Mr. Rushdie and his Badly Behaved Gods

So a friend and I went this evening to hear Salman Rushdie read from his new book, Luka and the Fire of Life (of which there was a very favourable review in today's Washington Post). Rushdie was an extremely entertaining speaker and entered into some fine repartee with the audience during the Q&A, particularly when asked about the writing process ('Generally, I go from left to right and so on down the page') and what being under a fatwa did for the trajectory of his literary career (''Haroun [and the Sea of Stories] was the first book I wrote after the fatwa. And it is my funniest book. I therefore must conclude that the fatwa was very good for my sense of humour. And I suddenly became very interested in happy endings').

Rushdie read a couple of passages from the novel, which was written as a gift for his second son, now aged 13. The first extract was rather sweet and gently amusing, about how the protaganist was born and all the unreasonable questions his father asked of him when holding him in his arms for the first time ('Who'd have thought it? Where did you come from, buster? How did you get here? What do you have to say for yourself? What's your name? What will you grow up to be? What is it that you want?'). The second passage he read was from the middle of the book. Luka sits on Soraya's Flying Carpet, as they pass over the Heart of Magic, home to all the gods in which nobody believes in any longer. His father, Rashid, reels off the names of some of the fallen deities:

"Stop, stop", Luka begged. "No wonder people stopped worshiping them. Nobody could pronounce their names."

"Or maybe it was because they all behaved so badly," Rashid said.

This got Luka's attention. [Just as it did mine]. The notion of gods behaving badly was an odd one. [And a great concept for a bestselling novel, I thought to myself]. Weren't gods supposed to set an example to the people whose gods they were? "Not in the Olden Days," Rashid said. "These Olden, and now Jobless, gods usually behaved as badly as people, or actually much worse, because, being gods, they could behave on a bigger scale. They were selfish, rude, meddlesome, vain, bitchy, violent, spiteful, lustful, gluttonous, greedy, lazy, dishonest, tricky, and stupid, and all of it exaggerated to the maximum, because they had those superpowers. When they were greedy they could swallow a city, and when they were angry they could drown the world. When they meddled in human lives they broke hearts, stole women, and started wars." [By this point, I seriously thought old Salman was reciting the synopsis of a diffferent novel, but I checked my copy and he was definitely reading from page 130 of his own book].

Following the reading, and the Q&A, I queued up to get my copy of 'Luka' signed. Sensing that Mr. Rushdie could do with a little light relief after having signed at least 100 title pages before mine, with the prospect of another 500 to go, I asked him whether he had read a book called 'Gods Behaving Badly'.

Mr Rushdie (clearly delighted to have an excuse to lift his head): No.
Me: It's a novel, written by my friend Marie Phillips. It's published by Jonathan Cape.
Mr. Rushdie (sitting up, leaning back, and raising an eyebrow): That's my publisher. What's it about?
Me: It's about Greek Gods in a flat in Hampstead. It's great. You should read it.
Mr. Rushdie (looking increasingly interested): When was it published?
Me: A couple of years ago.
Mr. Rushdie: I guess it's available on Amazon?
Me: Oh yes, it did very well in the UK. I just thought it was such a coincidence that perhaps you had read it.
Mr. Rushdie: And it's about Badly Behaved Gods?
Me: Yes, that's the idea.

Pause.

Mr. Rushdie (smiling broadly): Well, I guess I stole it.

All I can say is I'm glad that Marie got there first or else she would have been accused of copying Mr. Rushdie. Whereas in fact now we all know that he filched his idea from her.

(And, Marie, I promise this is all true and you should definitely get that nice Mr. Franklin to send Mr. Rushdie a copy of your book. And perhaps a letter demanding a cut of his royalties).

Comments

[Marie]

That Salman Rushdie. I'm always finding him going through my bins.

[Robbie]

Fair play to Salman - he might have nicked your story but the bins thing is me in a Rushdie mask. Anyway, it's not like his book is going to gross $91m AND stop your one getting a proper release: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_Stripes

[Legal note: I do not believe Disney stole mine/Sue's idea. It was convergent evolution. But ours was on stage two years before Racing Stripes.]

[Personal note: my mother does believe Disney stole the idea. It's quite sweet, really.]

[DC Diary]

I'm totally with your mother on this one.

[BKKExpatMama]

As a fan of Marie's The Woman Who Talked Too Much blog AND Salman Rushdie, I love, looove, LURV this anecdote. Also, DC Diary person, you are a super-cool friend. It was tres cool of you to give your novelist friend a shout-out when face-to-face with Mr Rushdie. Not only that, but also you gave him a welcome break from the tedium of signing books!