Undoubtedly I have left out writers who should belong here. If anything it is the inquisition that should be counted as an influence, and the political repression in South America. I think it best not to comment on the issue of Rushdie writing from the safe haven of Britain, while other authors die. The thought and fear of being burnt at the stake is never pleasant, even if the inquisition never really catches you. The status of heresy, it now appears, is not what Samuel claims it is.
Heresy is generally brilliant.
A look at Hindu mythology confirms that the sin of Onan is logically flawed for Brahma created the universe from his seed, and was therefore the first masturbator and the first creator. He seeded the ground, the mandrake and the humunculus. To finish, Rushdie is to be read for the imaginativeness in his prose, true this includes the political sphere, but is not subsumed by it. Still to read Satanic Verses. A fool must now and then be right by chance.