This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/aug/21/fiction-not-lies-is-a-way-of-telling-the-truth-ali-smith-in-edinburgh
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Fiction is a way of telling the truth – Ali Smith in Edinburgh | Fiction is a way of telling the truth – Ali Smith in Edinburgh |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| Maybe it is because of the Scottish Reformation. Maybe it is because of the Scottish Enlightenment. Maybe it is because of all those universities founded in a tiny country in the Middle Ages. Whatever the reason, audiences at the Edinburgh international book festival were treated to a sight unthinkable in England: a senior politician interviewing an experimental novelist live on stage in front of an enthusiastic audience. | Maybe it is because of the Scottish Reformation. Maybe it is because of the Scottish Enlightenment. Maybe it is because of all those universities founded in a tiny country in the Middle Ages. Whatever the reason, audiences at the Edinburgh international book festival were treated to a sight unthinkable in England: a senior politician interviewing an experimental novelist live on stage in front of an enthusiastic audience. |
| As Ali Smith, the writer in question, said: “I can’t imagine sitting next to any other politician who actually reads books. Can you imagine Theresa May sitting here?” (No one, perhaps unfairly, mentioned Jeremy Corbyn, also due to appear at the book festival; he once revealed that he has read Ulysses four times.) | As Ali Smith, the writer in question, said: “I can’t imagine sitting next to any other politician who actually reads books. Can you imagine Theresa May sitting here?” (No one, perhaps unfairly, mentioned Jeremy Corbyn, also due to appear at the book festival; he once revealed that he has read Ulysses four times.) |
| Smith, who won the Costa novel award and Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2015 with How to Be Both, is midway through a cycle of novels based on the seasons. Autumn, the first of them, came out in autumn 2016; Winter the following year. Written at great speed and published within weeks of their completion, they are infused with anxiety about the state of the world, and seasoned with references to Brexit and Trump. | Smith, who won the Costa novel award and Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2015 with How to Be Both, is midway through a cycle of novels based on the seasons. Autumn, the first of them, came out in autumn 2016; Winter the following year. Written at great speed and published within weeks of their completion, they are infused with anxiety about the state of the world, and seasoned with references to Brexit and Trump. |
| Authors' visa struggles undermine book festival, says Sturgeon | Authors' visa struggles undermine book festival, says Sturgeon |
| Sturgeon read a passage from Autumn that, she said, “sums up for me the sense of division and dislocation in our country and across the world today better than anything I’ve read, fiction or non-fiction, since the [2016] referendum”. | Sturgeon read a passage from Autumn that, she said, “sums up for me the sense of division and dislocation in our country and across the world today better than anything I’ve read, fiction or non-fiction, since the [2016] referendum”. |
| “‘All across the country,’” she quoted, “‘people felt it was the wrong thing. All across the country, people felt it was the right thing. All across the country, people felt they’d really lost. All across the country, people felt they’d really won. All across the country, people felt they’d done the right thing and other people had done the wrong thing. All the across the country, people looked up Google: what is EU? All across the country, people looked up Google: move to Scotland.’” The passage continues, but the first minister stopped precisely there: “I liked that bit particularly,” she said. | “‘All across the country,’” she quoted, “‘people felt it was the wrong thing. All across the country, people felt it was the right thing. All across the country, people felt they’d really lost. All across the country, people felt they’d really won. All across the country, people felt they’d done the right thing and other people had done the wrong thing. All the across the country, people looked up Google: what is EU? All across the country, people looked up Google: move to Scotland.’” The passage continues, but the first minister stopped precisely there: “I liked that bit particularly,” she said. |
| Sturgeon asked Smith about the role of stories in individual lives – our own narratives of ourselves, how far we can change them, and the extent to which structural inequalities are capable of hindering that desire. Smith said: “Where our stories meet other stories or block other stories; and where people decide that other stories can’t be heard because my story is more important than your story – all that stuff – you could call it politics.” | Sturgeon asked Smith about the role of stories in individual lives – our own narratives of ourselves, how far we can change them, and the extent to which structural inequalities are capable of hindering that desire. Smith said: “Where our stories meet other stories or block other stories; and where people decide that other stories can’t be heard because my story is more important than your story – all that stuff – you could call it politics.” |
| Smith turned the tables on Sturgeon at one point in the conversation, and got a question in herself. “What does your reading help with? What happens when you read?” Sturgeon replied: “Sometimes the ability to escape and switch off from what is worrying me. | Smith turned the tables on Sturgeon at one point in the conversation, and got a question in herself. “What does your reading help with? What happens when you read?” Sturgeon replied: “Sometimes the ability to escape and switch off from what is worrying me. |
| UK reading habits an embarrassment, says Edinburgh book festival director | UK reading habits an embarrassment, says Edinburgh book festival director |
| “And then I think reading for anyone deepens your sense of understanding and empathy with people and cultures and countries that you have no direct experience of. If there was one thing I could make compulsory for leaders across the world,” she added, “it would be to read fiction.” | “And then I think reading for anyone deepens your sense of understanding and empathy with people and cultures and countries that you have no direct experience of. If there was one thing I could make compulsory for leaders across the world,” she added, “it would be to read fiction.” |
| Smith responded: “We are living in a culture that insists on lying as its delivery of how we are living. It insists on telling us information about which we are left wondering whether it is true or not … Fiction and lies are the opposite of each other. Lies go out of the way to distort and turn you away from the truth. But fiction is one of our ways of telling the truth.” | Smith responded: “We are living in a culture that insists on lying as its delivery of how we are living. It insists on telling us information about which we are left wondering whether it is true or not … Fiction and lies are the opposite of each other. Lies go out of the way to distort and turn you away from the truth. But fiction is one of our ways of telling the truth.” |
| Edinburgh festival | Edinburgh festival |
| Ali Smith | Ali Smith |
| Nicola Sturgeon | Nicola Sturgeon |
| Scotland | Scotland |
| Edinburgh | Edinburgh |
| Festivals | Festivals |
| news | news |
| Share on Facebook | Share on Facebook |
| Share on Twitter | Share on Twitter |
| Share via Email | Share via Email |
| Share on LinkedIn | Share on LinkedIn |
| Share on Pinterest | Share on Pinterest |
| Share on WhatsApp | Share on WhatsApp |
| Share on Messenger | Share on Messenger |
| Reuse this content | Reuse this content |