To dare to speak

The attack on Salman Rushdie, the author known for The Satanic Verses and for the fatwa issued against him, among other works, is a reminder, one that we did not need, that freedom of expression remains endangered even in nations whose intellectual life arose out of the Enlightenment and who are supposed to be the world’s defenders of human rights.

As an author, I cannot claim to offer any surprise when I say that I see the liberty to express one’s opinions — be that in the written or spoken word, in paint or sculpture, or in the many other media of artists of all kinds — is among the list of fundamental rights that belong to all of us. Yes, great creators have operated in times of censorship, but the plays of William Shakespeare, for example, do not rise to their heights on account of the restrictions that the author faced or his need to say some things from within a veil of coded language. I offer as an illustration of this a comparison between Michael Mann’s movie, Heat, and the Bard’s Othello. The latter may be superior to the former — a case that I do not wish to imply — but I wonder if anyone can show that the difference is the result of America’s possession of the First Amendment. Censorship perhaps concentrates the mind, but it also wastes time that creative people could be using to express the strength of their ideas without the need for artificial convolution.