Part 2 - Zadie Smith in Sydney

I like Zadie Smith's feminist imagination. In response to a recent book calling out the misogyny of '90s pop culture, she referenced 'Keeping up with the Kardashians' and the influence of Donald Trump as reasons why she feels less free now than she did back then. I agree with her view that 'some things get better, some things get worse' over time - this rejection of the modernist idea of Progress was nice. 

Perhaps less illuminating is her approach to the Cultural Appropriation debate. As a mixed race individual, she suggests that she is being asked not to write from the perspective of Black people and white people. She finds such exclusion 'an insult to my soul'. Personally, I am a fan of Lived Experience in writing. I may not write fiction, but I don't feel that it limits me to acknowledge that I can only speak for myself. Taking stock of my imagination offers much fruit, and I offer it to the world knowing that my readers will each have their unique interpretations. I cannot write their stories for them. They must find their own voices. 

I'm pleased to have read Zadie's choice of Book Every Woman Should Read, 'A Room of One's Own' by Virginia Woolf. I enjoyed a room of my own through the great majority of my life, including most of my childhood. In terms of desks, too, I was fortunate: IKEA provided me with a shiny, white one brandishing a representation of the globe, with each country in a different colour. I learnt to strategically place a 'KNOCK! before you enter' sign at my parents' eye level, protecting my privacy some more. 

In some ways, I am fortunate. In other ways, not so much. It's a mixed reality.

My experience of Zadie Smith is that she is sensitive, multi-faceted and incisive. She isn't afraid to improvise in front of thousands of people. She is candid about second-guessing herself, which she knows she has in common with most women. I felt inspired by her humbleness, as well as confidence. I hope to seek her out again sometime soon. 

Zadie Smith in Sydney

I return, irritated and in need of alone time, from the Sydney Opera House. I could hear the voice of Zadie Smith there, and read her body language from a distance. I am not irritated by the author herself, but rather the journey to and fro this sometime site of noteworthy performance. 

A public interview is a performance, with Zadie mentioning that singing is a vocation she considered instead of writing, but shrugged off when that kind of performance proved too dramatic. We are therefore treated to the rare kind of public figure who prefers staying at home with her family than gallivanting all over the globe. An unassuming figure who keeps ambiguity in mind, drawing on her powers of articulation to question the relationship between the diverse mindsets co-existing within.  

Zadie aims for language which can appeal to a reader with a limited literary education. Using everyday words, she creates worlds of complexity. She doesn't feel that this reduces the nuances or scope of that complexity. This makes me wonder why, even now, I resort to a style she would call 'elevated'. What good is it to be a bit pretentious, when I can focus on making my work accessible?

Elevated was the mode in which she began writing for publication, so it's nice to see that she no longer feels the need to prove something. She joins people like Elizabeth Gilbert, who recently claimed that she wants 'no reader to be left behind' as her stories progress. 

I was intrigued to hear that the author doesn't possess a smartphone and has no Facebook account (to paraphrase this interview, she doesn't want to spend time on a platform made by people she really dislikes). She does claim to watch a lot of TV, including soap operas like 'Home and Away' and 'Neighbours'. I guess it's "pick your poison."

While not a new idea to my world, Zadie claimed that she relies on writing to make meaning of her thoughts. This controlled process of selecting certain thoughts and discarding others allows her to build a reality. Absent from this analysis are the pressures of capitalism, where it's crucial to monetise some part of your human experience or activity. Zadie gave us a caveat that "I am not an economist" even as she spoke to the worsening of 'the commons' in the UK (e.g. university has gone from free to paid in her lifetime, public libraries face defunding, the National Health Service (comparable to Australia's Medicare) is in a weaker position). I guess not everyone is going to offer democratic socialist ideas through the political economy lens. In part because I would like to see her strengthen her argument (and perhaps make it more radical), it would be nice to receive such rhetoric.