Sunday, September 18, 2022, at 12:30 p.m., for the In-Person meeting, location TBD.
Wednesday, September 21, 2022, at 7:30 p.m., for the Zoom meeting.
Considering the recent, violent attack on Salman Rushdie, no banned book is getting more attention right now than The Satanic Verses! Rushdie is widely known for the use of magical realism to grapple with questions of identity, history, and religiosity. Undergirding much of Rushdie’s writing is an examination and exploration of those things that we most take for granted.
A recent republication of the article, “Why Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’ Remains so Controversial Decades After its Publication” (see https://tinyurl.com/Rushdie-08), includes Rushdie’s own thoughts about the reception of Satanic Verses.
Since the publication of The Satanic Verses, Rushdie has argued that religious texts should be open to challenge. “Why can’t we debate Islam?” Rushdie said in a 2015 interview. “It is possible to respect individuals, to protect them from intolerance, while being skeptical about their ideas, even criticizing them ferociously.”
This kind of grappling with religious texts and ideas seemed like a perfectly UU choice for our September Banned Book Club. The book is available for audiobook download through the public library and a physical copy is available for reading at the church. Reach out to Laci Lee Adams to join the Banned Book Club mailing list or to gain access to the book.