Salman Rushdie speaks at Yale about culture of offendedness

The author Salman Rushdie speaks with Yale sophomore Noah Remnick at the Yale Art Gallery. The talk was sponsored by the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization an undergraduate journal called The Politic. Mara Lavitt/New Haven Register4/2/13

NEW HAVEN -- If there's anyone who understands the culture of offendedness around the world, it is Sir Salman Rushdie.

He fought against it from a series of safe houses in England for more than a decade.

"There is no right not to be offended," Rushdie, 65, said Tuesday during an appearance at Yale University, sponsored by the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and the Yale undergraduate journal, The Politic.

"It doesn't trump freedom of speech," he continued. "Read something else. See another movie. Leave the room."

Rushdie, author of such novels as "Midnight's Children" and "Shalimar the Clown," spent 13 years in hiding after Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against him in 1989 over his book, "The Satanic Verses." Rushdie's experience during those years is the subject of his most recent novel, "Joseph Anton: A Memoir."

At Yale, Rushdie explained that the fictional memoir was partly his way of thanking and acknowledging a circle of literary friends who formed ranks around him, year after year. They defended his work, gave him shelter and never once betrayed his location or movements  no small feat in the literary world.

"This is the most gossipy, backstabbing, insincere, itchy group of people in the human race," Rushdie said, to raucous laughter.

Yet his colleagues remained true, which he called a testament to the strength of friendship and love over hatred.

"Politicians, unsurprisingly, were a little late to the party," he added.

The real breakthrough in his situation came, Rushdie said, when President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair began to put pressure on the Iranian government. "I always thought this thing could have been dealt with earlier, perhaps," he said.

Despite what occurred, Rushdie said he remains convinced that freedom of speech is the "liberty upon which all other liberties depend."

Banning distasteful, or even hateful speech, sometimes imbues it with a certain allure that can be more harmful than allowing it, according to Rushdie. For example, he recalled, there was a film made about him many years ago that portrayed him as "the bad guy" who needed to be killed. His character was shown drinking whiskey with one hand and "idly lashing people with the other hand, because that's the kind of guy I am," he said.

England banned the film, until Rushdie intervened and promised not to take anyone to court. When the film opened, no one went to see it.

In recent years, Rushdie has watched the world grapple with intersecting issues of religion, politics and art. The Arab Spring, he said, "clearly was an attempt by a younger generation ... to ask for a more liberal society."

Whether that view emerges, he said, is something everyone will have to wait and see.

In the meantime, Rushdie urged diplomats, politicians and ordinary citizens to formulate an "ethic of intervention," and develop a clearer view of when it is appropriate to use military force around the world.

As for his own work, Rushdie said he made a concerted effort not to let death threats stop him from writing or cause him to engage in revenge fiction. He tried to remain the writer he'd always been, albeit one who was forced to become an expert on security, terrorism and international politics.

"I really should write a spy novel, one of these days," he said.

Contact reporter Jim Shelton at 203-789-5664.

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