Podcast Summary: The Political Scene | The New Yorker

Episode: Salman Rushdie’s Fantastical American Quest Novel

Date: September 9, 2019
Host: Deborah Treisman
Guest: Salman Rushdie

Overview

In this episode, The New Yorker’s Deborah Treisman interviews Salman Rushdie about his novel Quichotte. Drawing inspiration from Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Rushdie’s book becomes an expansive, fantastical, episodic journey across modern-day America, confronting racism, opioid addiction, family estrangement, pop culture obsession, and existential threats, all with irreverent humor and deep humanity. The conversation explores Rushdie’s creative process and his views on writing in and about the present moment.

Key Discussion Points

1. Inspiration from Don Quixote

• Rushdie revisited Don Quixote and was enchanted by Edith Grossman’s translation. This led to the inspiration for Quichotte, featuring an aging protagonist obsessed with a TV personality and accompanied by a conjured son, paralleling Quixote and Sancho.

  • Quote [03:35]:
    “Almost immediately my character kind of popped into my head who...has in common with Don Quixote himself, that they're both silly old fools.” — Salman Rushdie

• The book, however, diverges, soon adding a metafictional layer with the story of the character’s author.

  • Quote [04:11]:
    “I've never really written about writing before...and I wasn't sure that it should stay in the book. ...Then what happened is that these two stories began to talk to each other in ways that I found interesting.” — Salman Rushdie

2. Structure and Tone: The Picaresque and Its Possibilities

• Rushdie intentionally uses an episodic, picaresque framework to explore a variety of genres—satire, science fiction, spy thriller, and domestic drama.

  • Quote [06:18]:
    “It was a way for the novel to be metamorphic, you know, to be constantly changing the kind of novel that it is. ...The stories can be told in different ways.” — Salman Rushdie

• The through-line is Kishat’s spiritual quest for self-improvement and the search for "the good," mirrored by that of his author.

  • Quote [07:33]:
    “Kishat is going not only on a physical journey, he's also going on a kind of what you might call a spiritual journey. ...And so is his author.” — Salman Rushdie

3. Themes: Obsession, Virtue, and the American Crisis

• Quichotte explores the dangers and illusions of obsession—Kishat becomes infatuated with a TV host to the point of being perceived as a stalker.

  • Quote [08:40]:
    “He's fallen in love with a TV talk show host who doesn't know him at all and in fact is a little afraid of the idea that he's coming for her.” — Deborah Treisman

• The protagonist faces a moral crisis: to attain love, he must do something bad, challenging his ideals about goodness.

• The opioid crisis appears as a central narrative strand. Rushdie was motivated both by research and by his sister’s death from opioid overdose.

  • Quote [10:22]:
    “My youngest sister, she died from what seems pretty clear was an opioid overdose...And it actually also probably led me toward writing a book about brothers and sisters and about...trying to fix it.” — Salman Rushdie

• The novel tackles many contemporary American issues: racism, the opioid epidemic, black sites, cyber warfare, and family estrangement.

• On addressing contemporary issues:

  • Quote [12:44]:
    “I've always really liked the risky thing of writing very close up against the present moment. If you do it wrong, then it's a catastrophe. If you do it right...you somehow capture a moment.” — Salman Rushdie

4. Apocalypse, Metaphor, and Hope

• The book flirts with apocalyptic imagery—both societal and personal.

  • Quote [13:58]:
    “The point about end of the world novels is that they're usually not about the end of the world. They're usually about some form of crisis in the world.” — Salman Rushdie

• Rushdie sees apocalypse as a metaphor for personal endings and a reflection on the transformation or vanishing of the world he’s known.

• On hope:

  • Quote [15:22]:
    “I don't think it's any part of the writer's duty to provide hope, but I do think that in some way, in the optimism and hopefulness of the character of Kishot, there is that...” — Salman Rushdie

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Metafiction:
  “I've never done that thing about: here is a writer writing a book, you know, and I wasn't sure that it should stay in the book...But then these two stories began to talk to each other.” – Salman Rushdie [04:11]

• On Episodic Narrative:
  “If your characters are traveling from place to place...they can have very different kinds of adventure...So it was a way for the novel to be metamorphic.” – Salman Rushdie [06:18]

• On Writing About the Present:
  “I've always really liked the risky thing of writing very close up against the present moment. If you do it wrong, then it's a catastrophe. If you do it right...you somehow capture a moment.” – Salman Rushdie [12:44]

• On Science Fiction’s Influence:
  “I’ve always moved in the direction of the surreal and the fabulous...science fiction gives you some of the equipment for how to approach that.” – Salman Rushdie [21:59]

In-Depth Segments & Readings

• [16:37] Rushdie Reads from Quichotte:
  An aging Indian-American gentleman, obsessed with a TV talk show host, reinvents himself as ‘Quichotte’ and embarks on a fantastical quest for love, paralleling the delusions and sincerity of Don Quixote.

• [17:42] Loneliness in the Social Media Age:
  The novel’s protagonist experiences acute social isolation, connecting with others only superficially through social media.

• [19:01] Rushdie on Science Fiction as a Teen:
  Vivid recollections of reading both literary figures (Bradbury, Le Guin, Vonnegut) and “nuts and bolts” science fiction. He nods to works like Clarke’s “The Nine Billion Names of God” for inspiring his apocalyptic motifs.

• [22:05 & 22:15] On Family and Estrangement:
  Deeply personal discussion of his sister’s death and how it fueled the novel’s themes of sibling separation and efforts towards reconciliation, especially in the context of migrant families.

• [23:58] Evolution of His Writing Process:
  Rushdie describes his progression from tightly planned structures to a looser, more discovery-driven approach that trusts imaginative spontaneity.

  • Quote [25:24]:
    “As I've gone on, that has become less and less the case. And I've become much more excited by the prospect of discovery of what simply happens in the act of writing.” — Salman Rushdie

• [25:51] On Finding the Ending:
  Rushdie admits uncertainty about how the parallel narratives would unite—drawing inspiration from sci-fi short stories to help “solve” the book’s structure.

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic/Quote | |-----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:35 | Initial spark and homage to Don Quixote | | 04:11 | Introduction of the metafictional author character | | 06:18 | On picaresque and genre-switching in the novel | | 10:22 | The personal and research motivation behind opioid crisis narrative | | 12:44 | Risk and rewards of writing close to the present moment | | 13:58 | The metaphor of apocalypse in literature | | 15:22 | Issue of hope in fiction | | 16:37 | Rushdie reads from Quichotte | | 19:01 | Early science fiction influences | | 22:15 | Familial estrangement and migration | | 23:58 | How Rushdie’s approach to writing novels has changed with experience | | 25:51 | The late discovery of the novel’s ending |

Conclusion

This episode offers a rich, layered conversation on the origins and ambitions of Quichotte, Salman Rushdie’s “kaleidoscopic” American novel. The interview traverses influences from Cervantes to science fiction, the personal pain of familial loss, addiction, the dangers of obsessive love, and the anxiety–and hope—of living in an ailing contemporary America. Rushdie’s insights reveal an artist determined to risk engagement with modern crises, exploring the absurd and surreal as pathways to the emotional and moral heart of our time.