Salman Rushdie on Video Games & Storytelling

Over the years, I’ve seen several references to Salman Rushdie’s apparent love for love-hate relationship to video games. As I recall, he professed to being a heavy game player during his years in hiding, and he has recently declared his passion for Angry Birds.

Here he discusses storytelling and video games. A bit on the short side, but he understands Rockstar’s typical mostly-linear + sandbox game structure and puts in the obligatory Borges reference.

2 thoughts on “Salman Rushdie on Video Games & Storytelling”

  1. “Salman Rushdie’s apparent love for video games.”

    Are you kidding? From my PhD thesis I recollected this dialog between him and Cronenberg.

    “Cronenberg: Do you think there could ever be a computer game that could truly be art?
    Rushdie: No.
    Justification

    “Rushdie: In the end, a work of art is something which comes out of somebody’s imagination and takes a final form. It’s offered and is then completed by the reader or the viewer or whoever it may be”

    The interview/dialog is still online: http://www.davidcronenberg.de/cr_rushd.htm

  2. @nelson Oh, that’s interesting. I hadn’t seen that interview. He does seem to play them a good deal though. Perhaps more of a love-hate relationship?

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