State of Fear

Grounded in scientific fact culled from the latest academic journals, State of Fear explores the terrifying possibilities of breakthrough research led astray by abuse and corruption, and explores the darker side of science, and the sinister uses to which it can be put...

(Edited highlights of the panel's review taken from the teletext subtitles that are generated live for Newsnight Review.)

KIRSTY WARK:
Deborah, he clearly means to change views but is the zeal of a convert an attractive thing in a book?

DEBORAH BULL:
I think it will be attractive. As he does tell a good story. It was interesting being given this book. I would not have picked it myself. I find it odd that this book is still being written, given than the block buster is better to tell of the action.

KIRSTY WARK:
There is a movie there, no doubt?

DEBORAH BULL:
No doubt. It's all in there, how to shoot it! But also there is a beefy, intellectual argument. There are two arguments, one that we have to live in a State of Fear so that we can be controlled. The other is this question of whether global warming is real or not and I think what he is warning us is that our reality has become media reality. He is saying that we should be more cautious in what you believe. He does say tongue in cheek that everyone has an agenda - apart from me.

KWAME KWEI-ARMAH:
I am unsure if the tongue was in the cheek. I found this, again, I am not his target audience. I have to say he is a brilliant man, but we must be careful about allowing outright leaning politics to be covered with the veneer of it being apolitical. That is what he has done here. I found this unchallenging. The themes were not challenging to me, and the languages used were not challenging. There were no backbeats behind it.

KIRSTY WARK:
There were a few graphs!

CHARLES SAUMAREZ SMITH:
It's interesting, who is the target audience? None of us would buy this book.

KWAME KWEI-ARMAH:
Well, it's number one in America.

CHARLES SAUMAREZ SMITH:
Well, it will be. It's a very odd combination of being this thriller which you pick up at an airport bookshop and then you find you are reading a version of a PHD thesis! It's quite technical but actually I found it quite interesting. I didn't know that much about global warming, in a sense, I am a sort of person who assumes it's true.

KIRSTY WARK:
Did it make you think you had been hoodwinked?

CHARLES SAUMAREZ SMITH:
It did cross my mind that the CIA got hold of him and said have you thought of doing this book? I'm going to give it to my sister-in-law. She is an eco warrior!

DEBORAH BULL:
I agree. There were things that I didn't know that much about.

KIRSTY WARK:
One of the things that was interesting, was we talk about the idea, the phrase, the balance of nature, that in fact there is not such a thing as the balance of nature, that nature is constantly disrupted I thought that was a very interesting scientific argument?

KWAME KWEI-ARMAH:
Yes, it is. There was nothing in the book that made me think, Oh my God, I needed to fundamentally change my views. If I had been hoodwinked by the media, am I now being hoodwinked by you?

KIRSTY WARK:
What about the pacing. Does it work as a thriller? It's very episodic

KWAME KWEI-ARMAH:
For me it does not.

CHARLES SAUMAREZ SMITH:
But it is pretty effective. It makes you turn the pages.

KWAME KWEI-ARMAH:
But Charles, even in the opening chapter, you could see the people arguing, they are arguing, then you knew that something was going to happen. That does mot make me turn the page, that makes me go, "I know what is going to happen ."

DEBORAH BULL:
I was more turning the page to see where his arguments were going with the environmental issues. I was not convinced to change my mind, but convinced to be a little more cautious. I think that is what he is trying to do.