It was another writer – George Orwell – who made that statement about speaking the truth being a subversive act. Seems Lionel Shriver is picking up the mantle. Good for her.
Shriver’s 2016 address on fiction and identity politics, in which she said she hoped “the concept of ‘cultural appropriation’ is a passing fad”, received widespread backlash. Sudanese-Australian writer Yassmin Abdel-Magied walked out of the event midway, later writing in the Guardian that Shriver’s argument – that fiction writers shouldn’t need to seek permission to write on minority cultures – “became a celebration of the unfettered exploitation of the experiences of others, under the guise of fiction”.
I would go even further – there is no such thing as cultural appropriation. It’s artificially manufactured bollocks and needs to be called out as such. And, no, I did not seek anyone’s permission to write about a character who is half-native American and have no intention of ever doing so.
Yassmin Abdel-Magied can go fuck herself. Might give her something real to think about.
“What I find most mysterious is why, given the kind of person that is traditionally attracted to becoming writers – why are more of my colleagues not also having the same response? Basically, it’s a ‘fuck you’ response, and it’s healthy,” she said.
She further denounced the notion of “safe spaces”, as well as words as “a form of violence”, saying “cultural appropriation” was “antithetical” to the spirit of fiction.
“The ‘identity politics’ crowd seem to have successfully installed an ethos whereby, to subject someone to an opinion which they disagree, is a form of assault. In which case, I am all for assault,” she said.
I like Lionel Shriver already…
If dopey bitches like Yassmin Abdel-Magied want to go down that road, then they should divest themselves immediately of all western clothing, anything invented by a white person, which also mean books too. In fact she should go and regain her Sudanese ancestry by going live there presumably in a mud hut.
If she wants an opinion or a form of words that constitute assault, here are two more her. Fuck Off!
For those not clear what YAM looks like:
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/tim-blair/londonbased-whippy-impersonator-upset/news-story/6ee1aa367360a54faa0d660ba6012551
I love the by-line in the Daily Telegraph “London based Mr. Whippy impersonator upset“.
Hang on a minute. ‘Yassmin Abdel-Magied’….. why is she speaking English? That sounds like cultural appropriation to me. Burn the witch.
The Left have a big problem. They are stuck in the early 20th century when their philosophy had its greatest opportunity. Ever since then they have had to create ever more silly arguments to justify their modus operandi of mass murder to achieve their goals. Inequality (envy), gender (I’m going to create a victim here), far Right wing, Muslim (far right wingers are sub-human and must be extinguished but Muslims are following their faith and are absolutely lovely and are persecuted by far right wingers who despise them even though they share the same attitudes to homosexuals and women and transgenders). Far right wingers are disgusting and resort to violence all the time, beating up Guardian columnists to within an inch of their lives with candy floss coshes and fairy dust truncheons. Perhaps they should have used battery acid as recommended by left wing comediennes.
Lionel Shriver often writes for The Spectator. Always worth a read.
Well yes and where do you draw the line? If you’re story only features people who are exactly like yourself, it is going to be a little dull I would have thought.
Dammit you’ve got the wrong write and I’ve got the wrong your. I’m not quite awake yet.