“I Am Horrified By The Hamas Attacks And The Response That Netanyahu Has Given” | Entertainment | The USA Print – Global News, Entertainment, Tech, Celebrity Health And Wellness, Global Market – Breaking US News Today
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No luggage more voluminous than a DINA4 sheet of paper and writing personal details, including your home address, in an email. The security measures to enter the congress pavilion of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest in the world, this Friday have been more exhaustive than usual. And not because of the political tensions that are taking place since its director, Jürgen Boos, positioned himself saying that this literary event is “completely in solidarity with Israel”, but because Salman Rushdie (Mumbai, 1947) has honored it with his presence.
The writer will receive the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade next Sunday in a ceremony that will take place in the church of San Pablo, one of the most notable settings of German democracy. Today he offered a press conference to some journalists who had to show up an hour early to undergo an exhaustive check. “We want to make sure that everyone in this room feels safe,” said the security agents guarding the room. A barrier of tables that separated the stage from the public reminded us that no one could get closer than four meters.
“I’m very happy to be back.”
“I feel very honored. All of us who belong to the world of books know the importance of this award,” Rushdie thanked before beginning his speech, in which he inevitably ended up talking about the conflict between Hamas and Israel. “What is happening in the world is that innocent people are dying. “I am horrified by the Hamas attacks and the response that Netanyahu has given,” he stated.
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The author of Victory City He acknowledges that it is “difficult for him to understand what is happening in the world right now” and that “I do not have an original position on the war” although “I can feel the horror” of the attacks that occur on both sides.
Despite everything, the British-American writer of Indian origin says he is an “unreasonable optimist about what is happening in the world. Writing books is a form of optimism even though reality is dark. And this is partly because we are for years focused almost exclusively on writing a book, always trusting that someone will want to read it when we finish it.
The writer Salman Rushdie, guarded by security agents during the Frankfurt Book Fair
For this and “for other obvious reasons,” he claims to be “against book burning, although this may come as a surprise to many. It is not clear to me, however, that this should be legislated.” His response referred to the more than 150 copies of the Koran that were publicly burned in Danish streets, mostly in Copenhagen, and near mosques, embassies or consulates at the end of August. “As the poet Heinrich Heine said, where books are burned, people also end up being burned. This is well known in Germany.”
I’ve asked ChatGPT to write something in the style of Salman Rushdie. What came out was pure garbage.”
As for Artificial Intelligence, one of the most debated and commented topics in this 75th edition of the fair, it seems not to be a concern for the writer. “I did an experiment and asked ChatGPT to write something in the style of Salman Rushdie. What came out was pure rubbish. But maybe if someone asks me in ten minutes I’ll change my mind. This is moving very fast.”
What does have him in suspense is the ability of this technology to develop “fake news. It is a brutal source because you can imitate voices and put them in the mouth of someone who has not said that phrase. This does seem dangerous to me.”
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This is the third time that the author attends a public event after the attack he suffered in August of the year happened during a conference he gave in the United States. The author lost his right eye and has suffered from mobility problems in his left hand since then, but that hasn’t made him lose his sense of humor one bit.
Of this tragic experience he has written a book of Memories, Knife, Meditations after an assassination attempt. which will be released in April, as announced by Penguin Random House. “I didn’t see myself capable of writing anything other than this topic. I finished it ten days ago so it is very fresh in my memory. Now I will be able to dedicate myself to other topics,” he said with relief.
He rose to fame with midnight childrena work with which he won the Booker Prize in 1981. However, it was satanic verses, his fourth book, the one that caused him headaches and the one that forced him to remain in hiding for nine years after the late leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling for his death. Years later, an Iranian religious foundation offered $3.3 million to whoever would kill him. “Despite everything, I am grateful to be alive and I am very happy to be back,” he concluded his speech.
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