4 ms·
"The most important piece of literature in the past half century was written by Salman Rushdie, an indian." Really? I'd put Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago w
by dgordon 17y ago
"The most important piece of literature in the past half century was written by Salman Rushdie, an indian."
Really? I'd put Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago way ahead of anything else I've read from the past half-century for importance. Or do you not consider that literature because it's nonfiction?
Either way, what was so important about the Satanic Verses (or do you mean a different book by Rushdie?) besides the fact that it pissed off some religious dictator?
- marshallp 17y agoMidnight Children edit: won the "booker of booker" prize (the best book out of all the booker prize winners over the past 40 years)
- dgordon 17y agoI've only even heard of one of the Booker winners (Life of Pi.) Maybe I'm just that uncultured. Then again, maybe the literary establishment is just that insular.
- wisty 17y agoMidnight's Children is like The Lord of the Rings for people who like modern literature. It's no more silly or obscure than LOTR. The postmodernists call it "post-colonial magical realism", because they can't admit that it's just fantasy written by a good author (who writes very pretty prose) who likes character development more than sword-fights. Think of "the literary establishment" as Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. Don't let their posturing put you off.