George R.R. Martin urges fans to read Salman Rushdie’s books

George R. R. Martin is one of the most accomplished authors today, and is a firm believer in the freedom of speech. The recent attack on fellow writer Salman Rushdie affected him deeply, despite not knowing the author personally nor having read his books before. Martin recently issued a message on his blog that he is in full support of Rushdie, he will be reading his books and he also urged his fans to do the same, saying, “Let His Voice Be Heard”.

He wrote on his blog, Not A Blog:

“I cannot begin to express how horrified I am by the attack on Salman Rushdie in New York as he was about to give a speech. He was stabbed multiple times by a masked man who leapt onto the stage and rushed at Rushdie before he could say a word. The latest report I’ve read says that Rushdie is off the ventilator and improving, but he will never entirely recover. He suffered damage to his liver, and to his arm. He may lose an eye. The attack took place in front of a large audience who had come to hear him speak… ironically, about America as a haven for dissidents.

I don’t know Salman Rushdie, as I said. That cannot be helped. There’s not much I can do for him… except to hope that he makes a full recovery, or as much of a recovery as he can possibly make, given his injuries… or maybe I should call them wounds. For that is what they are, wounds received in battle in a war he has been fighting most of his life, a war for freedom of speech, for art, for compassion.

I don’t know Salman Rushdie’s work either, however… and THAT is something I can do something about. I just placed an order for copies of THE SATANIC VERSES, MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN, and several of his other books. And I have instructed the managers at Beastly Books, my little bookshop here in Santa Fe, to order every Rushdie title presently in print. Beastly is not an ordinary general interest bookshop (Santa Fe has several of those); almost of the books it stocks are autographed. They carry my own titles, of course, along with books by the authors who have appeared at Beastly Books and the Jean Cocteau Cinema over the years for signings, interviews, readings, and other events. Rushdie’s books would not previously have been on our shelves, no more than those of thousands of other writers who we have never hosted. But that’s changing, as of today. From here on, we will be stocking everything Rushdie wrote…

The man who rushed on stage in Chautauqua with knife in hand wanted to do more than murder Salman Rushdie. He wanted to silence him.

Well, fuck that. I say, let his voice be heard.

I hope that all of you reading this will join me.

If, like me, you have never read his books, if he’s only someone you saw on the news, go out and buy THE SATANIC VERSES. Or any of his books, actually… but SATANIC VERSES is the one that will make the point most clearly. If you already have a copy on your shelves, great… but he has lots of other books, buy some of them. Tell your local bookstore to put his novels on their shelves. Make sure your local library stocks them.

If enough of us out there truly believe in freedom of speech, we can send Salman Rushdie soaring up the bestseller lists again. Nothing would please me more than to see THE SATANIC VERSES rise to #1, decades after its original publication. Nothing would make the point more clearly.”

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