"A perfectly reasonable piece" - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

[ThePonderer]

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, interviewed in the book section of Saturday's Guardian:

She was interested by "all the noise" generated by J.K. Rowling's article on sex and gender, "a perfectly reasonable piece" in her view, earlier this year.

"Again JK Rowling is a woman who is progressive, who clearly stands for and believes in diversity." She blames social media for this rush to censure, which she finds "cruel and sad"...... "In general, human beings are emotionally intelligent enough to know when something is coming from a bad place."

The Guardian seems to be making a point of asking all interviewees for their position on this - last week, it was Kylie facing a question about toilets. I'm quite surprised they print it when they get the "wrong" answer.

Ah, that’s brilliant. She’s impressed me before and I’ve been meaning to read her work. She’s a class act.

This is the level of discourse the issue deserves, not anime gifs and baseball bats and ‘gotcha’ questions from journos with an agenda. It’s something that is being shoehorned into interviews more and more and has the potential to completely railroad anything else the person has to say.

I'm glad famous people are being asked about jk. They've mostly abandoned her as she endured a long and horrible year of abuse so it's good to see them being asked to nail their colours to the mast

I'm really impressed by her. Will definitely by buying her books.

This is the level of discourse the issue deserves

Yes!

Americanah is one of the best things I've ever read.

we have no choice but to stan

Seriously though, she's intelligent, fearless and generally just wonderful. Remember when she was accused of being a 'white feminist' because she thought biological sex mattered?

I feel the same about Half Of A Yellow Sun. It is such honest, emotionally mature writing. Which is why it is no surprise her attitude to JK’s essay is similar.

Purple Hibiscus is also great, as is her collection of short stories, The Thing around your Neck

It's a relief to read this. The most baffling, and in fact frightening, thing about the extraordinary hatred aimed at Rowling is that she said absolutely nothing wrong - she said what most people who see themselves as supportive of trans rights believe: that everyone should be able to be themselves without fear of censure, far less abuse, but that women will always need sex-based provision, irrespective of anyone's gender identity.

When you see kids at Cambridge howling down any statement that rape and death threats against a woman are wrong, in any context, that would be depressing and scary. When you hear it's because the woman is Rowling, and therefore anything aimed at her is okay, you realise how very misogynistic this movement has become - it should never be okay, but they're not even arguing it for the likes of Katie Hopkins. They're arguing it in the exact same way ISIS did for anyone who deviated a fraction from their fucked up version of Islam: anyone not wholly aligned with their orthodoxy is no longer human.

The time for silence should be over for anyone with a conscience. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has one, and a backbone to match. It's lovely when a literary heroine of yours proves to be who her writing made her seem, and in this case, that's two of them.

I had a feeling this was her stance (has she spoken on the issue before somewhere)

Americanah is a superb book - I'll make a point of asking for more of hers for Christmas now

@TheySeeHerRowling

I had a feeling this was her stance (has she spoken on the issue before somewhere)

Americanah is a superb book - I'll make a point of asking for more of hers for Christmas now

Your username 🤣 Chapeau! Love it.

Off to peruse books now to add to Christmas list.

Very pleased to see this, i'm a big fan of Chimamanda's work, purple hibiscus and half a yellow sun are some of my all time favourite books. Will now be bumping americahna up the to read list

I love her even more now. The epitome of intelligence, grace and courage.

And what a writer. Her books get better and better. Americanah is absolutely superlative.

I love her too - what a relief that she hasn't succumbed to the nonsense and actually read JK's writing on this issue.

Americanah is my favourite book and I love her little book on Feminism

Thanks for all the recommendations - I haven't read Americanah but now I'll definitely be buying it.

Have you seen this? "A Mother needs a Mother" -- a short story from Chimamanda, now available FREE for Amazon Prime members.

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08K942N84/ref=apubuk_mm_fb_30235_im_1_2_2011?fbclid=IwAR0WUStdCui6QJecmsV4gllfWVqjtx2jWmbGawOO_9w0RZFRGNyI08v3C54&tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Sorry the name of the story is Zikora, not A Mother needs a Mother it was just promoted as the latter.

She's gone up massively in my estimation by having the guts to say that.
(I found Americanah unreadable )

I love Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's books and her as a person.

She nailed her colours to the mast back in 2017 way before JKR did and received a horrible backlash for it. She then apologised without capitulating and received even more backlash. I'm glad she is still holding strong.

www.vox.com/identities/2017/3/15/14910900/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-transgender-women-comments-apology

She's wonderful. I love her writing.

You can tell who has actually read the piece and who hasn’t, can’t you.

Americanah is wonderful.

@MorbidMuch

I love Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's books and her as a person.

She nailed her colours to the mast back in 2017 way before JKR did and received a horrible backlash for it. She then apologised without capitulating and received even more backlash. I'm glad she is still holding strong.

www.vox.com/identities/2017/3/15/14910900/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-transgender-women-comments-apology

Oh wow, her apology there really is excellent! Such clarity.

Women in the public eye should take note of this. This is how you do it. Such strength and eloquence.

As an aside, does anyone know if she narrated any of the audio versions of any of her books?

Oh I love her. Great to see this.