Salman Rushdie – The satanic verses

A book that causes religious leaders to call a fatwa must be special. And contrary to my belief that one has to read the book in its original language if possible, I did read a translation this time. A hard back cover special cheap edition made me buy it, I guess that reading it in Dutch wasn’t a bad choice actually.

Several months this book was next to my bed, a few pages every night. At times I considered giving in. In the end I didn’t. Several chapters really dragged me in. Most didn’t. I am sure my basic knowledge of the Islam was way too short to completely understand the book.

And I’m not even talking about the controversy. I have tried to understand why people would consider the book offensive. I couldn’t. I don’t see the key role for Mohammed, not even after I found out he is renamed Mahound. Regardless if I did or didn’t understand it, I don’t think a fatwa can be an appropriate answer to a book. No book can be so bad/controversial/offensive that that author should be killed. Next to that I firmly believe that 99% (and that’s a low estimate) of the offended Muslims have not read the book. I personally don’t know anyone who had read it. Another guess: I think that many readers have bought the book because of the controversy, but still haven’t read it or haven’t finished it. Some people (like me?) like to show that they are open minded, like to show this book on their shelf. But reading it is a different story.

To me, the episode of Hind dragging a whole village across the desert on her way to Mecca was the best part of the story. For the first time I was really eager to continue reading, to find out what would happen next.

After more than three months I finally managed to finish reading the satanic verses. Disappointed mostly. With myself, for not understanding it. With the book, for not being interesting enough. With the world, for allowing a book to be this controversial. With Muslims, for being offended by a book and without thinking following some idiot Persian religious leader who wants to see Rushdie dead. With Rushdie, for writing the worst book I have read by him.


Quote: “For are they not coinjoined opposites, these two, each man the other's shadow? – One seeking to be transformed into the foreigness he admires, the other preferring, contemptuously, to transform; one, a hapless fellow who seems to be continually punished for uncommitted crimes, the other called angelic by one and all, the type of man who gets away with everything. – We may describe Chamcha as being somewhat less than life-size; but loud, vulgar Gibreel is, without question, a good deal larger than life, a disparity which might easily inspire neo-Procrustean lusts in Chamcha: to stretch himself by cutting Farishta down to size.
What is unforgivable?” (page 400 in my Dutch edition)

Number: 09-054
Title: The satanic verses
Author: Salman Rushdie
Language: Dutch (Orig.: English)
Year: 1988
# Pages: 511 (11216)
Category: Literature
ISBN: 90-250-0001-0

I was an Art Hound last week for Minnesota Public Radio's "State of the Arts" program. I talked about King Mini's Canyon Land opening at Pink Hobo in Minneapolis.

It goes without saying I suppose, but I can't help but be amazed by the results of MPR's recording equipment. It is fancy and now I want it. I think it magically masked my weird lisp-thing.

For awhile, just the blog post of the segment was up, but it lacked the embedded audio file, which is why I didn't post this sooner.

EDIT: That was neurotic.

Goodbye, NaBloPoMo! I'm grateful that our time together has come to a close.

I am having the worst time with bookmarks in Firefox. Grr! Every time I go to one lately, it takes me to a page I recently visited, instead of the page I bookmarked initially. What the heck?

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt – Oscar and the lady in pink

The name of the author sounds German, but he is French. I bought the book in Germany, but it has been translated to English. But whatever language, the message is clear, regardless where you’ve read it.

Oscar is ill, very ill. He is in a hospital, waiting to die. His parents are afraid to tell him so directly, so the only one he can confide in is a nurse he calls Granny Rose. She tells him to live the last days of his life as if a day is a decade. And Oscar listens to her and lives a whole life in a week.

The book can probably be seen as a children’s book, but it should be read by everybody. Who doesn’t know someone with cancer? Who doesn’t realise how bad this disease is? Buy this book somewhere and read it. A sad book, but also a book with a smile. Praise to the author who manages to put both into the story.

Quote: “They’re frightened of me. They can’t bring themselves to speak to me. And the less they speak to me, the more like a monster they make me feel. Why are they so scared of me?” (p. 68/69)

Number: 09-053
Title: Oscar and the lady in pink (Orig.: Oscar et la dame rose)
Author: Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Language: English (Orig.: French)
Year: 2002
# Pages: 88 (10705)
Category: Children’s books
ISBN: 1-84354-450-4

Nothing worth blogging about happened yesterday until I went to see King Mini's Canyon Land at Pink Hobo, but I got home so late from that it was today and I was exhausted. So far, that's twice this month I've faltered on my NaBloPoMo promises. Sorry!



