Statement from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

[Immunetypegoblin]

www.chimamanda.com/, published yesterday.

She is angry. One can understand why. One to watch I think.

Her books are beautiful

She is magnificent.

[quote FannyCann]Associated twitter thread

twitter.com/yatakalam/status/1405080067110232065?s=21[/quote]
My jaw is on the floor reading that torrent of malice. What an extraordinarily unpleasant individual.

Very interested to see this because it was the reaction to that 2017 interview that alerted me to this issue. People talk about peak trans moments - that was mine.

Like some other pps, I did find this piece uncomfortable. For me, the halfway house between being completely open (appreciate there are likely to be good reasons for this) and leaving out identifying info to focus on the wider issues discussed in the third section was unsatisfactory. Reproducing the emails in particular came across as airing dirty laundry and didn’t add anything.

Third section cannot be faulted, however.

I loved Half a Yellow Sun and found it very interesting historically as well as I am old enough to have spent half my childhood being told to eat all my food on my plate because of Biafra starving children.

Same here. And at that age, I assumed, not knowing any better, that the children were starving because of famine caused by crop failure or similar. Had no idea about that people were being deliberately starved by a hostile power and, worse, that our own government was complicit.

@AntiWorkBrigade

Very interested to see this because it was the reaction to that 2017 interview that alerted me to this issue. People talk about peak trans moments - that was mine.

Like some other pps, I did find this piece uncomfortable. For me, the halfway house between being completely open (appreciate there are likely to be good reasons for this) and leaving out identifying info to focus on the wider issues discussed in the third section was unsatisfactory. Reproducing the emails in particular came across as airing dirty laundry and didn’t add anything.

Third section cannot be faulted, however.

I agree that reproducing the emails is a bit beneath her. But then, if you read the Twitter feed, the disconnect between her ingratiating apologies and her self-promoting vitriol - it's like two different people at work. Perhaps she shared them to demonstrate the gap between the public persona and the attempted private one.

Sorry - in my first sentence 'her' refers to Adichie and in the second, 'her' refers to the new writer.

It's interesting how many protegees are happy to bite the hand that fed them. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and now this writer.

This person has created a space in which social media followers have – and this I find unforgiveable – trivialized my parents’ death, claiming that the sudden and devastating loss of my parents within months of each other during this pandemic, was ‘punishment’ for my ‘transphobia.’

This is completely disgusting. I lost my own father suddenly last year, and was so moved by Chimamanda's writing about losing hers, and then so sad to read that after that she lost her mother too. I don't think anyone can say she doesn't have the right to call out such despicable, inhuman behaviour.

@Cowbells

It's interesting how many protegees are happy to bite the hand that fed them. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and now this writer.

More than bite - to actually incite violence. I think the Potter actors' words were bad, but they didn't go that far, and were perhaps themselves terrified of career cancellation by the woke mob who did actually harass other, more loyal Potter actors off social media and generally behave as though they have the power to get actors' future projects cancelled. These writers had no such fear of job losses, but chose to attack anyway, and attack in a way which, in the 'machete' case, is surely something police should be looking into?

What an incredible woman. So eloquent and insightful. I bought her book (essay?) 'We should all be feminists' for my kids one Christmas, and they engaged with it so well. Recommend for those with sons.

I love the last parts. So well written and so on point for a lot of issues on twitter and modern “debate”:

People who ask you to ‘educate’ yourself while not having actually read any books themselves, while not being able to intelligently defend their own ideological positions, because by ‘educate,’ they actually mean ‘parrot what I say, flatten all nuance, wish away complexity

People who do not recognize that what they call a sophisticated take is really a simplistic mix of abstraction and orthodoxy – sophistication in this case being a showing-off of how au fait they are on the current version of ideological orthodoxy

People who wield the words ‘violence’ and ‘weaponize’ like tarnished pitchforks. People who depend on obfuscation, who have no compassion for anybody genuinely curious or confused. Ask them a question and you are told that the answer is to repeat a mantra. Ask again for clarity and be accused of violence. (How ironic, speaking of violence, that it is one of these two who encouraged Twitter followers to pick up machetes and attack me

Eresh

Hadley Freeman has referred to people crawling out of the woodwork to retweet this, who didn't bestir themselves to defend Suzanne Moore - any idea who she's referring to?

It’s a lazy, dishonest way to get your name better known.

The four obscure authors who flounced from their publisher over JKRowling, the silly child who publicly withdrew from a talk at the last minute because, I think, Selina Todd was also speaking.
All for that tiny spark of publicity they hope will ignite to fame.

I hope more people catch on and realise that anyone unstable enough to resort to this is neither reliable or particularly good at what they do.

@Ereshkigalangcleg

This person has created a space in which social media followers have – and this I find unforgiveable – trivialized my parents’ death, claiming that the sudden and devastating loss of my parents within months of each other during this pandemic, was ‘punishment’ for my ‘transphobia.’

This is completely disgusting. I lost my own father suddenly last year, and was so moved by Chimamanda's writing about losing hers, and then so sad to read that after that she lost her mother too. I don't think anyone can say she doesn't have the right to call out such despicable, inhuman behaviour.

So sorry for your loss, Eresh. I lost mine suddenly this year too. Do you remember the name of the piece?

McDuffy - it's this one:

www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/notes-on-grief

I'm sorry for your losses my mother died 7 years ago and I found this piece haunting.

@OhHolyJesus

I'm going to buy one of her books.

Blistering is right! I've missed reading some damn fine fiction. What I've been into doesn't hit the mark.

I think I've just found a new favourite!

I like an essay from an author, would like to see more from JKR and CNA.

Buy them all, they're brilliant.

I lost mine suddenly this year too. Do you remember the name of the piece?

so sorry to hear that. Yes it's the one posted.

Just bought one of her books to celebrate this fantastic essay

[quote Immunetypegoblin]McDuffy - it's this one:

www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/notes-on-grief[/quote]
Thank you and thanks Eresh

It’s a lazy, dishonest way to get your name better known.

The four obscure authors who flounced from their publisher over JKRowling, the silly child who publicly withdrew from a talk at the last minute because, I think, Selina Todd was also speaking.
All for that tiny spark of publicity they hope will ignite to fame.

I hope more people catch on and realise that anyone unstable enough to resort to this is neither reliable or particularly good at what they do.

Indeed.

It's interesting how many protegees are happy to bite the hand that fed them. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and now this writer.

Indeed. One wonders if young women like Emma Watson might change their views when they get older and maybe have daughters, or become less visible and benefit less from being seen to be woke young stars. But even if they do repent, will they expect their past views and tweets to be forgiven, unlike those of the people they've been denouncing for their GC views?

Amazing 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