Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 169
Rushdie: Haunted By His Unholy Ghosts 169 The “story” in Shalimar the Clown takes place across many con- tinents and time frames from the second world war to modern day America to a Jihadist training camp. This conveniently covers the 9/11 and related period. He contradicts and exposes himself when discussing his new book when he says “the thing you have to do is to make that im- aginative leap in order to get inside the skin of these people” (The Times, 09/2005). This is the same argument and defence he used for writing the Satanic Verses. He is still under the impression that if you call something fictitious no matter how closely it resembles factual people and events, it will be accepted as an imaginative piece of literary work, (and worthy of a Booker Prize). Rushdie uses historical events imaginatively as a backdrop for writing his novels most of the time; for example, Midnight’s Children during the time of the India – Pakistan Partition and The Jaguar Smile in support of the Sandanistas against the Nicaraguan dicta- tor, Somoza. But where Islam is concerned the imagination enters a world of deceit and vindictiveness that is not used elsewhere, but specifically reserved for its adherents. By writing this new book as an attempt to view the world through the eyes of the terrorists, he has deliberately run the risk of drawing attention to himself as a target once again. As he says (The Times, 09/2005): “If you’re a writer at this time in the history of the world you have to deal with what’s there – and this is the subject of our time, you can’t avoid it, you run into it round every corner – otherwise, you know, don’t write books. ” He has acquired the bug for controversy, and has taken this role as his “raison d’etre”.