As I type these words, the thumbs of Iran’s ruling clerics hover menacingly over the big, red Fatwa buttons on their TiVo controllers. Because today, they have one more reason not to watch NBC’s Heroes: It may well have cribbed from the work of Salman ”Roll Me a Fatwa” Rushdie.
Eight years before Rushdie wrote The Satanic Verses — and was famously condemned to death by the late Ayatollah Khomeini — he published Midnight’s Children, a magic-realist history of postcolonial India. I’ve not read it, but Broadcasting & Cable quotes a passage describing the characters,
”every one of whom was, through some freak of biology, or perhaps owing to some preternatural power of the moment… endowed with features, talents or faculties which can only be described as miraculous… powers of transmutation, flight, prophecy and wizardry.”
One Midnight character can bend time, another can step into mirrors. (The character descriptions sound a darnsight more sober here.) There’s even a doctor named ”Suresh,” who delivers these savants into the world — much like the hero-fostering Dr. Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy, pictured) on the show.
Creator Tim Kring hotly denies these accusations, then hotly denies reading books at all. Bit of a pyrrhic victory there, Tim, but I believe you. It’s L.A., where books not stamped ”Grisham” are mostly used to prop up dead or inebriated actors until shooting has wrapped.
We’ve been here before: A prime-time television programming is accused of ”borrowing” from contemporary literature, setting off a crackling debate in the highest turret of the ivory tower, where academia’s DirecTV dish is mounted. I speak, of course, of Two and a Half Men, and its uncanny resemblance to Philip Roth’s The Human Stain. But let’s not pick that old scab.
You’re on notice, Heroes. If the ayatollahs don’t get you, the lawyers most certainly will. And if I see even one spittoon, I’m dropping a dime.
Sadly, Rushdie himself cannot weigh in. What happened to him was tragic, if also just a little bit hilarious.
I for one don’t care.. this show kicks @ss!
Well, if it is, so much the better… it inspired a kick ass show, and I will go out and get the novel and read it. This entire cribbing thing is getting old, ART is not meant to just be seen and watched, it is meant to inspire, through the ages, artists have used others arts as a jumping off point. (Except for Aaron Sorkin, he is so good he steals from himself only. Which is more about his ego than his talent) Shakespeare himself wrote Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet from works based on others. It only speaks to an artists power that his ideas move through cultural lines to be adapted by many. Did I mention that this show is FANTASTIC!
I have to admit, I didn’t enjoy the pilot, but last night’s episode was much better.
okay, just to see what was going on, I checked out the website with character descriptions, and I didn’t get it. connecting the two is a stretch, unless we find out that the girl who has mirror powers (she doesn’t walk into mirrors by the way, she just see the reflection of who she truly is in them) is a 512 year old prostitute, I’m clearly not sold.
I guess it all depends on what they do with their characters, because, let’s be honest, in the world of super powers, the ability to heal, fly, read peoples’thoughts, tell the future, etc. – are pretty common. I doubt they were ‘stolen’from any one particular source, but a wealth of pop culture and super hero history.
Who cares if it inspired Heros. I didn’t read the book so it is a fresh and interesting take on the superhero genre to me.
No you did NOT just say “Roll Me a Fatwa”!
Maybe Rushdie read “X-Men” books.
Is it me – or was the first 10 minutes annoying to anyone else? They did a recap before the show began – and then went back over everyone again. This almost lost my interest in the show – reintroducing everyone all over again is just a bore – I hope they do not do this every week.
Was it just me or was there a “Dharma”-type logo introduced last night? I thought I saw a logo flash across the screen and then see a physical representation in the next scene.
It was a swirl with some lines across. I will see if I catch something in the next episode.
haven’t seen the show but read the book, sounds like a major crib job. salman should get royalties
BTW: GREAT book
Why is there no recap for Heroes? This is waay better than Ugly Betty and Studio 60!
To me it really doesnt’matter where the ideo came from cause the show is great. I just wish there was a recap for this show.
Anthony:
The symbol to me looked like part of a strand of DNA: sort of a wavy line with a few shorter straight lines coming out of it. If only I remembered 10th grade Biology, then I’d be able to give the scientific terms for them! I noticed it first when Mohinder put his dad’s hard drive in his computer, and then in the scene immediately after that, the pool noodles floating in the pool made the shape as well.
I’m sorry. What was the article about? I was distracted by the pretty, pretty man.