It depends on what the purpose is. If it is a specific limited purpose, such as deciding whom to give a grant to, or an award, the perceived quality can be important. There is always some sort of informal and/or formal review by one's peers in the normal course of events, as there is in any profession, which can give the writer or artist feedback should he or she choose to accept it.

But for purposes of determining whether someone's art or writing should be considered legitimate and therefore subject to being censored or not, IMO "peer review" is totally unacceptable.

And why on earth would we want to "nip someone in the bud"? (Regardless of whether their work is great or not.) That's a serious question. This has so many implications. Who knows which mediocre writers may have inspired other writers who then went on to do great things? The interchange of ideas among creative people is an essential part of the evolution of the human race.

It can take years for a writer or artist to develop their craft. It's challenging enough as it is now, putting your work out there knowing it will be judged, and making the personal and financial sacrifices to do so, but ... holy cow.

Well, honestly, I think Kerouac and Ginsberg would have been laughing to even think about such a thing happening. (And then they'd have written a poem about it. )


"Stupid o'clock" ... my least favorite time of day . Hope you're feeling better by the time you read this.


Even if it wasn't an historical fact, this is a work of fiction, not a biography. Fiction is not required to be factual, even if it's about people who actually lived. That's why it's called "fiction".

William Shakespeare wrote many plays about public figures (Caesar, various kings and queens, religious figures, etc.) and he made up most of what he wrote about them. I don't see anyone carrying on because it's not historical fact, or because it involved violence, or suicide (Hamlet ... "to be or not to be"), or child abuse, or bestiality ("A Midsummer Night's Dream".)

The argument could be made, "well, that's Shakespeare, he wrote classics, he should get special treatment" ... his plays were not classics when he wrote them, and why should he get special treatment?

Back to the "prophet's wife" novel, I can understand why devout Muslims would be upset at anyone writing about Muhammed, but aside from that, I can't see any rules that have been broken. So the question is, should writers and their publishers allow themselves to be dictated to by a small vocal minority in this manner?

"Set a new course. There's coffee in that nebula." -- Capt. Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager

Nope, they're fighting, shouting and generally annoying the shit outta me! Roll on Monday when they're finally back at school



Indeed, but she is actually basing her story on "real" (and I use the term loosely lol) events - bit like the old "based on real events" caption you find at the beginning of films which gives Hollywood their excuse to make things up

Again, very true. I'm actually siding with you on this one

Still can't find anything I disgree with here! And who's to say this book - if it ever gets published - won't become a classic years from now.

To be honest, devout Muslims seem to get upset about everythig, so it's really no surprise to find them bitching about this.

As Kitty has said - and I said earlier - no rules have been broken and the author hasn't claimed that her story is 100% factually correct so I don't see an issue.. In fact, now I just want to read the stupid thing

I think I need to add a standard disclaimer to my siggy ... "my rants are always generic, not addressed just to the poster I'm addressing". So to speak. Or something.


With all this publicity, I predict it will become an instant bestseller , regardless of whether the writing is any good or not. As with the Christian fundies and "The Last Temptation", the Islamic protestors likely shot themselves in the foot on this.

(And I do hope I don't offend anyone's religion by the reference to shooting oneself in the foot. You never know ....)

"Set a new course. There's coffee in that nebula." -- Capt. Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager

I'm an art critic, believe it or not, in other words, I'm very critical of what art is I tend to be of the opinion that silly pieces of art such as stacked boxes (which won a major prize and was displayed in the Tate Modern - biggest waste of money ever) are not art at all, I mean to be honest, I could eat sweetcorn for a week, take a dump, and have someone pay £20,000 for it because it would be considered 'amazing' or something else ridiculous; actually, I might just do that, because then I could say most expensive art is actually a piece of shit.

I believe that art is something created by skilled people, not talentless fakers who blag their way into galleries and have mooks pay big bucks for it because it's so "different". Compare the Bananalambs in Liverpool, with Hans Holbein's work, or paintings such as this - that's a skill. Art is something that is creative and a skill. Arranging furniture or crapping yourself is not.

If you disagree with me, then that's fine, but you have to agree that at times "art" as you would perhaps describe it can be unacceptable, case study 1; in my opinion that's vile and despicable to be inducing abortions for "art"... wrong, just wrong.

I think creative writing is a skill that I know I certainly don't possess, hence I believe there is nothing wrong with the book, and frankly, I hope it does get published, I'm sick of everyone fannying around Islam because it might offend them - there's more people in the world than just them, and it's selfish for them to think otherwise.

As long as freedom of speech is protected that is all that matters, Political Islam will continue to do everything it can to stifle our unquestionable rights and that must be resisted, kudos to Gibson Square for sticking with the book and thus sticking with our rights to freedom of speech.

Yeesh. So reminiscent of Rushdie's Satanic Verses- the media attention, not the story line. And after reading on the 1st page a bit of a snippet.. I would laugh myself into a coma. Too much like romance novels I bitch about. Manhoods of steel and gushing valleys. Gag! I attempted to read the Satanic Verses due to the hype when I was younger and fell for the whole controversial media hype. It was a ridiculous book that attempted at highbrow literature- and in my estimation, failed
miserably. He is to this day, still being hunted, so Rushdie says.

Artistry is in the eyes of the beholder as far as I'm concerned, in what ever form it may take. Islamic people have no problem calling names and casting aspersions. Hell they even re-wrote their own "bible" to better suit their needs, wants and desire- i.e. car bombing, female genital mutilation, ad nauseum. I say screw them. Placating a country of people is not the answer. and I for one hate censorship. Nazis anyone? Baptist church book burning perhaps?

The more I think about it the more I think "peer review" is legitimate. Firstly, because there are not a lot of other options - self-declaration of art, government definition, or popularity all fall over pretty quickly.

From what I recall of the great artists who dared break from classical styles, whiles the traditionalists canned them, they gathered their own "schools" - students, imitators, competitors, sometimes sponsors - before their new style became recognised. Even disagreement was part of the process ("I am an artist, you are a hack! This new style of yours should be rendered as I have done it!")

Same with writers - Kerouac and Ginsberg being prime examples, they were not lone rebels but two names in a movement which became known as "beats" who developed their own style of prose, poetry, music and art.

All the same, I would have reservations about a pile of boxes being imitated by a "school". That would make me an artist.

Don't necessarily want to debate Islam here - maybe on a dedicated thread - but the media frenzy over Rushdie and the OP seems to me not greatly different to the two recent teacup storms over the Aussie photographers I mentioned earlier. Shock, horror and sensation projects the name of an unknown into our awareness, talent to no talent.

And so it begins...

Well done, Islamic Fundies, you have brought your faith to the level of Hitler's book-burnings.