Can books change the world? An interview with Jamaal Aflatooni, author of Space Between Us

AD – to find out more about my advertising packages click here. 

Authors have real power in the words they write and Jamaal Aflatooni has used that power to create a book that questions the world around us, the decisions we make and sets out to make us more aware and better people. This book will make you question things you hadn’t thought of I assess your morals as you think about what is right and wrong. Today I will be interviewing Jamaal about his book, the key messages and his thoughts on our world.

Disclaimer: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no extra cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

If you would like to buy a copy of Space Between Us, you can do so here. 

Hi Jamaal, thanks so much for joining me on my blog. Today we’re here to talk about your YA sci-fi, Space Between Us. Now I don’t usually go for sci-fi, but I really liked the one-liner for this book: An outcast boy learns just what an outsider he really is, and a world that’s put to the test when it learns the same. I can’t resist an outcast main character!

You mentioned to me about being inspired by the divisiveness, bigotry, bullying and violence plaguing our nation to write this book. Can you talk to me a bit more about how this spurred your creation of Space Between Us? 

I had the idea for this story in 2009, at the time it was more a story about a kid who hadn’t discovered quite yet who he was and often felt out of place in society. It sounds a little silly now, but I wanted to emulate something similar to J.K. Rowling and the character she developed for Harry Potter. I never got around to writing the book until 2016, where I evolved the story quite a bit. 2016 was a difficult year in the U.S., with such a combative political climate leading up the national election. I try not to be too political myself, but it was shocking to me how much violence, hatred, and prejudice that election created in our society. Of course, it still hasn’t gotten any
better, society is still incredibly divided today in their beliefs and politics with everything from race relations, income inequality, to even the pandemic and how we should be approaching it. 

I often thought, what would someone think of our society and how we treat each other if coming upon the world for the first time? We always wonder when will be that first time we discover an alien civilization and what their society would be like, but what if they discover us first? And if they did, what would they think of us? Would they even want to visit us knowing how we treat our own kind? A long-winded answer to your question, but this is what led to my creation of this story. It’s a sci-fi story, but more so a story about us as a society and how we shut ourselves out from those who differ from us.

Darwin is your awkward, teen main character. Obviously Darwin is quite unique, did you name him after Charles Darwin or was this just a name you liked?

A little of both. I really like the name Darwin which is why I chose that name, but I also like the fact that what he represents is a process of evolution in our society by introducing him as the first alien civilian living on our earth. 

“We may look different or like different things, but we all live in this universe.” This is a quote from your book when Darwin is giving a pretty epic speech in his school cafeteria. He ends by saying “It’s on you guys, that’s right, you guys, to make this world a better place. And the question you should always be asking yourself is, what am I doing to help others?”. I think one of the main reasons I wanted to work with you to promote your book Jamaal is because of the messages you want to promote. 

You’re using your book as a means to spread them further and I hope people reading this buy your book to support this message and read more of this story. But for now, I wanted to ask you what changes you think are the most important to make right here, right now for our world?

This could be a very long list, but I’ll try and hit on some of the most important changes that I personally feel really need to happen in our society. The below list isn’t in any particular order of importance and there are many others I feel should be considered.

• One is community building at the grassroots level, and by that, I mean engaging with one’s own community and supporting each other in every way possible. We’re not able to promote the well-being of the rest of the world without starting in our own communities. If we start there, it will have a ripple effect on the rest of the world at large.
• Another is educating our younger generation. A lot of issues in today’s world like racism, prejudice, sexism, violence, etc. are mainly due to a lack of education starting at a young age that creates this ignorance of feeling superior over others. More focus should be placed on improving our children’s education to enable future generations to be more understanding of our differences.
• Another is income or social inequality. I often feel this issue in our society is downplayed as not being a major problem, but what separates us more than anything is division of class and status. The larger the gap in the extremes of wealth and poverty, the more crime and division our society will see. When people have little to no means, they are forced to commit crimes in order to survive. Rather than seeing the issue at hand and the struggles people of little means go through, we brand them as criminals which further perpetuates our prejudice towards these individuals 
• Finally, the equality of men and women. We will never be able to succeed as a society without men and women being seen as equals. Men and women are like wings of a bird, without both wings working together equally, the bird won’t be able to fly. Women must receive the same opportunities, pay, and respect as men.    

If you could fan cast anyone as your protagonist, Darwin, who would it be and why?

Hmm, I’m not sure how this would work, but I would have to say Harry Potter (not Daniel Radcliff, but the actual Harry Potter if the character existed in real life. Mainly because similar to Darwin, Harry is often misunderstood and goes something he can’t fully explain. Also like Darwin, little does he know, but he’s part of a much bigger plan that is greater than he realizes.

Your book has been described as acting as a warning to the direction we’re going in at the moment. A bit of a deep question for you now Jamaal, but where do you see planet Earth in let’s say, 100 years into the future?

Great question. Although I’d like to be a little more optimistic and hope that we’re able to get our act together, I’m just not very confident in that at the moment based on what we’re currently seeing. 100 years in the future, I see our planet suffering from severe damages created by climate change. I see more egocentrism and self-absorption by means of increasing use of technology. I see the world as much more technologically advanced, but to the detriment of future generations not having the social skills to communicate effectively. Finally, although I do see us making some advancements in accepting others as we have seen from now vs. say 1930, but even 100 years from now I do think there will still be division in our society and it might even be divisions that currently don’t exist, say maybe prejudice between genetically modified humans and natural humans? That might be a stretch, but you never know lol!    

In just five words, tell my readers why they should read your book? Is this something you’re using for a headline/tagline or something else?

I would say this: “Understanding our place in society” is why people should read this book. 

And finally, in keeping with the title of this blog post, do you think books have the power to change the world?

Yes, absolutely. Books are an amazing way to get a message out to the masses that differs from any other medium in that it allows the reader to fully immerse themselves in the content and reflect on the story and message at hand.

Thank you so much Jamaal for taking the time to talk to me about your book, Space Between Us. If this book has left any of you feeling inspired, you can pick up the book here.

 

plan it

plan it