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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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SALMAN RUSHDIE: To my
mind, issues of rhythm

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are absolutely central
to-- to meaning.

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The way in which a sentence
or a paragraph sounds

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helps to convey a meaning
almost subliminally so

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below consciousness.

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The reader gets it without quite
knowing how they're getting it

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because it is a kind of music.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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This is maybe the
first time in my life

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that I've really,
in an extended way,

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tried to talk about
the act of writing.

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You know, in a way, this is
a sort of creative writing

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course.

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And-- and what has concerned
me sometimes about creative

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writing courses is
that they're very,

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very good at teaching
craft skill, you know,

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very good at teaching
craft skill, you know,

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and not so good at
individualizing the voices

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of the different
writers, you know,

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so that people can come out
of a course having acquired

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a considerable
amount of skill and--

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and an ability to
write well, you

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know, to write very
well sometimes.

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But sometimes, I feel
this kind of sameness.

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Everybody coming out of the
same class kind of in a way

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writes in the same way.

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And-- and in the same way as
when one talks about dialogue,

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And-- and in the same way as
when one talks about dialogue,

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the important thing is
differentiation to try and make

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sure that the characters speak
in different ways, you know.

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I mean, that's true of
writers too, you know.

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You want to-- you don't want
all writers to sound the same.

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So craft is great.

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And it gives you
a foundation which

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is a very important foundation.

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But you have to at some
point move beyond that

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into something more individual.

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Style is the manner
in which you choose

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to adhere to or choose to break
the rules of classical form.

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Voice is your
touch as an author.

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It is what makes a piece
of writing your own.

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These are imprecise terms.

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You could say that-- that
the style must be suited

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to the character and that of
the story that you're telling

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to the character and that of
the story that you're telling

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whereas the voice is somehow--

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somehow you.

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It's the thing that is there in
whatever you write, you know,

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that you should be able, and--

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and we are able in--

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in good writers, to see their
voice in whatever they write.

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There are a few writers who seem
to know from the very beginning

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There are a few writers who seem
to know from the very beginning

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something about--

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about their voice.

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And-- and there are
others who you can see

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working their way towards it.

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Doesn't really matter
which, you know.

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There's-- there's no--

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one is not better than the
other as a way of proceeding.

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I would say that what you should
do with any piece of writing

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is to make the
style decisions is

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to say, what is it that
will allow me most clearly

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to say, what is it that
will allow me most clearly

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and effectively to
portray the characters

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and to tell the story?

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And if you do that properly, and
you do that over and over again

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in story after
story, then whatever

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it is that may in the end
feel like your voice that

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may feel like, you
know, you as a writer,

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who you are as a writer,
that will emerge.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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A writer with a unique
literary voice is Franz Kafka.

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When you read a story like
"Metamorphosis" in which,

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in the first
sentence, we discover

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that the main character
has mysteriously

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been transformed into
a giant insect lying

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in his bed in his
family apartment,

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but he's a bug, a
human-sized bug,

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there's never an attempt to
explain why this has happened.

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there's never an attempt to
explain why this has happened.

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It simply is so.

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And even though the novel is--

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the novel-- the novella,
the short story,

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is about the
character's feelings

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about his own metamorphosis and
how his family reacts to it,

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the emotion is kept
very much at a distance.

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There's no attempt to--

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to draw cheap
sympathy, you know.

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It's very objective.

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It's very objective.

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And yet, the result of it
is one of the great stories

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of 20th century literature.

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And in his other books
too, you know, in--

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in "The Trial," at the very
beginning of the trial,

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the character, Josef K., is
arrested in his own apartment.

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Men arrive in his
apartment and arrest him

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for he has no idea why.

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And in the whole book,
nobody ever tells him why.

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And-- and he is treated
to successive indignities

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And-- and he is treated
to successive indignities

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and dangers, humiliations,
without any attempt to--

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to draw us in and
explain things to us.

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And his tone of voice
is always distant.

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The reader is never allowed
to be cozy with the author.

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And yet, the result of that in
his hands is to create these--

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these texts which are so
unusual that they've given

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rise to a word.

