it had two more hours to go. Two hours to sit there, watch, and listen was just fine, for the writer showcased was Salman Rushdie. I’d never seen him before, or heard his voice; in fact, I hardly knew anything about him other than his hiding out in England awhile because of the “curse” placed upon his life. But that was lifted a short time ago, and he travels the world.

He calls himself an urban writer, for cities are something he knows. He was born in Bombay, now called Mumbai, and has lived in London, and now New York City. A naturalized British citizen and an "overseas citizen of India," he’s back to Bombay soon, to continue working on the production of his novel Midnight’s Children as a movie. Progress is only at the casting stage. I think I want to read this book, but there’s no rush, with so many new books on hand to read.

What I enjoyed most was his saying, when he starts a novel, there are all these people he has to get to know. He means the characters. So he uses my method: the characters just show up and he records what they do and say (in much better prose than mine). He does a huge amount of research, of course, as really good writers must do when writing books such as his. Even though he is Indian by birth, and must have known Bombay well, he nevertheless researched it for the book.

I also enjoyed hearing something like, "Shakespeare is a great writer, and then there are the rest of us." That's not worded right. Perhaps I can get it on paper tonight. I think you can see this also online. Perhaps an hour at a time.

I can’t begin to describe how interesting this presentation was, for there would be too much to say, but if you are interested, it’s scheduled to be rerun tonight. The interviewer said, “At midnight.” That would be Eastern Standard Time. Adjust your time to fit. It’s worth staying up for. For three hours? You bet. Maybe I can catch the first hour then.

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