In a harsh world where ruthless dictatorships can reach someone virtually anywhere, writers who speak truth to powerful governments increasingly risk everything — including their lives — in doing so, acclaimed novelist Salman Rushdie, who spoke from harsh experience, told an audience at UNC Asheville Feb. 18.

About 3,000 people — nearly packing UNCA’s Kimmell Arena — attended his 45-minute speech titled “Public Events, Private Lives: Literature Plus Politics in the Modern World.”

In touting freedom of speech and decrying ever-growing censorship, Rushdie spent much of his time talking about the vital role that literature plays in the Internet era.

His 1988 novel, “The Satanic Verses,” mixed magical realism with a satirical stab at Islam — dream sequences about a Messenger receiving revelations, or extra scriptures dedicated to three pagan female deities.

Many Muslims worldwide considered the book to be blasphemous against the prophet Muhammed. Indeed, Ayatollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran, expressed outrage and issued a fatwa, or religious decree, calling for Rushdie’s death. After several assassination attempts, the Indian-born novelist was forced into hiding for 10 years in Great Britain.

“I’m not going to say a lot about the Ayatollah Khomeini other than to say one of us is dead — and it’s not me,” Rushdie noted dryly, triggering applause. 

Rushdie said he also had serious problems — prompted by the content of some of his novels — with leaders of India and Pakistan. Given that Khomeini and his aforementioned two other powerful political foes all are dead now, Rushdie mused, with a wry grin, “So ‘dictator eliminator’ appears to be a service I can perform.” The crowd laughed and applauded.

Rushdie, who had traveled to Asheville from New York City for the speech, was greeted with sustained and enthusiastic applause from the UNCA crowd when he appeared on stage.

Preceding him was a performance by X-tet, the UNCA Jazz Ensemble, welcoming remarks from UNCA Chancellor Mary K. Grant and an introduction by Dr. Samer Traboulsi, an associate professor of history (specializing in the Middle East) at UNCA.

“Jeez, look at this crowd,” Rushdie deadpanned, in greeting the audience. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”

As the crowd roared with laughter, he added, “It’s very optimistic of you to come out in such numbers to listen to a writer speak.”

Regarding his current speaking tour, at which the UNCA visit is just one stop, Rushdie asserted, “So here I am, maybe risking my life — and not for the first time.”

Later in his speech, he said, “I’m beginning to form an impression of the Internet — and information is not what you get” from it.

To that end, he said Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump “is the icon of this new age” of the Internet.

What’s more, Rushdie said, “Donald Trump would not exist without the Internet, which is probably the worst thing you could say about the Internet.

“Newspapers are going out of business — and digital media hasn’t been able to fill the void. So there’s actually an informaton deficit” in the so-called Internet era. “The news correspondents are (instead) giving us opinion, rather than the truth,” which, he said, is “the news.”

Turning to literature, he said it provides readers with “the experience of being there” and that it “can still bring us the news... not just in private life, but in public life as well.”

Further, Rushdie said, “We live in a world where there are two competing visions of reality.” Specifically, he said there are now “two narratives” that are clashing.

“The world no longer has the same solidarity, where the writer and reader have agreement on what is the truth about the world. Now, it’s more fractured. The world is getting more fictional... Some (now) live in a world where reality ceases to exist. In that reality, where the ‘real’ has become a problem. That’s really the work of a novelist.”

While “Americans are getting more impressive about literature,” Rushdie there remain “some efforts in Kansas to ban Harry Potter because it (the series of works) encourages withcraft? Goodness — like it’s a bad thing?” Many in the crowd laughed.

“To the students here, I’m a bit worried that silencing free speech is (regarded as) a good thing.” The crowd that appeared to include a large contingent of UNCA students, roared with applause.

“I’ve encountered political correctness” on some college campuses... “Of course, students at a university should be in a safe space” in which to live. “But the university should be a safe space for ideas — and not from ideas... How else will you learn how to think?”

Again, the audience applauded his assertion vigorously.

“It is becoming a problem for what seems to be legitimate reasons to silence voices you disagree with and ... how should I put this? You are wrong!”

The crowd once again cheered his words.

Rushdie warned that “the public arena has come much closer to our private lives. 

“Today, we have the butterfly factor. A butterfly flaps its wings in Iran — and we feel the breeze here” in the U.S.

Regarding what he termed “that terrible day on Sept. 11, 2001, the two narrative butterflies crashed into one another — New York City and the Arab world.”

He then noted that Voltaire “once said that it was a good idea for a writer to live near an international frontier so that, if he angered powerful men, he could skip across the border and be safe.” 

Rushdie added, “Of course, this doesn’t work any more because — how can I say this? — they come after you” anywhere in the world today. (His reference may also have been to the fatwa against him, which was an extraterritorial action — ignoring all notions of national sovereignty.)

Rushdie cited as a truism that “a man’s character is his destiny. What kind of person you are determines the kind of life you have. But what do you do when your character has nothing to do with your faith?”

Rhetorically, he then asked, “What make people become men of violence?”

“The answer is their character is their destiny.... It (a propensity to become a terrorist) was in one’s character — or not,” Rushdie said.

“In the novel, you can never betray the human spirit. The self is not homogenuous. We are contradictory” in some areas — and not in others.

“One of the biggest forces rising in the world is identity politics. In this country, it has as much to do with gender and race, as religion. It’s a problem,” worldwide.

“In the pages of a novel, it’s clear that the human being is heterogenuous — not homogenuous.

“All writers know about the idea of broad-based identity to find common ground with their readers.”

Later, Rushdie said, “If you want to push the frontiers, you need to go to the edge — and start pushing. There are powerful forces that don’t want the universe to open any more. In fact, they’d often rather see it closed a bit more.

“A poet wrote a satirical poem about (Josef) Stalin, who then destroyed his (the poet’s) life. But his poetry has outlived Stalin....

“Literature, itself, is strong, but writers are not that strong — and can often get into big trouble.

“Journalists are now thought of as legitimate targets in war zones. It’s remains a very dangerous time to be a writer.  

“But facing up to power, speaking truth to it, in spite of all the dangers, all these writers would agree — it’s the job,” Rushie said.

He received a standing ovation after he finished his speech. He bowed and smiled — and then left the stage.