Salman Rushdie on Novel Writing
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- Опубликовано: 30 май 2011
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Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie recounts his evolution as a writer who has grown more aware of the reader and less aware of the critic. Literary reviews, famously the Times Literary Supplement, were once anonymous-and brutal. Once the Times started publishing bylines with reviews, critics suddenly got much nicer.Anonymity, especially online, is a double-edged sword. In authoritarian societies, it gives people great freedom. However anonymity is also the reason people say things online they would never say if they were in a room with you. That may be a degrading force in a highly digital society.
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SALMAN RUSHDIE
Salman Rushdie is a British-Indian novelist and writer, author of ten novels including Midnight’s Children (Booker Prize, 1981), Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, and The Golden House. The publication of his fourth novel "The Satanic Verses" in 1988 led to violent protests in the Muslim world for its depiction of the prophet Mohammad. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a death fatwa against Rushdie, which sent him into hiding for nearly a decade. Rushdie weathered countless death threats and many assassination attempts.
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TRANSCRIPT:
SALMAN RUSHDIE: You can't really afford to think about criticism when you're writing the book. It's actually just too hard to write the book, to try to also second guess how people will respond to it. But I think I have quite a good sense of readers. And I think as I've got older I've become more and more interested in exactly how people read and what is likely to put them off and what is likely to entice them. And I've become sort of more conscious of the reader, you know. I think when I was younger I was just doing my thing and if readers showed up that was fine and if not that was fine too. I had a kind of very much tougher attitude towards it. But now I'm really interested in reading, in the phenomenon of reading and how, if you give people information in the correct sequence, you can tell them very complicated things, you know, and they'll find those things accessible and relatable and they'll want to find out. I mean, for instance, in my case, I've always thought that comedy helps a lot. I think if you can make people laugh you can tell them almost anything. And if you can't make them laugh there's not a lot they want to listen to. So that's one thing. But critics, I mean, a kind of critical response I really, you know, I can't think about. I mean, you get to this age you realize that there are people who will not like what you do no matter what you do.
So I know that I could write the best book I've ever written and there will be some people who just won't like it and that's fair enough, you know. That's why there are many different kinds of books in bookstores, so people can choose what they like. So I don't bother with that too much. I really don't bother with critical response. I also think you get to a point when you've written a number of books where you become quite clear about the direction you want to go in. So my view is: I'd like to go this way at the moment and I really hope that you'd like to come along. I really hope that you would enjoy the journey and so on and so on, but if you, for whatever reason, can't come along on that journey then I'm still going this way. And then you just take what comes. I think, on the whole, I've had a pretty even break. I could tell you usually in advance where I'm going to get trashed and I'm usually right. But I sort of don't care.
I mean, I remember in a kind of pre-Internet age there was a point where various literary magazines used to publish reviews anonymously and most famously the Times Literary Supplement would never name its critics. The idea being that it was simply the Times Literary Supplement that was giving its opinion of your work rather than any individual. And then at a certain point, I guess in the '80s they changed that policy and started naming the critics. And immediately, immediately, the reviews became much more courteous because the person, the critic's name was attached.
There's no doubt that the way in which we live in and with the internet is semi-fictional. For a start, people use false names all the time so people are constantly operating under pseudonyms and therefore they can invent selves; they can invent selves to be on the Internet without anybody questioning...
For the full transcript, check out bigthink.com/videos/salman-ru... 
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You can always tell when you're listening to a good writer, they aren't only confidant in what they're talking about, but they explain it on a totally new level, giving it new meaning. Not any old writer can do that.
He looks like every math teacher I've ever had...
He is a Historian and a Writer of Literature!
😂😂😂
Great writers are like magicians.
His works are like Fairytales for Adults. Reading his work is flawless, he's definitely a writer I aspire to emulate.
See, now I want to read this guy. As an aspiring novelist, I find a lot of this talk to be functionally masterful and things I should do more.
Where did you get with your writing project, did you publish anything worthwhile? It's been seven years though
@@richardwestwood8212 I feel like I’ve improved significantly - a lot of my older work feels astonishingly clumsy and disjointed. I’ve since moved across an ocean and bought a house since I made this comment, so I’ve not dedicated the time I’d like to writing for a while now. I plan on getting something published someday! My current abilities make that feel far more possible than it felt 7 years ago.
...from my experience, it was not the first draft, but the 7, or even 15th draft, that I was finally able to relate to the characters in my first novel: their mood, their inner mechanisms; then I really began to write to arrive at a decent manuscript that I could present... so for me, it was sheer perseverance.
We have to believe in our characters foremost before we can expect others to accept them.
I would like to read your work. Title please.
This is a great channel. Probably one of the best ones.
I sort of Idolize Hitchens to a degree, i read his work everyday simply to get a feeling of something unique and fresh. As for Amis, Martin was who i was referring to, but Kingsley Amis is the phenom. Tolstoy gives me goosebumps, especially reading Anna Karenina for instance. Reading Pale Fire, i get the same "why bother" feeling, but there is a love i have for writing i hope never dies. Thanks for you kind words of support.
