Salman Rushdie Discusses Creativity and Digital Scholarship with Erika Farr

Salman Rushdie Discusses Creativity and Digital Scholarship with Erika Farr

Digital humanities

Erika Farr, digital archives coordinator for Emory University’s MARBL (Manuscripts and Rare Books Library), interviewed Salman Rushdie, noted author and Emory University’s Distinguished Professor, in a compelling, lengthy discussion regarding writing and computers, and the university’s recent acquisition and digitization of Rushdie’s works. Rushdie’s archive includes his Apple computers and disks as well as print-based journals, drawings, and other unpublished items. Rushdie explained his original purpose for donating this hybrid collection was in response to a professor’s invitation to allow the university to house and preserve his works. Serendipitously, Rushdie was also writing his memoir and discovered through the collaborative process of selecting items to be published against those which would remain hidden to protect family privacy, that not only were his memories prodded, but they were corrected as well. Farr concurred with Rushdie’s acknowledgement of the greater fragility of digital data and cited the digitization and frequent migration of the archive countered the old custom of “benign neglect,” (storing items in places where they remain unused and forgotten).

Rushdie shared insight into the different types of technologies used for writing (from typewriters to Twitter) and despite making his notes and sketches available to public, he maintained the solitary nature and depth of concentration characteristic of his generation of writers.

Emory University

Emory University

2012

2012-03-02

Polk, Victoria

Video Recording

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmb1oQcRmkM

Farr, Erika and Salman Rushdie. Salman Rushdie Discusses Creativity and Digital Scholarship with Erika Farr."