'The Satanic Verses' can be downloaded from the archive for free. Don't bother buying the book as it is not a good read. In fact, it is garbage from any sense of the word. The entire book is filled with embedded hate speech. The author dispels many of his hate through the personification of characters. Not only does he hate everything and everyone, he seems to also hate himself. The book was written to offend and provoke, much of which can be seen from the quote at the beginning of the book from Daniel Defoe. The more significant bit of hate speech is directed towards women that not only incites hate but also violence. In 1989, an incident occurred against a woman in New York where six individuals after reading passages from the book went out to put it into action that conjured up their imaginations. The book not only hates on blacks, but also jews, brits, whites, women, hindus, and across the protected characteristics. In US, hate speech laws don't really exist much outside of incitement. However, in UK/EU the hate crime law can provide a way towards censorship of the book. After all freedom of speech is not absolute. One finds it surprising that there is a lot of focus around the hate for a given religion while much of the other forms of hate in the book are completely overlooked. Perhaps, this is because of racism and bigotry shared in much of the western societies towards Islam and the book provides a weapon to incite hate towards it. But, it is shocking that many do not notice the level of hate speech mentioned in the book towards women. The author is an opportunist. Who wanted to gain notoriety by being as controversial as possible. In fact, a lot of the writing is in broken sentences and swearing that do not amplify any form of literary quality. The author cannot even make up his mind whether he wants to swear in hindi or english. It reads like an indian version of an urban dictionary. This leads one to wonder why on earth would someone want to consider it for the Booker Prize. The book sales is an indicator of how it is viewed in society. Book sales increased after the fatwa. They further increased after the attack on the author. But, in between such events book sales were virtually unheard of. Many people who support the book are jumping on the bandwagon of crowd follower mentality and have never even read the book. However, the man that attacked the author may also be exercising their freedom of speech and expression. This could be compared to the egg attack on John Prescott who returned it with a punch. Book burning is also another form of freedom of speech and expression. And, apparently, one cannot even challenge the holocaust behind the curtain of freedom of speech and expression. Or, even challenge the use of additional pronouns in freedom of speech and expression. We live in a society of hypocrites.
Extracts from 'The Satanic Verses':
- "White women -- never mind fat, Jewish, non deferential white women -- were for fucking and throwing over. What one hates in whites -- love of brown sugar -- one must also hate when it turns up, inverted, in black. Bigotry is not only a function of power."
- "Torture. Maggie the Bitch."
- "N****r eat white shit?"
- "Black shit is bad?"
- "Sister Fucking British"
- "This country that's stuffed full of fucking old corpses"
Prologue (by Daniel Defoe, from 'The History of the Devil'):
"Satan, being thus confined to a vagabond, wandering, unsettled condition, is without any certain abode; for though he has, in consequence of his angelic nature, a kind of empire in the liquid waste of air, yet this is certainly part of his punishment, that he is....without any fixed place, or space, allowed him to rest the sole of his foot upon."