AWESOME !!! now this guy knows what he is talking about. I could listen to him all day and just nod in agreement constantly at his words.
this video is 3 minutes long, but it wasn't hard to watch. I think it's because he was so pleasant to listen to, which is why he is a great writer.
Very well put and thank you!
Educative and inspiring. Human truth as in going for authenticity in fiction
You can have the craziest story, i.e. hard to believe....but it takes some elements of truth to make it work. Great insight Salman!
Such an amazing writer and thinker. Amazing
I find thatt knowing everything about my characters makes them real, youre first objective. Next, you want to put them into any situation you like, becuase if you truly know them, you'll know how they react to those situations. Im writing my first novel too.
Much respect for this man :)
Thanks that makes perfect sense.
whoever came up with the flying carpet was a gentleman and a scholar
As a writer doing videos myself on writing, I find these videos to be inspirational. Thanks for the upload.
+Procrastinating Writer On no! Your name!!! NOO!!! Please tell me, how do you write? What's your line of progress; because this name... culd also fit others...
Pound to a penny you've never written a novel an never will.
I often say this--and often to criticism from the literary fiction crowd--but I believe that the so called "literary" writers need to read and learn from great speculative fiction writers just as much as the speculative fiction writers need to read and learn from the great literary writers.
Alex Rushdie is a literary writer also, his "midnight Children " though looks bit speculative is based on Indian independence at the midnight hour.
Anuradha Inamdar “Speculative” doesn’t imply it doesn’t deal with things that aren’t real. Speculative deals with that which has not yet happened, often in ways that directly address that which IS HAPPENING. Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War is about an intergalactic war, but it’s REALLY about Vietnam and it’s effects on people. “Realism” and “speculative” are merely modes of expression, and are not mutually exclusive.
@@courtneyvaldez7903 Will you give me some examples of speculative fiction writers & literary fiction writers Courtney.Are are you acquainted with Indian writers who write in English Mr. Valdez. Like V.S.Naipaul, Vikram Seth,Anita Desai, & historian Dr. Ram Chandra Guha ( a non- friction literary writer). Particularly give me examples of speculative writers, so that your point shall be clear. Thank you.
@@anuradhainamdar8967 "Speculative" is a broad term that is colloquially refers to science fiction, fantasy, horror (at times)...sorry if I wasn't clear, but I was commenting in regard to the implied idea that "the speculative" doesn't deal with "the real." Perhaps you didn't mean that, but that's how I read it. Frankly, any work of "speculative" fiction must necessarily deal with the real--just as a work of "literary" fiction may deal with history as the past (being our past), a work of "speculative" fiction is in dialogue with history as the present (particularly a science fiction work that takes place in the future), which opens up all kinds of ways to deal with history as a concept (i.e., the present existing within the process of historical formation rather than separate from it, etc.). Because of this, any work of science fiction, fantasy, or horror must philosophically refer back to the real, present world the reader inhabits. The only real difference between "literary" and "speculative" fictions in this regard are how they orient the reader to the real, present world. Again, I could have misinterpreted your post.
As far as Indian writers who write in English, Salman Rushdie clearly works in a speculative mode most of the time, at least he used to, though his is more fantasy than science fiction. Vikram Seth is in no way a "speculative" writer, as his work is highly realist in nature and very much calls back to the tradition of English realism...which is perfectly fine, he's a fantastic writer in poetry and prose. Vikram Chandra likes to play around in the speculative mode as well, and I submitted an excerpt from one of my own post-apocalyptic detective stories to get into his workshop during my undergrad (I figured he'd like that one). Funnily enough, the first day of class I remember him pointing out that we couldn't actually work on speculative stories in the workshop. Another writer I just started reading is Amitav Ghosh, and his novels The Calcutta Chromosome and Gun Island are clearly speculative, though his overall body of work isn't.
Honestly, the term "speculative fiction" is useless because all fiction is inherently "speculative" to some extent, and Rushdie says as much here--being fiction, the beginning conceit is that the story is made up, that however "real" it's made to seem, it was created within the imagination, and therefore involves some level of speculation about the world, characters, their histories, etc. I use the term, though, because the vast majority of people DO use it, and use it specifically to refer to "genre" fiction, so for convenience sake that's how I use it.
@@courtneyvaldez7903 Thank you Courtney for such a elaborate explanation for my query, you are quite right, Salman Rushdie emphasis more on " fantasy ". I have read some books of Amitav Ghosh like" the hungry tide" " The sea of poppies". But found the latter a bit difficult to understand because of it's very speculative character. By Vikram Chandra to you means the Indian author who writes soulfully & for the spirit. Never read any books of him but articles & quotes. To tell you the truth I not prefer science fiction at all. It verges on to much of speculation & sounds absurd, books like H.G Wells "War of the world" ( picture was atrocious) .I could recommend you some books log the British Raj ,like Paul Scott 's The Raj Quartet M.M. Kaye's " Far Pavilions", " Trade Wind" her autobiographical novels. And also if you want to have a laugh then immortal P.G Wodehouse, no one has written comedy like him.
