Page 3 - Stephen Chuckles News Today

Its used to kind of create political fear. and ourjob as artists is, i think, fundamentally to take away that fear, to take away the binaries that i think this farce of the culture wars are. you know, i often hear politicians — and im not one to diss politicians, but i also often hear politicians use race or class or immigration or use history as a battering ram to get themselves into the hearts of the populist. but those issues youve just outlined — race, immigration — they are central to...

Yeah, totally and utterly. but... and have you been frightened off entering this territory at times? again, i think its framed brilliantly. fortunately for me, or unfortunately, when im afraid of something, i have to run towards it. stephen chuckles i dont call that a virtue, but it is fact for me. without a shadow of a doubt, even producing the play thats on at the young vic now, beneathas place, i was worried for a while. i was worried that those of the right or even those of the left might co...

Questions cos i think youre allowing me to, by the way you write... yes. ..and the way you speak about these things. so the next candid question is, how does your decision to have major stomach surgery to reduce the size of your stomach, how does that fit with fat positivity and trying to be at peace with the way you are? i think it doesnt, necessarily. i mean, i think that, for me, as ive gotten older, ive realised, what kind of life do i want and how active do i want that life to be? and...i t...

So the next candid question is, how does your decision to have major stomach surgery to reduce the size of your stomach, how does that fit with fat positivity and trying to be at peace with the way you are? i think it doesnt, necessarily. i mean, i think that, for me, as ive gotten older, ive realised, what kind of life do i want and how active do i want that life to be? and...i think that you can feel reasonably positive about yourself and also want to lose weight. and ijust hit a point where i...

Stephen chuckles and, you know, weight—loss surgery is a challenging thing. its extraordinarily expensive. it changes your life forever. in good ways always? good and bad ways. i think that there are some side—effects that are challenging. but would i do it again? 1,000%. i have no regrets. no regrets whatsoever. you force all of us who read your books and talk to you to think very hard about how we view and treat fat people. mm—hm. and you have so many powerful stories about the judgmenta...

Which arent particularly challenging but sort of provide a sort of comfort food for the mind for a lot of people. well, thats interesting because i mean, i think i like to deal with that stuff but actually, im also a bit more disruptive than that, but i try to do... i love emily dickinson, one of my favourite poets. and she said, "tell all the truths, but tell it slant. "success in circuit lies." and im really interested in how you talk about these ideas. talk about change, the possibilities of ...

And it is interesting to me now that one of the things you are doing, and very successfully doing, is writing the most quintessentially english crime novels, which arent particularly challenging but sort of provide a sort of comfort food for the mind for a lot of people. well, thats interesting because i mean, i think i like to deal with that stuff but actually, im also a bit more disruptive than that, but i try to do... i love emily dickinson, one of my favourite poets. and she said, "tell all ...

Recently in talking about the book and what it means, that you reached a point where you were tired of fighting the activist fight to change society. yeah. and it is interesting to me now that one of the things you are doing, and very successfully doing, is writing the most quintessentially english crime novels, which arent particularly challenging but sort of provide a sort of comfort food for the mind for a lot of people. well, thats interesting because i mean, i think i like to deal with that...

Doing to the natural world. and yet we all need to eat. mm—hm. and thanks to farming, almost all of us can sustain ourselves with decent amounts of food. why do you see this as such a problem? well, this is the great dilemma we face. i mean, its notjust a question of seeing it as a problem, there is a huge weight of empirical evidence showing that farming is by far the greatest cause of habitat destruction, of wildlife loss, of extinction, of land use, which is perhaps the most important envir...

Showing that farming is by far the greatest cause of habitat destruction, of wildlife loss, of extinction, of land use, which is perhaps the most important environmental metric of all, of soil degradation, of freshwater use, and one of the greatest causes of climate breakdown, of water pollution and of air pollution. so its notjust a matter of opinion, this is the industry which comes top of the list of all damaging human activities. now, of course, we... stephen chuckles yes, except what you ha...