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The Kafkaesque-- we all
recognize what the Kafkaesque

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The Kafkaesque-- we all
recognize what the Kafkaesque

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is, the world
according to Kafka,

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in which mysterious things
happen for no reason.

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And your life can be
forfeit without your ever

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knowing the reason why.

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Write in a way which doesn't
have a warm, emotional, cozy

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feeling, you know, that you're
not inviting the reader in.

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You're saying, I'm
sitting over here.

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You're sitting over there.

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I'm going to do the writing.

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You're going to do the reading.

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In a way, some of the
most remarkable books

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In a way, some of the
most remarkable books

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have used that
distancing technique.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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Languages have rules so
grammar, spelling, punctuation,

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sentence structure,
subject, verb,

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object, like that,
in English, anyway.

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And you have to
know those rules.

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You don't necessarily
have to keep them.

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You don't necessarily
have to keep them.

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But you have to know
them because what

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one might call style is what you
decide to do about those rules,

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whether you decide
to play by the rules

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or whether you decide to
bend or break them, and--

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and if so, why?

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For example, if you are
writing in the first person

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voice of a teenager like, you
know, "Catcher in the Rye,"

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voice of a teenager like, you
know, "Catcher in the Rye,"

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for example, if you're writing
in the voice of a poorly

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educated person, then
some of those rules

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may need to be ignored in
order to effectively portray

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the voice of that person.

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So-- so style is
what you do in order

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to most effectively
communicate what

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to most effectively
communicate what

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it is you're trying to say.

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First of all, you need to know
the rules of the language.

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I mean, you really
do need to know

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about grammar and syntax
and sentence structure

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and paragraph structure.

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The paragraph is sort of
the basic unit of prose.

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And-- and it needs to have
a little internal cohesion

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of its own.

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And when a new thought
comes in, then you

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need to have a break
in the paragraph.

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So-- so yeah.

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So-- so yeah.

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It's very important
to know those rules

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even if then you
decide to break them.

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There are wonderful examples
of writers who more or less

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abandoned paragraphing and--

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and present you with
a long unbroken text.

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For example, in Gabriel Garcia
Marquez's novel "The Autumn

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of the Patriarch," he
suggests to us, the readers,

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he suggests that the
dictator, the patriarch,

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he suggests that the
dictator, the patriarch,

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whose rule is stifling
and absolute somehow

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stops time from moving, you
know, that nothing changes.

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Everything is always the same.

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And the fact that the book is
written in these very, very

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long unbroken sections is
in a way of saying, here

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is a kind of stagnation.

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Nothing is moving forward.

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The world has just
stopped like this.

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The world has just
stopped like this.

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And the long sentences and the
unbroken paragraphs in a way

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give you that feeling.

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So he is breaking the rule.

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But he's doing it for--

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to-- in order to
communicate something.

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So every decision in
writing needs to be-- you

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need to know why you're
doing it, you know.

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I mean, read Strunk and White.

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Their book, "The Elements of
Style," is a very good start.

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When you feel confident at
the use of classical style,

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When you feel confident at
the use of classical style,

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then you can ask yourself
from project to project,

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from book to book, from scene to
scene almost if that's the best

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way of doing it or if some
deviation from classical style

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will actually help the
reader's understanding.

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I think the main
thing that I would

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say about developing a
prose style is don't think

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about it as being about you.

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about it as being about you.

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Think about it as being about
what you're writing, you know.

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If you think it's about you,
then-- then ego intrudes,

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you know.

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And it can actually
get in the way.

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If what you do is focus
on thinking about what

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is the most effective and
powerful way of telling

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the story you've
set out to tell,

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the rest will take
care of itself.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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In terms of exercises,
I think all you can do

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is to say give yourself
a task of saying

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if I want to write
a love scene, what

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is the best language for
doing that, you know.

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And-- and you might initially
think that the best language

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And-- and you might initially
think that the best language

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for doing that is something
lyrical, you know,

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something in which the
emotion is very evident

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and on the surface,
you know, because--

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because you're trying to
talk about two people who

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are falling in love.

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That might not be the case.

