A evening with Lyndsey Stonebridge and Hannah Arendt

On the 8^th May UEA Live hosted an interview with Lyndsey Stonebridge who published her book this January “We are free to change the world: Hanna Arendt’s lessons in Love and Disobedience.” It was a hot day and as the attendee’s assembled in the cool enterprise centre, I positioned myself at the back of the lecture theatre. It was an eclectic mix of an older crowd (editions in hand no doubt eager to be signed), some academics across UEA’s departments and a group of MA students (I admit I teased the line between reporting and eavesdropping).  

Rachel Potter, a professor of Modern Literature here at UEA, hosted the interview and greeted the people sitting in the front row. There was an eager buzz in the air, similar to before a gig, and by the energy of the room I wondered like always if I was supposed to clap as Lyndsey arrived. But when I looked away to start taking notes she had appeared from behind the curtain and sat down without me even noticing. Of course, when Rachel welcomed her the crowd applauded, and the interview began.  

Lyndsey began with a short reading from the introduction of her book in which she described Hannah Arendt’s determination for an “enlarged imagination”. This alluded to the capacity to step out of your own head, and not just feel, but think like someone else. Lyndsey described her own experience of stepping into Hannah’s mind while writing this book. It is not always clear where Hannah’s words end, and where Lyndsey’s begin. Looking back on my notes throughout the interview I commit myself to an enlarged imagination and wonder “Now was that a quote from Hannah? Or Lyndsey”. It doesn’t matter, as long as it makes the reader think. Thinking is the key word to take away from this interview and the book. Lyndsey described how Hannah guarded her thoughts jealously, but all her quotes gave the idea of a very open, deft speaker. She did not believe in the idea that empirical thought could be guarded in the halls of prestigious universities, it was always there for anyone to take. Thought is your greatest weapon.  

Lyndsey continued to read from the book, describing the famous city of Kuninsberg (Kaliningrad) where Arendt grew up. The reader might recall the titular 7 bridges riddle that described how you logically could not cross all seven bridges of the city without walking across one at least twice. And then, to the great relief of myself, a spectral audio began to play in the room and Lyndsey’s mic was silenced. I thought if all goes south, I at least had something funny to talk about. Ironically the last word we heard was “mouth” in a discussion chiefly concerned with making yourself heard. After some disarray, the reading continued. Lyndsey found the whole situation very funny and the mic picked up as she said “Should I shout?”. Yes! I wanted to say. It’s what Arendt would have done.  

Lyndsey elaborated on the oppressive regime Hannah grew up in, where the staring of boys “hit somewhere tender like a bruise.” The novel was originally meant to be a travel book, with chapters split into places Hannah lived but writing through the pandemic meant an enlarged imagination was even more necessary. Lyndsey, a self-described literary modernist by training and wannabe historian, spoke of tracing her finger through eighteenth century maps of Kuninsberg wondering how Hannah walked through them. Though this is Lyndsey’s first commercial writing on Hannah (She confessed never wanting to write about her again!) she had previously written pieces of academic writing on her work. One of the greatest things to come out of this publication were the emails she received. Though some hardcore Arendtian’s accused her of simplifying her works, she was enthralled by the legion of truckers who listened to the audiobook discussing the banality of evil on the M25. On simplifying Hannah, Lyndsey described how Hannah’s appeal was always in her ability to be as clear as possible, often at odds with intense French and psychoanalytic theory. Arendt was direct and tough, an in-your-face critic who distrusted the term ‘philosopher’ as it confined thought inside your head. Thought was a totalitarian weapon against the very idea of totalitarianism. The greatest weapon of them all? Humour.  

“Congratulations! You’ve been liberated into wage slavery!” Hannah said of women’s right to work. When asked what it was like to be the first female professor at Princeton she replied, “Well I’ve been a woman for quite a long time now.” “Long live the little difference” she proclaimed between a man and a woman. It was clear she believed that laughter protected us from politics, but allowed platform to keep on talking at the same time. When there was no time for laughter, or irony, we were doomed. I imagined her telling all sorts of these stories at her infamous parties often written about in the New York Time’s. She was a party thrower, and a good one at that. But Hannah was not perfect, and Lyndsey did not shy away from it.  

The Novel features a map of outstanding women in Hannah’s life, fiercely defends education for all and is a testament to the power of love. But, for a woman committed to empathy she was not clear if desegregation in America was positive. Most people recall the famous photo of a little girl surrounded by policeman, defending her from white rioters in school, and this appalled Arendt but her solutions were lacking in imagination. It cannot be stated that Hannah did not understand racism, her famous book “Origins of Totalitarianism” went through several title drafts, one being “Racism, imperialism, anti-semitism”. Lyndsey remarked, try selling that to twentieth century America. Yet Hannah, for all her commitment to love, was potentially a purse clutcher, a white woman made nervous around those different to her. Black authors tended to not reply to Hannah Arendt and it is not difficult to imagine why but her work on anti-colonialism and anti-totalitarianism could not be understated. She had lived as a Jewish woman under nazi rule and lived.  

Filming cops is an arendtian practice. It is impulsive, and disobedient. Lyndsey’s novel never loses sight of Hannah’s commitment to spontaneous revolution against authority abusing its power. There is no excuse for following orders when those orders are not right. Hannah attended the Nuremberg trials and laughed in the face of Nazi’s hiding behind their institution, they were small men, and her spark of disobedience is alive in Lyndsey’s novel. Stonebridge ended with a quote from the end of the book “The revolutionary knows when power is on the street, and they know when to pick it up.” As I wandered home, I tried to think about all that was said during the interview, instead I kept my eyes peeled on the pavement trying to find a shard of revolution. When the time comes, I hope I pick it up.  

Max Todd is a creative writing student at UEA with a keen interest in eco-apocalyptic fiction. He is also the senior science writer for UEA’s student newspaper Concrete, a contributor to several anthologies, and eager to see the end times.