TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/122391/1223510.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 8.4 KB | 237 lines

                                                                                INTERVIEW, Page 50

"Free Speech Is Life Itself"


On a clandestine visit to the U.S., his first since he was
sentenced to death by Khomeini for writing The Satanic Verses,
SALMAN RUSHDIE pleads not to be forgotten

By KARSTEN PRAGER and Salman Rushdie


    Q. For more than 1,000 days, you have been under an
all-points death sentence. What's it like to live like that?

    A. Oddly, I don't that often feel afraid, although the
first few days were very scary. But at some point I thought to
myself, "If I spend my time being afraid and worried about where
the bullet's going to come from, then I'm really going to go
crazy." And then I said to myself, "I've got the best protection
the British government can offer -- it's their job to worry
about that. It's not my job." That was a kind of mental trick.
What I had to worry about was mentally dealing with the threat
and arguing my case and continuing to be what I am.


    Q. And that worked most of the time?

    A. Yes. I won't say there aren't moments when the other
breaks through, because there obviously are. But by and large,
day to day, it works.


    Q. How often have you moved?

    A. I haven't kept an exact count. There's a kind of legend
around how I get moved every few days. It's never been as bad
as that.


    Q. But more than a couple of dozen times?

    A. Oh, it's been a lot of places, sometimes for a few
days, sometimes for longer periods. I've seen a great deal of
Britain I'd never seen before. Where there are wide-open spaces,
it's possible for me to get out and go for walks.

    What I've tried to do is take very slow steps back toward
as much of life as I can sensibly have. And that's a matter of
instinct and judgment and discussion; the less said about it the
better. But from the beginning I have felt the one thing that
would be very dangerous to me would be to become an
institutionalized prisoner, to give up control of my life to the
people whose job it is to look after me. That's why I have
constantly pushed against the bars of the cage and tried to make
it a bit bigger.


    Q. What social life is left?

    A. It's almost entirely telephonic. I call friends.


    Q. Do you read?

    A. I read. To an extent, I still lead a writer's life.


    Q. So in that sense life has not changed?

    A. All my adult life, if I didn't have several hours a day
to sit in a room by myself, I would get antsy and irritable.
Now, that particular part of the day has spread to kill the
whole day. I used to like the contrast between doing the work
and getting out and having a very sociable life. So that's
gone. And that's a real, obvious loss.


    Q. Who takes care of your daily needs?

    A. I can cook. And I have access to washing machines and
dishwashers. Of course, I'm leading my life in premises that
also contain armed policemen.


    Q. Your own extended family?

    A. Well, we get on very well. I'd never thought I would be
in a situation where I'd have a lot of friends in the secret
police. But we have shaped a relationship of mutual respect.


    Q. How about your son?

    A. Clearly, I miss him a lot. I wrote a book for him in
this time because it was just about the only thing I could do
for him. A lot of the normal requirements a child would have of
his father I've been unable to discharge. I talk to him every
day by telephone. But it's a huge deprivation, not just for me
but for him. For the thing that has happened is also an assault
on his rights.


    Q. You say your marriage is over. Was that caused by your
situation?

    A. It didn't help, but it wasn't the critical factor.
There were other things that went wrong.


    Q. Let's turn to the political side. The Western hostages
have been released. Does that help or hurt your cause?

    A. It's a kind of knife edge, as I always thought it would
be. Because to an extent I've been a hostage to the hostage
situation. Whenever people have tried to make my case very
public, to debate it very noisily, it has been suggested that
to do so would be to prolong the hostages' plight. Now, since
the hostages are out, I am able to speak more freely.


    Q. What's the other side of the coin?

    A. The thing I've worried about is that there would be the
enormous and quite understandable desire among the public to
say, "Thank God, it's all over." Somebody then piping up with
"Excuse me, there's one more problem" might generate irritation.
"Oh, God, we don't want to deal with that because it's finished,
it's over, hurrah, let's have Christmas."

    What I'm trying to say is, "It isn't quite the end."


    Q. How did you feel when Britain resumed diplomatic
relations with Iran last year and your case remained unresolved?

    A. I had very mixed feelings. I would certainly have
wished for a clear, overt public statement about the Rushdie
case. No such statement was made, apart from a vague statement
about how Iran had agreed not to interfere in the internal
affairs of Britain. Unfortunately, a few months later there were
very vociferous restatements of the threat from Iran, and the
bounty money on my head was doubled.


    Q. To $3 million?

    A. Well, $2 million -- a large amount. And then I heard
about my Italian translator being knifed. I heard about my
Japanese translator being murdered.


    Q. What's your agenda during your U.S. visit?

    A. People need to be reminded constantly that this is not
a parochial issue. It's not about one writer of Third World
origin in trouble with a Third World power. The publishing of
a book is a worldwide event. The attempt to suppress a book is
a worldwide event. This is not just about me.


    Q. Your problem has to be solved at the political level?

    A. Yes.


    Q. But that might involve trade relations, arms deals,
whatever? You expect to be part of some political equation?

    A. It's not that I expect to become a part of it, but I
am, whether I like it or not. The Iranian government is in
breach of international law and at the same time is seeking to
get closer to the West. As a citizen of Britain and of Europe,
I can at least expect most countries and their allies to say to
Iran, "If you wish to put your house in order, show us . . ."


    Q. And Rushdie fits in there?

    A. Yes. Both sides have a genuine interest in getting
closer to the other. The West sees Iran as an important force
in the gulf. Iran wishes to reconstruct its economy and play a
fuller part in the community of nations -- and that's
legitimate. My part is a tiny part in that equation -- it's big
for me, but it's a tiny part.


    Q. Do you ever feel like giving up?

    A. Certainly. There were very long periods of time when I
thought I would never write again. What was the point of it
anyway? I'd simply written a novel -- a 500-page, complicated,
literary novel that insulted even people who hadn't read it. You
expect a debate, or a dispute, or an argument -- that seems to
me an entirely legitimate function of art. What you don't expect
is an attempt to intimidate the book's publishers and murder
the book's author.


    Q. Last year you embraced Islam. Why?

    A. I believe there needs to be a secular way of being a
Muslim. There are plenty of people in the Muslim world who feel
exactly like that -- an identity with culture and values -- but
who are not believers in the theology. That was what I was
trying to say, or I would've said it if anybody had listened
hard enough. But immediately I was called either a traitor to
my own cause or a hypocrite.


    Q. What if political pressure does not work? Are you
living with a life sentence?

    A. I don't want even to contemplate what you suggest
because I don't believe the situation is as bleak as that. But
the fact is I'm not going to accept it forever.


    Q. You've said free speech is life itself. Has it been
worth fighting for?

    A. Yes, it has. Yes, it has. Clearly, nobody wants such an
incredible distortion of one's daily life; in fact, nothing else
will happen in my life of remotely this magnitude.

    But at least it's the right plight. At least it's about
what I believe most deeply in. And therefore it's possible to
fight for it. At least the fight is about the right thing.