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It might be that actually
to take a little step back

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and to write a little more
dispassionately about it would

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actually have a very
interesting effect in a way

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actually have a very
interesting effect in a way

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to write against
the grain of what

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you're trying to write about.

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You can try it both ways.

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Try-- try writing it as
a very emotional passage,

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and then try writing about
it very unemotionally.

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Same event.

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Same thing happening.

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And see which works
better for you.

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It can sometimes
be very effective

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not to write about it
in the most obvious way.

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This is a passage from
"The Moor's Last Sigh"

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in which the narrator
is-- is talking

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about a kind of profound
moment really that in which

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he's not present at the first
moment at which his mother

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and father made
love to each other.

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They just-- when they--
after they had met.

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And I found myself wondering
how would one do that?

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And I found myself wondering
how would one do that?

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How would one talk
about something

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as in a way forbidden as that?

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And it led me into a
kind of wider thought

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that one of the hardest
things to write about is sex.

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Because it can be so crass,
you know, when written about.

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And-- and, as it were, the
gymnastic elements of sex,

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And-- and, as it were, the
gymnastic elements of sex,

246
00:13:30,661 --> 00:13:32,611
you know, can be the--

247
00:13:32,611 --> 00:13:34,771
the ones that just,
if you write them out,

248
00:13:34,771 --> 00:13:39,051
you know, they seem absurd.

249
00:13:39,051 --> 00:13:43,621
And so what I thought I'd do
is to give that awkwardness,

250
00:13:43,621 --> 00:13:47,931
that embarrassment about writing
about it, to the narrator who's

251
00:13:47,931 --> 00:13:49,461
writing after all
about his parents

252
00:13:49,461 --> 00:13:51,661
so he doesn't know
quite how to do it.

253
00:13:51,661 --> 00:13:54,311
So he-- so he does
it by not doing it.

254
00:13:54,311 --> 00:13:56,451
He does it by
leaving things out.

255
00:13:56,451 --> 00:13:58,491
I mean, in a way, I think
it is quite lyrical.

256
00:13:58,491 --> 00:14:00,021
It's sort of-- sort of comic
lyrical but with the emphasis

257
00:14:00,021 --> 00:14:02,511
It's sort of-- sort of comic
lyrical but with the emphasis

258
00:14:02,511 --> 00:14:03,111
on--

259
00:14:03,111 --> 00:14:05,751
on comic.

260
00:14:05,751 --> 00:14:10,221
"Way up there near the
roof of Go-Down Number 1,

261
00:14:10,221 --> 00:14:14,781
Aurora de Gama, at the age of
15, laid back on pepper sacks,

262
00:14:14,781 --> 00:14:20,121
breathed in the hot, spice-laden
air, and waited for Abraham.

263
00:14:20,121 --> 00:14:24,151
He came to her as a
man goes to his doom,

264
00:14:24,151 --> 00:14:27,281
trembling but resolute.

265
00:14:27,281 --> 00:14:30,021
And it's around here
that my words run out.

266
00:14:30,021 --> 00:14:30,711
And it's around here
that my words run out.

267
00:14:30,711 --> 00:14:33,971
So you will not learn
from me the bloody details

268
00:14:33,971 --> 00:14:42,791
of what happened when she
and then he, and then they,

269
00:14:42,791 --> 00:14:46,931
and after that she,
and at which he,

270
00:14:46,931 --> 00:14:54,811
and in response to that she,
and with that, and in addition,

271
00:14:54,811 --> 00:15:00,021
and for a while, and
then for a long time,

272
00:15:00,021 --> 00:15:00,411
and for a while, and
then for a long time,

273
00:15:00,411 --> 00:15:05,771
and quietly, and noisily, and
at the end of their endurance,

274
00:15:05,771 --> 00:15:13,411
and at last, and after
that, until phew, boy, over

275
00:15:13,411 --> 00:15:16,001
and done with."

276
00:15:16,001 --> 00:15:18,671
So it's just a way of
writing about sex without--

277
00:15:18,671 --> 00:15:20,771
while leaving all of it out.

278
00:15:20,771 --> 00:15:24,591
And I thought that
might be the kind

279
00:15:24,591 --> 00:15:29,261
of embarrassed, awkward way
in which the character would

280
00:15:29,261 --> 00:15:30,021
face such a-- such a moment.

