I still haven't read the "Satanic Verses"

The Moral Courage Conversations: Salman Rushdie and Irshad Manji.

I went to this lecture tonight and heard a few things that really moved me. Rushdie is extremely intelligent, he is witty and amuses his audience with jokes that are there to prove a point. He is articulate and combined with Irshad Manji's clever questions the night was overall very entertaining and interesting.

At one point Rushdie said that 'we are the story telling animal and there is something very important in telling ourselves the story of ourselves.' I like this idea because it's true, we examine ourselves and improve upon our society and our world. There is something immensely pleasurable about the gift of a story. I envy those who have the right words to reach into their reader and get the exact emotion they desired.

At the end of the lecture Manji said that before her book came out she asked Rushdie if she was crazy. And he told her that a book is more important than her life. He wasn't joking. His explanation was that when a writer puts down a thought, he can get intense, vehement and even violent disagreement but that thought can not be unthought. It has been put out there and can't be taken away. That is the gift of the writer. I think that's pretty amazing.