Almost instantly after its publishing, the title of Salman Rushdie’s fourth novel The Satanic Verses has become known to the worldwide audience as one of the most controversial books of the 20th century. Both the novel and its author have become practically inseparable from the notion of fatwa – a legal pronouncement in Islam that Rushdie was sentenced to by the Iranian religious and political leader Ayatollah Homeini.
“The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you—black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.”
Because,
Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing;
often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in
which one remembers, and no doubt this applies to
certain of the recollections I have gathered here.
Our destination is Amherst, Massachusetts, home of the beloved Emily Dickinson. She led lonely and secluded life, barely leaving her bedroom. Yet, she left behind hundreds of poems, many of which were written down on kitchen paper.
“Words, words, words.” – Shakespeare, Hamlet
For the genuine lovers of the written word 23 April is a remarkable day, since Shakespeare’s 449th birthday is celebrated on this day. Although Shakespeare’s plays were written to be performed at the Globe, on the south bank of the Father Thames, today they attract the audience around the globe. The power of the Bard’s magical pen can be felt today, even though the Golden age of the Queen Elizabeth I is centuries behind us.
We have all heard the intriguing stories about fearless artists, glamorous expats and beautiful socialites gathering in cafes, bars, restaurants, mostly European, Parisian, to be more precise.
A boy, “desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery”, rises from the dining table. He fears that such an act might be an example of inconsiderate rudeness yet, he dares to utter probably the most famous sentence in the history of literature. ‘Please, sir, I want some more.’