281
00:15:30,021 --> 00:15:31,571
face such a-- such a moment.

282
00:15:31,571 --> 00:15:33,971
[MUSIC PLAYING]

283
00:15:37,331 --> 00:15:40,391
To be in charge of language,
to have a command of language,

284
00:15:40,391 --> 00:15:42,281
means that--

285
00:15:42,281 --> 00:15:43,571
means that it works for you.

286
00:15:43,571 --> 00:15:45,011
You don't work for it.

287
00:15:45,011 --> 00:15:47,081
There's an enormous
spectrum here

288
00:15:47,081 --> 00:15:50,541
because there are writers with--

289
00:15:50,541 --> 00:15:55,701
who deliberately use a
very large vocabulary

290
00:15:55,701 --> 00:15:59,481
and feel that they need that.

291
00:15:59,481 --> 00:16:00,021
Vladimir Nabokov is
a writer like that.

292
00:16:00,021 --> 00:16:03,551
Vladimir Nabokov is
a writer like that.

293
00:16:03,551 --> 00:16:05,561
On almost every page
of Nabokov, there

294
00:16:05,561 --> 00:16:07,761
are words that you have to
scratch your head about.

295
00:16:07,761 --> 00:16:10,451
He's, you know, he's slightly--

296
00:16:10,451 --> 00:16:12,821
his style is
slightly "show-offy."

297
00:16:12,821 --> 00:16:18,491
And he-- he likes to
display his erudition.

298
00:16:18,491 --> 00:16:21,011
There are other
writers whose writing

299
00:16:21,011 --> 00:16:25,121
comes from a much
smaller group of words

300
00:16:25,121 --> 00:16:27,251
but which served their
purpose very well.

301
00:16:27,251 --> 00:16:30,021
You know, Dr. Seuss decided
to write everything he ever

302
00:16:30,021 --> 00:16:32,531
You know, Dr. Seuss decided
to write everything he ever

303
00:16:32,531 --> 00:16:35,801
wrote in what in those days
was called basic English, which

304
00:16:35,801 --> 00:16:38,321
was a very small
vocabulary that people

305
00:16:38,321 --> 00:16:42,401
needed to know in order to be
able to communicate in English.

306
00:16:42,401 --> 00:16:46,211
And all his-- I mean, the
colossal success of these books

307
00:16:46,211 --> 00:16:50,591
is because they're written in
this ultra simple language.

308
00:16:50,591 --> 00:16:53,201
You know, "I do not like
green eggs and ham."

309
00:16:53,201 --> 00:16:55,931
You know, "I do not like
them, Sam, I am," you know.

310
00:16:55,931 --> 00:16:57,161
There's no long words.

311
00:16:57,161 --> 00:16:59,141
There's no complicated ideas.

312
00:16:59,141 --> 00:17:00,021
But there's a kind of
brilliant musical use

313
00:17:00,021 --> 00:17:03,771
But there's a kind of
brilliant musical use

314
00:17:03,771 --> 00:17:05,691
of very simple language.

315
00:17:05,691 --> 00:17:10,880
To me, the rhythm
of a language is--

316
00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:15,061
the rhythm of a sentence
is very important.

317
00:17:15,061 --> 00:17:23,571
And-- and I do spend a long
time on that, you know.

318
00:17:23,571 --> 00:17:28,201
Sometimes, I'll change
the order of words,

319
00:17:28,201 --> 00:17:30,021
if that lends a better
musicality to the sentence,

320
00:17:30,021 --> 00:17:32,181
if that lends a better
musicality to the sentence,

321
00:17:32,181 --> 00:17:35,541
add a word sometimes
or subtract a word

322
00:17:35,541 --> 00:17:40,071
if that improves the
music that I'm hearing

323
00:17:40,071 --> 00:17:41,901
in my inner ear, so to speak.

