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Feet Firmly on the Ground, by Anita Sethi
“Returning to Cambridge, one of the twentieth century's greatest writers, Salman Rushdie”. A hushed silence fell over the Lady Mitchell Hall, as Rushdie was introduced. “We’ll have to see about the twenty-first century,” he wittily replies.
Having worked my way through the metal detectors specially installed at the entrance to the Lady Mitchell Hall, I found myself inside, surrounded by a sea of security guards. Salman Rushdie had not yet arrived and when I requested an interview, the response was pessimistic; since the fatwa of 1989, his life has been constantly under threat, after the publication of the controversial Satanic Verses. This iron wall around Rushdie, though, is clearly more of a necessity than choice, as he agrees to an interview with The Cambridge Student. I am escorted down the aisles by Special Branch officers and go backstage, to where metal detectors, police and the bustle of security give way to merely his publisher and personal bodyguards. Rushdie is signing books and looks up welcomingly, eager to engage in conversation, reflecting his general responsiveness to the press and enjoyment of his new freedom.
“I always wanted to write a rock and roll story and combine it with a love story”, says Rushdie, describing the
inspiration behind his new book, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, “The Orpheus theme was perfect for doing this”. “I don’t see it as a departure from my other writing, no, this is definitely me”.
Rushdie speaks of how his previous novels, Shame and Midnight's Children do, to a certain extent, fictionalise history. He views war as being rooted in “versions of the world in conflict, seeking to destroy each other.” Kosovo, he sees
as “a battle of descriptions; people fight to the death to destroy each others version of reality”. This peace/war theme is continued in his new novel through Orpheus, the Greek poet who could keep peace through the power of his music. Music in The Ground Beneath Her Feet is described as “making love in a combat zone”. Music privileges life over death.
Rushdie’s life has been characterised by motion; he has lived all over the world and spent much of his life on aeroplanes. He chooses this as the greatest influence on his novel writing. He believes that due to global mass migration, the nature of the novel has been obliged to change. Indeed, his new novel, which he later reads from, explores the contrast between the “hedonistic west and the aesthetic east”. His star describes, “In a spin I flew out to India, which is what I do when I want to regain equilibrium”. He explores in depth the plural sense of identity and culture which characterise his and so many other lives today.
His witty manner of summing up a whole generation in a single line is clear as his novel exhorts, “The British believe
in God, but prefer TV”. Humour is mixed with sharp insight as he describes how “the older destroy the young, in response
to which the young are destroying themselves”. When he returned to London, it was not the London he expected, as everyone was “in love with alien gods”. He agrees that his life experiences have defined his writing to some extent, and this is evident in his novel as he describes the songs written in criticism of the extreme laissez-faire, of the “descent into an inferno of privlidge” and how they become “anthems for the very people he’s writing them about”.
And where does he find inspiration for his characters? “Oh…just from my close friends”; the Hall fills with laughter as he describes the family unit as “fantastically operatic, deeply weird… and then people come out in public and pretend to be normal…this is the great lie I intend to expose!”. The greatest compliment he has ever been paid as a writer was when a man came up to him in a Bombay street and said, “I could have written that book, I know all that stuff.”
What advice does Rushdie have for aspiring writers? “Real writers don’t need advice, you learn from your mistakes.
I graduated from Cambridge in 1968 and didn’t have my first novel published until 1981, so I would say determination”. When I ask why Rushdie has never published any poetry, he philosophically muses, “what often happens is that you start down a road and before you know it, you’re not going down another one. I went this way.”
Having savoured the “aesthetic East” as well as the “hedonistic West”, having published 7 novels which have acquired international repute in academic institutions as well as amongst the reading public, where will Rushdie go next as we embark upon the twenty-first century? I asked Rushdie how he envisages his future; “I want to try the opposite to The Ground Beneath Her Feet, not a big, sprawling, dense novel, but the opposite. My ambition is to write a thriller”. His publisher laughs, “You should write a western, and I wish you’d write another children’s book!” We all agree that he’ll write a “sci-fi western for children”!
He digresses to talk about his children, and about how his new novel is dedicated to his two year old son, “He’ll have to wait a few years to be able to understand it!” he says, with characteristic humour. It is strange to see Rushdie in this new context, the father of two children; he would later serenely ignore the fireworks exploding scarily close to The Lady Mitchell Hall, commenting only, “Fireworks in February?!”. With a more serious tone, he tells me, “no writer knows the future of their own work, only time will tell.”
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