Writing: The Dangerous Profession

For the Windsor Star, Salman Rushdie thinks it's a dangerous time for writers.

From the piece...

Salman Rushdie, a man whose writings put his own life at risk, says there has never been a more dangerous time for artists who challenge official historical, political and religious doctrine in the world.

"We have to understand that these are days in which writers themselves, not just novelists, not just playwrights and poets, but journalists as well are in more danger perhaps than they've ever been," Rushdie said Monday in an address to a conference of risk-management professionals, meeting in Edmonton.

"The Iraq war has resulted in the deaths of more journalists than any war in history. In many Islamic countries, journalists are now seen as fair targets ... so the job of reporting and recording history is more dangerous today than it has ever been."

For those same reasons, the role of the artist to shape and expand our understanding of that world has never been more important, Rushdie said.

"If your task is to push out the boundaries, and open up the universe, you cannot do that by sitting safely in the middle of the room. If you want to push out the borders, you have to actually go to the borders and push against them. You have to go to the edge and of course the edge is not without its risks because there are people there who do not want the universe opened some more and in fact would prefer it shut down considerably. And they're often people of considerable power and ruthlessness."