324
00:17:41,901 --> 00:17:46,341
And to my mind, issues of
rhythm are absolutely central

325
00:17:46,341 --> 00:17:51,361
to-- to meaning, you know, that
the way in which a sentence

326
00:17:51,361 --> 00:17:59,121
or a paragraph sounds helps
to convey a meaning almost

327
00:17:59,121 --> 00:18:00,021
subliminally, you know, so--

328
00:18:00,021 --> 00:18:01,801
subliminally, you know, so--

329
00:18:01,801 --> 00:18:04,844
so below consciousness.

330
00:18:04,844 --> 00:18:07,511
The reader gets it without quite
knowing how they're getting it,

331
00:18:07,511 --> 00:18:08,011
you know.

332
00:18:08,011 --> 00:18:09,491
So-- so I-- yeah.

333
00:18:09,491 --> 00:18:13,911
I mean, one way of doing this
is to try reading what you've

334
00:18:13,911 --> 00:18:16,011
written aloud and listen to it.

335
00:18:16,011 --> 00:18:16,581
Listen to it.

336
00:18:16,581 --> 00:18:19,431
See if it sounds nice, you know.

337
00:18:19,431 --> 00:18:21,681
And if it doesn't, see what
you can do to kind of even

338
00:18:21,681 --> 00:18:22,881
it out and to--

339
00:18:22,881 --> 00:18:27,291
and to give it some
rhythmic quality

340
00:18:27,291 --> 00:18:30,021
because it is kind of music.

341
00:18:30,021 --> 00:18:30,882
because it is kind of music.

342
00:18:30,882 --> 00:18:32,766
[MUSIC PLAYING]

343
00:18:37,481 --> 00:18:41,411
I want to read you a passage
from "The Satanic Verses" that

344
00:18:41,411 --> 00:18:45,391
makes use of musicality
in its language.

345
00:18:45,391 --> 00:18:48,421
"Gibreel, when he submits
to the inevitable, when

346
00:18:48,421 --> 00:18:52,321
he slides heavy-lidded towards
visions of his angeling,

347
00:18:52,321 --> 00:18:55,071
passes his loving mother, who
has a different name for him.

348
00:18:55,071 --> 00:18:59,251
Shaitan, she calls him, just
like Shaitan, same to same.

349
00:18:59,251 --> 00:19:00,021
Because he has been fooling
around with the tiffins

350
00:19:00,021 --> 00:19:01,741
Because he has been fooling
around with the tiffins

351
00:19:01,741 --> 00:19:04,591
to be carried into the city
for the office workers' lunch.

352
00:19:04,591 --> 00:19:08,011
Mischievous imp, she slices
the air with her hands.

353
00:19:08,011 --> 00:19:11,821
Rascal has been putting Muslim
meat compartments into Hindu

354
00:19:11,821 --> 00:19:13,351
nonveg tiffin carriers.

355
00:19:13,351 --> 00:19:15,001
Customers are up in arms.

356
00:19:15,001 --> 00:19:19,661
Little devil, she scolds, but
then folds him in her arms.

357
00:19:19,661 --> 00:19:20,891
My little faristha.

358
00:19:20,891 --> 00:19:23,421
Boys will be boys.

359
00:19:23,421 --> 00:19:26,091
And then he falls
past her into sleep,

360
00:19:26,091 --> 00:19:28,191
growing bigger as he falls.

361
00:19:28,191 --> 00:19:30,021
And the falling begins
to feel like flight.

362
00:19:30,021 --> 00:19:30,561
And the falling begins
to feel like flight.

363
00:19:30,561 --> 00:19:34,371
His mother's voice wafts
distantly up to him.

364
00:19:34,371 --> 00:19:40,461
Look how you grew,
enormous, brava, applause.

365
00:19:40,461 --> 00:19:44,061
He is gigantic, wingless,
standing with his feet

366
00:19:44,061 --> 00:19:47,411
upon the horizon and his
arms around the sun."

367
00:19:47,411 --> 00:19:49,551
I wanted to-- in this--
in this moment, I--

368
00:19:49,551 --> 00:19:52,611
I wanted to evoke
somebody falling

369
00:19:52,611 --> 00:19:57,321
into a dream-like
visionary state

370
00:19:57,321 --> 00:20:00,021
because this is
where we begin to see

371
00:20:00,021 --> 00:20:01,021
because this is
where we begin to see

372
00:20:01,021 --> 00:20:07,651
the extent of Gibreel's descent
into a kind of insanity.

