| | | | | After a near-fatal stabbing—and decades of threats—the novelist speaks about writing as a death-defying act. On Valentine’s Day, 1989, several months after Salman Rushdie had published his fourth novel, “The Satanic Verses,” Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwa calling for his execution. For the next decade, Rushdie lived a fugitive existence, guarded by London police, but he eventually moved to New York, choosing to live freely and refusing “to be terrorized.” Then, last August, after he took his place onstage at a literary event in Chautauqua, New York, a man rushed toward him with a knife, stabbed him about a dozen times, and ultimately caused blindness in Rushdie’s right eye, among other injuries. In his first interview since the attack, Rushdie, whose new novel, “Victory City,” will be released tomorrow, speaks with David Remnick about his life and work in the aftermath of the stabbing. Remnick examines the responsibility an author takes for his fiction, and asks, “How to go on living after thinking you had emerged from years of threat, denunciation, and mortal danger?” As Rushdie says, “I’ve always thought that my books are more interesting than my life. Unfortunately, the world appears to disagree.” Tune in: On The New Yorker Radio Hour, Salman Rushdie talks with David Remnick about surviving the fatwa, and his new novel. | | | | From the News Desk |  Daily Comment How Should an Older President Think About a Second Term?From Eisenhower to Biden, questions of age have persisted. By Jeffrey Frank | | | | | Cover Story | | Eustace Tilley, a monocled dandy, has appeared in various forms on nearly every Anniversary Issue since The New Yorker’s inaugural issue, in 1925. For this week’s cover, “New Tricks,” the contributor John W. Tomac says, “One thing I have learned over my years as an artist trying to survive is to include a dog in the sketches I send out. It greatly increases the chances of my image being picked.” Click through to see other delightful takes on Tilley, from different artists, that the magazine commissioned for this year’s issue. | | | | | | Culture Dept. |  Culture Desk The Beyoncé Grammys Were AwkwardA ceremony that was designed to feel like a coronation instead came off like an apology. By Carrie Battan | | | | | Double Take Lost and Found: A Newly Resurfaced Poem by the Late Mark Strand“Wallace Stevens Comes Back to Read His Poems at the 92nd Street Y,” which The New Yorker purchased in 1994, is published for the first time in the magazine’s Anniversary Issue. By Hannah Aizenman | | The Theatre Finding Laughs Amid the Gray, in Beckett’s “Endgame”At the Irish Repertory Theatre, John Douglas Thompson and Bill Irwin wring moments of superb physical comedy from two characters who struggle to move. By Vinson Cunningham | | Hands Off Dept. A Museum Soup-Thrower’s Worst NightmarePatrick Bringley, who spent a decade as a guard at the Met, tours his old workplace and considers the people between the Picasso and a fistful of mashed potatoes. By Michael Schulman | | | | | Video Dept. |  Screening Room A Wordless Story in “Ice Merchants”The short film, which has been nominated for a 2023 Academy Award, is a family drama about loss and connection. Film by João Gonzalez Text by Douglas Watson | | | | | Fun & Games Dept. |  Name Drop Play Today’s Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Will Nediger |  Daily Shouts Situations in Which You Absolutely Must Check Your E-Mail When you’re on the toilet (obviously). Also when you’re proposing marriage. By Jake Goldwasser | |  Crossword A Challenging Puzzle The ways of the French?: four letters. By Anna Shechtman |  Daily Cartoon Monday, February 6th By John McNamee | | | | | | P.S. Harry Styles won a Grammy last night for Album of the Year, and he sparked some blowback after saying in his acceptance speech that “this doesn’t happen to people like me very often.” Last year, Michael Schulman wrote about the pop idol’s forays into acting, and the “trend of popular musicians making the leap to movie stardom.” Is Harry Styles a movie star? According to Schulman, he’s at least very good at sex scenes. | | | | Today’s newsletter was written by Jessie Li. | | | | | | | |
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