2023-07-13 16:55:56
Salman Rushdie is physically feeling “more or less okay” nearly a year after he was stabbed while preparing to lecture in upstate New York. However, the 76-year-old writer of Indian origin, a British citizen and a resident of the United States, said in an interview with the BBC that he is still processing the attack, which left him blind in one eye.
“I have a great therapist who has a lot of work to do,” Rushdie said. “I have crazy dreams.” The writer confessed to having doubts about whether to face his alleged attacker in court. And he doesn’t know if he’ll ever again show up to a public event that isn’t invite-only and “controllable.”
The author of the ‘Satanic Verses’ was put on a respirator last August and spent six weeks in hospital after being stabbed a dozen times on stage at a literary event. The injuries resulted in liver damage, loss of vision in one eye, and hand paralysis due to nerve damage in the arm. Rushdie said: “The human body has an incredible ability to heal. And so I’m lucky to be well underway.”
The attacker, Hadi Matar, was charged with attempted murder and pleaded not guilty and has been held without bail since last summer. When asked if he will participate in the trial later in the year, Rushdie said it will depend on whether Matar changes his stance on the bombing. “I’m led to believe his plea deal is just a positional game and that could change. If I were his lawyer, I’d advise him to do so,” Rushdie commented. but only a sentence, and it could also be that my presence is not required. I have two attitudes about this. There is a part of me that really wants to go to court and look him in the face and another part of me that doesn’t he feels like it. I don’t think very highly of him.”
Salman Rushdie is writing a book about the bombing as a way to process what he’s been through. He told the BBC that it won’t be more than a “couple of hundred pages”. “There’s a colossal elephant in the room, and until I deal with it, it’s hard to take anything else seriously,” he added.
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