373
00:20:07,651 --> 00:20:11,641
And-- and I wanted
it to feel like that.

374
00:20:11,641 --> 00:20:13,891
I wanted it to feel like
a descent, like a fall

375
00:20:13,891 --> 00:20:16,441
from sanity towards insanity.

376
00:20:16,441 --> 00:20:20,331
And one of the
things that I studied

377
00:20:20,331 --> 00:20:24,131
when I was writing
the book was how

378
00:20:24,131 --> 00:20:27,221
people who have talked
about seeing visions

379
00:20:27,221 --> 00:20:28,721
talk about them--
talk about them.

380
00:20:28,721 --> 00:20:30,021
Joan of Arc, St.
John the Divine,

381
00:20:30,021 --> 00:20:31,571
Joan of Arc, St.
John the Divine,

382
00:20:31,571 --> 00:20:33,441
all sorts of people
who have been--

383
00:20:33,441 --> 00:20:38,341
who have had this kind
of visionary experience--

384
00:20:38,341 --> 00:20:40,501
what does it sound like
when they talk about it?

385
00:20:40,501 --> 00:20:45,561
And-- and one of the things
that I found was that they--

386
00:20:45,561 --> 00:20:47,781
it does feel like they're--

387
00:20:47,781 --> 00:20:49,461
like they're falling
into something,

388
00:20:49,461 --> 00:20:53,971
you know, that into
like another reality.

389
00:20:53,971 --> 00:20:56,961
And so that's what I wanted
that moment to feel like,

390
00:20:56,961 --> 00:20:59,571
that he's falling
out of the real world

391
00:20:59,571 --> 00:21:00,021
into another reality.

392
00:21:00,021 --> 00:21:01,521
into another reality.

393
00:21:01,521 --> 00:21:03,621
First of all, it's a--

394
00:21:03,621 --> 00:21:06,091
it's a very long sentence.

395
00:21:06,091 --> 00:21:10,741
It's a sentence that could be
broken into many sentences.

396
00:21:10,741 --> 00:21:14,531
Instead, it's just
broken by commas.

397
00:21:14,531 --> 00:21:20,181
And in a way, the sentence
is too long, you know.

398
00:21:22,911 --> 00:21:29,921
And so the-- the realities
in the sentence begin to,

399
00:21:29,921 --> 00:21:30,021
you know, to-- to
blur into each other.

400
00:21:30,021 --> 00:21:32,351
you know, to-- to
blur into each other.

401
00:21:32,351 --> 00:21:38,781
Part of it has to do with the
speech rhythms of-- of how

402
00:21:38,781 --> 00:21:42,501
his mother speaks to
him are the speech

403
00:21:42,501 --> 00:21:48,601
rhythms of a kind of
Bombayite Indian English.

404
00:21:48,601 --> 00:21:53,871
So she's-- she's talking
in nonstandard English.

405
00:21:53,871 --> 00:22:00,021
So that immediately creates
an air of something--

406
00:22:00,021 --> 00:22:03,151
So that immediately creates
an air of something--

407
00:22:03,151 --> 00:22:07,511
something not
straightforward, something

408
00:22:07,511 --> 00:22:09,141
different in the language.

409
00:22:09,141 --> 00:22:14,021
The idea is that he's
falling into a vision,

410
00:22:14,021 --> 00:22:15,411
and he's seeing things.

411
00:22:15,411 --> 00:22:18,181
And the first thing
he sees is his mother,

412
00:22:18,181 --> 00:22:22,921
and then he falls past
her into the full vision

413
00:22:22,921 --> 00:22:24,901
of being the angel.

414
00:22:24,901 --> 00:22:30,021
So it's an attempt
to represent the--

415
00:22:30,021 --> 00:22:32,041
So it's an attempt
to represent the--

416
00:22:32,041 --> 00:22:36,661
the phenomenon of--
of seeing visions.

417
00:22:36,661 --> 00:22:39,111
[MUSIC PLAYING]