Salman Rushdie on Why Museums Matter

AAM Keynote address May 14, 2007

Rushdie gave an entertaining and insightful talk on the impact of museums on life in general and literature specifically.

During the talk I learned that the dinosaurs in the movie Jurassic Park were not of the Jurassic period but rather of the Cretaceous. The movie should have been called Cretaceous Park. Rushdie also noted that Edith Wharton could not have written ½ of her novels without museums to provide the meeting place for illicit lovers. He then shared some very interesting insights on the Da Vince Code.

While keeping the talk lively and entertaining Rushdie also made some very pointed, and more serious comments, two of which really struck home. The first turned on the phrase that “knowledge if power” to which Rushdie added that by conserving the foundations of knowledge and then putting these in the hands of the public, museums are democratizing, forces of political power.

He then concluded by noting that those who forget the past are not just condemned to repeat it, they are Condemned.