Geoffrey Weatcroft, writing in Slate, on the latest ire directed at Sal Bass Salman Rushdie:
"The eruption of the Satanic Verses affair on St. Valentine's Day 1989 caught everyone by surprise, and indeed, as with the Danish cartoon affair, it was really factitious. It would never have happened if some zealot hadn't scoured a work of literary fiction previously unheard of in Tehran and thereby inflamed the passions of scores of millions who had not read it, and would never read it or any other novel."Meanwhile Hitch, also writing on Slate, cautions against appeasing "Rage Boy." Posted by Stephen Silver at June 26, 2007 05:05 PM