Lionel Shriver interview today Times Radio (around 2pm)

[highame]

Mariella Frostrup is interviewing Lionel Shriver today. Programme starts at 1.00pm but I think I heard her say the interview started around 2.00pm. She'll be talking about her new book on Dementia but will also be talking about culture wars (Mariella's comment about her (Lionel) being 'no holds barred' sort of person suggest an interesting interview
www.thetimes.co.uk/radio

She is an interesting woman. She believes that there has been cowardice at the top and this allowed the whole cancel culture to take hold. In the past, there would have been a clearer way of dealing with the issue. This cowardice has allowed rules to be imposed from on high by people who haven't been elected. The list is getting longer and longer of what you can and can't do.

The authoritarian left has embraced the tyranny that used to come from the right. Now it is only the right arguing for freedom of speech but freedom of speech belongs to everyone. It doesn't hail from the right and the label of neo nazi is not good.

Lionel says she does care about being cancelled. She is her own person and wants to make her own decisions about when she stops writing. The reason she didn't get cancelled was because she was backed by those both behind and above her.

My take away - those above need to get some backbone

Thanks OP
I hope this will be on catch up at some point.

I have a lot of respect for Lionel Shriver and I like her approach.

Thanks for the summary. She is indeed an interesting woman and talks a lot of sense

I listened to it, very interesting.

A strange bedfellow as she is deeply anti Irish . But these are strange times.

@Abhannmor

A strange bedfellow as she is deeply anti Irish . But these are strange times.

Oh dear What has she said?

Anti-Irish how?

I did love 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' but there were a few tiresome comments in it about an Irish character and how deathly pale she was , and how Irish people can be so pale, they look exhumed 🙄

DH worked with her in a wider capacity a few years ago, apparently everyone was terrified of her

Fearless isn't she, but I didn't know she was anti-Irish. Some very pure Celtic skin can be pale (luminescent I think is the word), is that anti-Irish? If you listen on catch up, it's after 2.00 and first she talks about her new book, which I might have to read.

'Some very pure Celtic skin can be pale (luminescent I think is the word), is that anti-Irish?'

Not necessarily, but she did labour the point, and I found it quite tedious, same as people who go on about Irish people having red hair and freckles, or English women all having rosy fair skin

Apparently the Irish are ' a scummy potato residue ' who are trying to stop Brexit. She was also pictured with a UFF mug. The Ulster Freedom Fighters were a sort of cover name for various Loyalist murder gangs. I can't imagine a novelists reputation surviving such a photo op with an IRA mug. She can't hardly plead ignorance since she lived in Belfast when the UFF were shooting random Catholics.

Oh ok. Well that's totally foul. Shame on her

She wrote a book set in Ireland I think. Didn't read it as it wasn't my type of thing (and I've read a lot of her stuff!). That might reveal more about where she falls on Ireland

I am still harrowed by reading Big Brother, which nobody seems to talk about. Genuinely shocking book

Big Brother - is that the one about obesity?

Yes! I mean shocking in a good way. The twist

Ok, I'm intrigued! Thanks for the tip

She does right fiction and she does have strong opinions. I know very little about her but like most compelling people in the public eye, the flaws are there for all to see. Personally, I prefer that she can express her views, I do not have to like them, but friction and challenge aid progress

write idiot

Ha! This is culture wars/cancel culture in action. Oh yes well we can’t listen to her because she said bad things about XYZ.

People can be more than one thing. I find it fascinating that we have this morality index where someone’s views on one thing can completely void their views on another.

Wondered why she was so bitter so I looked her up. Always assumed she was Jewish, I don't know why . She is from North Carolina . Father a Presbyterian minister. So, in the words of a good old Protestant hymn : ' I once was lost but now am found / Was blind but now I see'. Religious prejudice runs very deep in the American South alas.

@BelleClapper

Ha! This is culture wars/cancel culture in action. Oh yes well we can’t listen to her because she said bad things about XYZ.

People can be more than one thing. I find it fascinating that we have this morality index where someone’s views on one thing can completely void their views on another.

I certainly don't want to cancel Shriver. It is better her bile is out there really. Her help on GC stuff is most welcome. Although it is passing strange that the police charge someone with posting a harmless tweet but not for endorsement of a terror gang. She will never be on my Christmas card list - but we need all hands to the pump.

Agree with every word Abhannmor

There's a very interesting talk on YouTube between her and Douglas Murray - someone else I'm not a huge fan of but talks very good sense sometimes and is also GC

Identity Politics: Lionel Shriver and Douglas Murray - The Spectator (YouTube)

@Lottapianos

Agree with every word Abhannmor

There's a very interesting talk on YouTube between her and Douglas Murray - someone else I'm not a huge fan of but talks very good sense sometimes and is also GC

Identity Politics: Lionel Shriver and Douglas Murray - The Spectator (YouTube)

I disagree with most of what was said in that interview but Murray made the very important point that he can talk out on gender issues because he is a man but women like Julie Burchill and Germaine Greer are attacked for holding the same views.