Today was very lazy. We saw "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and it was AWESOME. I would watch it again and again. I love stop motion animation so much, first of all. Plus the scripting and voices and everything else...it was magical. We'll see it again in the dollar theater and buy it on DVD for sure.



To prepare for the holidays we've also put up our dinky Christmas tree (some gifts still need to be wrapped) and bought clementines. Goodbye, 4-day weekend!

X-post to bookish, books, booksarelove, readplease, 50books_poc, and book_worm

Two really remarkable books, both in the coming of age category and one in the historical fiction genre by Hawaiian authors.

Title: Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers
Author: Lois Ann Yamanaka
Genre: Coming-of-age, Literary Fiction, Hawaiiana
My Rating: 10 out of 10 stars

Summary (from Good Reads): In her exuberant first novel, Lois-Ann Yamanaka tells the story of young Lovey Nariyoshi, who lives in bleak, impoverished Hilo, Hawaii, a place where Japanese- Americans like Lovey find no facsimile of themselves in pop culture, and no trace of their lives reflected in the media. Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers crackles with the language of pidginHawaiian Creoledistinguishing for a new generation of readers one of the most vibrant voices in contemporary culture.

My Review: ( Read more... )



TItle: All I Asking For is My Body
Author: Milton Murayama
Genre: Historical fiction, coming of age, literary fiction, Hawaiiana
My Rating: 10 out of 10 stars

My Review: ( Read more... )


I'm also on GoodReads if anyone wants to find me there.

Hi everyone!

I'm new to the community, so I am not 100% sure if this is the place for it, but two things.

1) I've run out of what to read. I'm a huge bookworm, and I specifically like suspense novels. My favorite authors are Harlan Coben and Robert Crais, and I can't seem to find anything that I like as much as them. The librarians have pretty much run out of ideas...

2)However, I did just read Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane, which I absolutely loved. There were a few things that confused me at the end of the book though, and I have some questions. Is this the right place for that or is there another community I should join?

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/2009/11/sunday-secrets_29.html

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people
mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.








HopeLine Fundraiser on twitter this Thursday. Tell
your friends & follow @postsecret for more details.








-----Email Message-----

As much as I hate that i cant help myself right now, i look forward to never sitting alone for the next month or so.












-----Email Message and picture-----

Frank,

My father, who I was very close to, passed away when I was 21 very suddenly and unexpectedly. 2 years later I met the man of my dreams and could not imagine getting married without my dad there.

To this day, whenever anyone asks me who walked me down the aisle the true and honest answer is: "My dad did".



Maybe someone else out there will find this to be a small comfort during the sadness of not having their dad.

-----End Message-----




-----Email Message-----

I always thought it was a "doggie dog world".


-----Email Message-----

Until recently, I thought the saying was "Devil make hair." I'm 25. I think I like my version better.


-----Email Message-----

it was "a Wayne in a manger." I didn't realize it was really Jesus in there.















-----Email Message-----

Dear Frank,

Sunday I was with my boyfriend (we are both young Christians). I grabbed his laptop to go to the postsecret website. As I typed in the postsecret address the computer filled in the url with a pornography website.

I used my boyfriend's laptop again to look up postsecret and the computer filled in the url with recently visited sites about pre and post nuptial agreements.

In my attempts to read other people's secrets, I discovered his.



Order Your Copy Today




-----Email Message-----

To the person who thinks couple-dom is a big secret. It isn't. Too scared to be alone, I was in a couple in some way for 16 years and I always felt like I was faking. I was jealous of my single friends who had the strength not to settle like I did.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/2009/11/postsecret-events-incomplete.html

Article or Video preview of PostSecret Event.


11-30-90
DeNaples Center
Scranton, PA
--Sold-Out--

12-4-09
Michigan Theater
Ann Arbor, MI
RSVP on Facebook | Buy Tickets Online

1-10-10
New World Stage (just added)
Manhattan, NY
--Sold-Out--


Become a PostSecret "Fan" on Facebook
for PostSecret Event updates (dates & schools).

For fans of English courtroom humour, you might enjoy "The Humourous Story of Farmer Bumpkin's Lawsuit" by Richard Harris.

Think Rumpole.

By the way, it's free.

On Thanksgiving day, Will and I played a lot of Animal Crossing, cooked, and went over to JP & Jacie's place for dinner. They recently got a new puppy. It's so new, in fact, that it still needs a name. Any suggestions? It's a chihuahua.



We spent this evening with family. It was the first time I met Will's new nephew. I'm probably holding him wrong. This may be the second baby I have ever held.



And what do employed, dog-less, child-less, mortgage-less girls do on Black Friday? Shop for themselves, of course. I went to Southdale today and brought back some new stuff. The crowds were not awful, and I got free coffee.