*The Satanic Verses

The Satanic Verses -Salman Rushdie
The short opening chapter was so elegantly written, so coherently conscious, and fresh, that I was verily disappointed that the novel extended into cutesy, half-forged post-modernism. I see how he is Pynchonesque. I see how he adopts a cultural headline, a modern trend or a big name and transplants it in a seemingly timeless style of writing. I see how people like to read “serious” fiction that mentions Goldie Hawn. What I don’t see is how Ayatollah Khomeini denounced and threatened to execute a man for such an ephemeral book. Topically, it may be profound. But even children play with big words and we don’t condemn them for their constructions, or mistakes. I can see how easily this pertinent novel could be so swept into the realm of important literature… it’s because we want it to be good, we want it to matter, we want to understand the human condition, and so when any skate comes mountebanking, we’re quick to throw down our cash. No, I didn’t finish it. Pertinence and quality are very different animals.
“How does newness come into the world? How is it born?”