The book is provocative in that ittalks about the way we are all becoming increasingly isolated, he says. "It's not blaming any group for that, in any sense. But the nature of internet debate, if we can call it such, does tend to lead to battle lines being drawn before anybody even realises what the opposing armies – if I can put that in large inverted commas – represent." Harry Enfield, Jo Brand, Julian Clary and more join Ben Elton for Friday Night Live | Channel 4". www.channel4.com . Retrieved 21 October 2022. An Olympic athlete, Jenner's high profile brought transgender issues into mainstream discussion when he identified as a woman and became Caitlyn Jenner in 2015. Any of us could be misunderstood or misquoted or simply lied about at any point. I can't do anything about that. All I can do is write with the great care and diligence that I always do about the things that are affecting us all. I wrote a book about the environmental crisis 30 years ago." Victimhood is passive and helpless,’ Kate continued. ‘It denies the assaulted woman agency over her own self. We prefer “survivor”.’

Identity Crisis - Penguin Books UK

If you say something controversial on social media, YOU DIE! At least that’s what literally happens to the beleaguered characters in Ben Elton’s latest novel, Identity Crisis. In June 2023, Elton presented Ben Elton: The Great Railway Disaster, a Channel 4 documentary about rail privatisation. [24] As writer and producer [ edit ] BFI Screenonline: Elton, Ben (1958-) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk . Retrieved 14 November 2020. A movement against the sexual harrassment and exploitation of women. The movement gained momentum after the revelations that Hollywood executive, Harvey Weinstein, had used his position f power to take advantage of women for many years. I'm going to say upfront that while I really enjoyed this book, I'm not sure the humour would be for everyone. Previous satire novels from this author are right up there in my top favourite books ever (Blind Faith and Chart Throb if you are looking for recommendations haha) and this new one has a similar feel to them. However, it is definitely controversial and no doubt would be offensive to some readers in relation to both its themes (identity, pronouns and online rage) as well as profanity (the 'c word' is used a few times, consider yourself warned). Again, like his previous satire novels, the storyline is both ridiculous and yet also scarily believable. The characters are not necessarily likeable, but are highly entertaining.To speak in such a way as to demean anothers from different religious, ethnic or sexual orientations

Ben Elton - Book Series In Order Ben Elton - Book Series In Order

He's right. The book is chiefly concerned with spotlighting the catastrophic collapse of much public debate into a giant rolling fatberg of grievances, real and imagined misunderstandings, and ugly eyes-closed partisanship. In September 2019, Elton embarked on a three-month UK stand-up tour, his first tour since 2005. [46] I would like to preface this review by saying that generally speaking I like Ben Elton and I understand that this book is satire. The problem is, I just can't work out quite what it's trying to satirise, and therefore if I think the satirisation of that issue is something I can or cannot get behind. A powerful Hollywood executive whose sexual predation on women for many years was the main catalyst for the #MeToo movement. But my insight, the one I had but didn’t express, was that although we live in an era of instant communication, the world Elton describes is one in which we are no more accurately informed than the French citizens who overthrew a king. Greer was once on the right side of history and like her fictional counterpart, Giffard, could not have foreseen the ground shifting beneath her feet. Many French citizens who lost their heads during the French Revolution may have been equally surprised when what started as a revolution for equality became a bloodbath at the foot of the guillotine. In Elton’s novel, time and again, chronicles the same process of the shifting tides of opinion, and the variable fortunes of protagonists, some horrible, some of whom are moral, well-intentioned people. Yet both can be deemed toxic and find themselves on the wrong side of history in the combative arena of social media. That was my insight. How is it possible to be so trenchant and angry when we know that history alone will judge us? If Elton’s novel is about anything it is this: the need for perspective and conversation, not abuse.A term used to describe the wide spectrum of human sexuality. The Rainbow has long been used by the gay movement, but is not exclusive to gay people. His first television appearance came in 1981 as a stand-up performer on the BBC1 youth and music programme Oxford Road Show. [17] [16] His first TV success, at 23, came as co-writer of the television sitcom The Young Ones, in which he occasionally appeared. Cary, James. "Positive spin". Third Way. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014 . Retrieved 21 July 2013. I was mildly interested in the Cambridge Analytica-esque company’s storyline and where it was going (nowhere surprising it turns out) and I did want to find out who the social media killer was. But the reveal of the killer’s identity was such a cop-out - an unsatisfying rushed ending to a half-baked plot. Friday Night Live announces star-studded line-up for Channel 4 return". Radio Times . Retrieved 21 October 2022.

Ben Elton: ‘How am I going to say something when you can’t Ben Elton: ‘How am I going to say something when you can’t

This is only the tip of the iceberg, the very beginning of the whole book which covers a lot of ground: how the new gender identities have fractured sections of feminist thought, the marginalisation of traditional Christian beliefs as a result of shifting sexual paradigms, and the implications to male identity and patriarchal power structures as a result of #MeToo. It sounds like a heady academic diatribe but it’s not. Elton handles all the issues with wit and aplomb, producing an entertaining, fast-paced plot that is surprising and even fun. And nobody gets off the hook. One character – one you can't help liking – is a money-grubbing, alpha male-chasing young Tory Pakistani woman who works for a dodgy political data mining firm. Says Elton:"That doesn't stop her being a feminist in as much as she believes absolutely in the full agency and power of being a woman." Feminist who wrote The Female Eunuch. In her later career she came under fire for critisising transgender identity.A term with conflicting definitions on the internet, describing both a penis and vagina. Elton uses the term defined on as an acronym for Cis-Hating Ultra Trans I think this is a book where anyone can have a good laugh at how silly things are getting and also have a good worry about how strange things are getting, and generally enjoy a comedy thriller which I think is very firmly in the stuff that's on everybody's mind. People have said to me it's a great release valve, it's great to hear it talked about." But it is–not surprisingly given Elton's decades-long conspicuous stands on progressive issues – about all kinds of politics, too: identity politics, gender politics, party politics and, of course, dirty politics. Ben Elton’s 16th novel proves yet again what a genuinely talented comic novelist he is – it’s expertly crafted, very clever and really funny’ Harry Ritchie, Daily Mail