..." and what her story tells us about our own lives."
All writers take note, every word he speaks is pure gold. A great 'Truth' :)
You're not by any means the first to have noticed this. Christopher Hitchens similarly cites writers like George Orwell and Richard Llewellyn as men who enhance his desire to write, while he also cites Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Proust, and Nabokov in the "why bother" category. I get that "why bother" feeling when I read James Joyce, and I also get the same feeling you do when reading Zadie Smith.
Also, are you referring to Kingsley or Martin Amis?
Very True, but I think what he was really trying to get at was that regardless of the setting or genre, whether it be a dark realistic drama or a lighthearted fantasy, what truly matters isn't the amount of realism involved but how you go about presenting your characters and setting. For instance a high fantasy story can be just as deep and thought provoking as a gangster film if the themes and ideas presented human truths you can resonate and identify with.
very good advice.
Well said...
Here is a literary genius of our world and time !... He must be awarded with the Nobel Prize for Literature now. It's already too late for it......
And best of luck on your writing.
AS an inspiring writer, when i read the works of salman, or nabokov, or amis, i sort of think to myself-- why bother-- these men are masterful. then i read the works of someone like Zadie Smith and think--AH, now i see--in the way that style, fantasy, and fiction all coalesce. They give me hope instead of doubt now!
thank u sir!!!
Love this.
I wanna become a good writer, just like him.... :)
Siti Faizah you wanna become a good writer? write
Mohammed izhan bhat Thank you Izhan... I'm a professional writer (for movies and TV), that's how i do for living -- and i'm working to get my very first english book get publish now. When it gets publish, please do me a favor to buy one or two :)
@@sitifaizah9908 He's crap.
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There he is! Get him! :)
I decided to stop the Franzen snippets from this channel and find another writer to listen to. I'm so glad Rushdie can speak with interest and convey his thoughts without being pretentious.
I haven't been able to read any of his books, but he sure is articulate on the subject. I agree with what he says about fiction being by definition untrue as to the story, but the mechanics of it have to be plausible.
The biggest problem i have is knowing when to stop going into details about everything from characters to location.
elaborate
He talks sense. There's both human truth and a flying carpet in Gabriel García Márquez's
One Hundred Years of Solitude, interestingly.
He is still alive! After assasination attempt!
Yes, but if you're intelligent and creative enough, you can easily bypass this issue and make it so the characters, regardless of the genre or setting, feel as though they belong in the story, that they're literally the sorts of individuals you would meet if the place(s) in the story were real and you could travel to them.
It's better to write truth into fiction rather than to try and change the mind of someone of strong convictions with facts, It's the moral of the tale that matters. Fantasy is just the vehicle that carries the message, a flying carpet isn't real but it could easily be a metaphor in a great story.
I heard you say you don't believe in the supernatural, simply means you don't believe in God.
It's HE who gave you that dream so as to make you aware of the danger ahead.
Knowing you are not saved yet he died for you. Seek he first the kingdom of God cause Jesus is coming soon.
I guess I'm just more into classics like KAFKA'S MOTORBIKE.
For some reason I can't never watch this video in entirety.
The book is either fictional or non-fictional. For a fiction book, it does not mean that the story should outlandish but prima facie may appear to be true for it to appeal to the readers.
This is funny: A Nobel-prize winning author discusses the same problem with fiction that I brought up in Advanced Composition back in twelfth grade.
Well, congratulations. But you sure aren't talking about Rushdie...he hasn't won the Nobel yet.
+anushka kale Nevertheless, he has quite a bit more status in the field and expertise than my twelfth-grade English teacher, who thought I was just being a smart-ass when I brought this up: asking "is this really happening" in a fictional narrative is at best a complicated question, and at worst totally meaningless. At its heart, all fiction is fantasy, that's what makes it fiction.
Yes, I have a copy of The Satanic Verses.
I find his thinking very close to that of George RR Martin.
Dear sir good evening. I am a science thriller novelist.
Saying simple, painfully obvious things as though he’s revealed some great wisdom... gee thanks.
You stay warm by cuddling next to Jasmine.
Is Rushdie a fantasy writer or a literary writer?
He’s a great writer. Bugger the labels.
Sal Bass
Big think: fiction is fiction
WHOOOAAAAAAAA
because you're easy
I wonder how much medical marijuana was involved in researching the inner realities of flying carpets...
he should say:don't write like me because i am a crap writer.
Satan lives... Thank you great Britain. Lol
No, Satan died in Mecca in 632 AD.
Half of these writers need to learn from Stephan king. They are just master craftsmen without a story and boring as hell to boot.
thuderbay But they probably at least know how to spell.
The one thing Salman Rushdie books are not is boring
He is playing for food he is not honest with charishanty