Salman Rushdie reflects on life after near-fatal attack
Salman Rushdie is back inside the worst day of his life: 12 August 2022, when he was the target of a frenzied knife attack on stage in New York. He wrote about it last year in Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. Death, he says now, was “very, very close” – closer than he had known then, reports BritPanorama.
In recounting the details of the attack, Rushdie revealed that doctors who assisted him on stage initially found no pulse. He described the immediate efforts to save his life, noting that it was a few moments away from tragedy. “That’s how close it was, that actually my heart had stopped beating,” he stated, emphasizing the precariousness of his survival.
Now 78, Rushdie bears the scars from the stab wound that severed his optical nerve and cost him his right eye. The tinted lens he wears gives him a striking visual presence, reflective of the history he carries. Since the fatwa issued by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, which called for his murder, he has remained an iconic figure in literature, albeit one who navigated the world with a heightened sense of threat.
The assailant, Hadi Matar, was radicalised during a trip to Lebanon and had only casually read a few pages of Rushdie’s work. This lack of familiarity with Rushdie’s writings belies the complexities surrounding their cultural and political implications, particularly concerning freedom of expression and artistic interpretation.
In the aftermath of the attack, Rushdie continued to write and has recently published his 23rd book, The Eleventh Hour. This collection of five stories showcases themes of mortality, and Rushdie expresses a desire for readers to engage with them playfully rather than with heaviness. He reflects on his past work while noting how his writing routine has evolved over time, now requiring daily discipline and revision.
The final dedication of his latest book reads “and to Eliza, of course,” referencing his wife, the American poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Rushdie’s personal life continues to be a topic of interest, drawing parallels between his experiences and broader societal narratives of love and loss. He acknowledges the complexities of his marital history while expressing surprise at finding love again.
In discussions about his legacy, Rushdie critiques contemporary issues surrounding free speech, particularly in the context of the rising tide of censorship and book bans in the United States. He articulates a belief that certain politically motivated efforts threaten the principles of free expression, drawing attention to the broader implications of these trends in society.
As Britain witnesses shifts in its political landscape, Rushdie reflects on his own experiences with racism and nationalism, particularly in light of figures like Nigel Farage. His journey as a writer is marked by both personal and cultural challenges, which he navigates with a pragmatic realism born from experience.
Even as new technologies, such as AI, threaten traditional creative processes, Rushdie remains steadfast in his belief in the irreplaceability of genuine human expression. He articulates that originality is intrinsic to the art of novel writing, holding on to the idea that what defines a novel is fundamentally the “new.”
The Eleventh Hour is published by Penguin (£16.99)
