Some of the writers who oppose the PEN award to Charlie
Hebdo: Peter Carey, Michael Ondaatje, Francine Prose, Teju Cole, Rachel Kushner
and Taiye Selasi.
Do I agree with them? Nope. I approve the PEN award to
Charlie Hebdo. Further, I dislike that the argument has been too much about supposed
anti-Islamopbobia on the part of PEN, and too little about richly warranted
anti-Islamism. What I mean is that al Qaeda et al is not, really not, a figment
of Islamopbobia, any more than, to admittedly stretch the point, Stalin's terror
was a figment of anti-communism, though much of the left chose denial.
I should add that in that list of defectors from the PEN
awards none are necessarily 2nd rate writers. Well, can't speak about Taiye
Selasi, who I haven't read, but have the others and have enjoyed recent
immersion in Francine Prose: No matter what she says about PEN will always look
forward to her criticism, her novels and the way she recently deboned that overstuffed
literary poseur, Danna Tartt.
I'm glad PEN stuck up for free speech as it did, and sorry
it's hard to have discussions about where Islam is these days -- not its mainstream
but its monsters, world historical monsters though they may be.
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