Today I have brought in for you a book that I have been reading over the long weekend. Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s latest book it’s a collection of essays called Talking About a Revolution. Now before I tell you about the book I want to introduce Yassmin Abdel Magied…In her own words Yassmin is a Sudanese Australian writer, recovering mechanical engineer and award-winning social advocate. Yassmin was born in Khartoum, Sudan and her parents moved the family to Australia when Yassmin was a baby. Yassmin is a mechanical engineer who left her dream of working with formula one and worked on oil and gas rigs.Yassmin turned the story of her early life into the successful book Yassmin’s Story, and in some ways Talking About a Revolution is a successor of that book. Yassmin has also penned a middle grade series beginning with You Must Be Layla, which is being optioned for the screen.Yassmin is a talented writer whose career and life experience have been broad. Which is all important to begin with because she has also been, in her words, the most hated Muslim in Australia.Yassmin Abdel Magied is based in London these days after a social media post five years ago went viral for all the wrong reasons, leading to her receiving death threats and having to move house. Never mind the fact that she was raising an important social justice issue.Talking About a Revolution collects essays written around that time as well as across the intervening years, as well as original essays for the collections. I won’t try to take in the length and breadth of the collection because it’s just not possible in our limited time together.I will highlight the opening sortie from the book ‘Words Means Things’ where Yassmin takes on Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Language to ask the question; if words gain meaning through usage then who gets to make the rules about the ways we use language. What follows is an exploration of the ways cultural usage can be approved or derided, rejected or appropriated.The essay explores how media is able to sway, not just our take on the news but how we perceive events as right or wrong, worthy or distractions. We are asked about who controls the ideas that are broadcast out into the world and in turn who gets to decide what words mean what and in whose mouths we will accept the truth.It’s a great discussion because in exploring ‘words’ it not only acknowledges the sometimes tenuous link between signifier and signified, it also reminds us that meaning is created through action as well as sounds. Silently taking the knee speaks volumes, as does silently walking past racism whether it be on the street or in the administration.I’m still working my way through this collection and its array of ideas. I’m hoping to have Yassmin join me again on Final Draft so keep an ear out for that.
Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew PopleWant more great conversations with Australian authors?Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.
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