This week Andrew Marr is joined by Adam Phillips, Wendell Steavenson, Tom Stoppard and Vikas Swarup.
The psychoanalyst ADAM PHILLIPS argues that, as a species, we have become increasingly antagonistic to each other, as if we see kindness as being somehow “dangerous” now and making us vulnerable. On Kindness explains how and why this has come about. It argues that the affectionate life, lived in instinctive sympathetic identification with the vulnerabilities and attractions of others, is the one we should all be inclined to live. On Kindness, co-written with Barbara Taylor, is published by Hamish Hamilton.
By focusing on one Iraqi general’s family, the writer WENDELL STEAVENSON attempts to understand how rational, compassionate human beings became deeply involved in the corrupt regime of Saddam Hussein. She asks why those questioned about their conduct often answer “yes but...” and argue that an outsider cannot begin to understand what it is like to live in such a fearful society and justify their actions by emphasising their powerlessness. The Weight of a Mustard Seed is published by Atlantic Books.
A new production of TOM STOPPARD’s play Every Good Boy Deserves Favour highlights the plight of a Russian dissident who has been forced into a psychiatric hospital. With an accompanying score by André Previn, the play questions our ideas of fiction and reality and what it means to speak the truth. Every Good Boy Deserves Favour by Tom Stoppard and André Previn is at the National Theatre in London from 12 January to 25 February.
The recently released film Slumdog Millionaire questions how knowledge and education is valued in India by having a slum kid on the verge of winning ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’. It is based on a novel by VIKAS SWARUP called Q&A and he argues that there is a latent conceit that knowledge is the preserve of the elite. The film Slumdog Millionaire is on general release and Q&A is published by Black Swan.
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