Mick Hartley

The repercussions continue from Lionel Shriver's speech at the Brisbane Writers Festival. The Guardian printed that petulant complaint from Yassmin Abdel-Magied about Shriver's supposed support of cultural appropriation and contempt for the whole idea of identity politics. She's now been joined in her crusade against Shriver by Nesrine Malik, again at the Guardian. 

Have the festival organisers issued a strong statement in support of Shriver and the freedom of fiction writers to write what they damn well please? Fat chance. Any link to Shriver's speech has been removed from the festival website, and festival director Julie Beveridge has put together The Right of Reply, at which Abdel-Magied will speak:

American author Lionel Shriver was invited to deliver the Festival's Opening Address. As a forthright social commentator and masterful writer, Shriver is renowned for provocative views and for challenging perceptions about the role of writers….

As a Festival of writers and thinkers, we take seriously the role we play in providing a platform for meaningful exchange and debate. We strive to create a forum for artists and audience members to hold important and sometimes difficult conversations.

Every year, our keynote address aims to set the tone for the Festival. On Thursday night, Lionel Shriver – by her own admission – did not speak to her brief. The views expressed during her address were hers alone.

BWF strives for a forum where strong viewpoints and challenging conversation can be aired with respect, inclusivity and open minds. And therefore, I choose for the Opening Address to not go unanswered.

Tonight I will open the floor for a Right of Reply, led by Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Rajith Savanadasa and Suki Kim to continue the conversation that was sparked on Thursday night, the conversation we had intended to have about connection and belonging and what that means for writers. 

The inclusivity and respect clearly doesn't extend to Lionel Shriver, whose contribution to the debate has been removed. Any conversation can feature only the correct opinions.

From the NYT:

After her Brisbane speech, Ms. Shriver was accosted by a festival participant in the hallway of the State Library of Queensland, who shouted, “How dare you come to my country and offend our minorities?” The author said that the woman had clearly not actually heard her speech, which made no mention of Australian minorities.

The festival’s director, the poet Julie Beveridge, responded to the outrage by organizing the “right of reply” session, inviting as speakers Ms. Abdel-Magied, as well as the Korean-American author Suki Kim, whose best-selling book “Without You, There Is No Us,” was based on her six months working undercover as an English teacher in North Korea.

Ms. Kim complained that books by white male writers on North Korea were better received in some quarters than books like her own. Adam Johnson’s “The Orphan Master’s Son” won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2013, though Mr. Johnson did not speak Korean and had spent only three days in North Korea, Ms. Kim said. She attributed that acclaim at least partly to racism from institutions dominated by white men.

But The Orphan Master's Son is a work of fiction; Suki Kim's Without You, There Is No Us is non-fiction – a work of reportage. Again it seems as though these people fail to understand what fiction means. 

Ms. Shriver described the festival’s response as “not very professional,” and, at a later appearance at the festival, said she was disturbed by how many of those on the political left had become what she described as censorious and totalitarian in their treatment of artists with whom they disagreed.

Exactly.