Zadie Smith on Class & Creativity

A little aggressive at the end there Zadie...a little aggressive.

She's right. In England, you make headway if you're upper class. Working class people need better schools, like she said.

WOW

so to be a writer you have to go through university and have an elite education? maybe its not the system's fault but the fact that most people can't be bothered/ dont see the point of going through the long and arduous process of writing because they dont read much of anything and dont value literature

lol WHY is white guy there

To be a writer, you need a pencil, paper, and some encouragement to write all sorts of crap! Start with a rude poem about the boys or girls at school you don't like or about the stray cat that hangs outside your bedroom window. Simply engaging in your child's learning at an early age (ie, reading, talking, fund raising, organising something) will go some way to encouraging the learning experience and maybe even the writing profession...now this doesn't need a lot of money...just a different mindset

Resource depletion is an aggregate of disenfranchising/dis-empowering the opportunities available to the targets of social distancing (racism). Well said!

She's right in a lot of things she says about class. She's bright.

The schools don't have to change, The Black working class have too.

The thing about black writing that will not sell or become huge is that most black writers only write about issues of class and race instead of stringing together an exciting story. It will trend, but will never become a classic or masterpiece.

Wuthering Heights is not hailed as a good read because it talks about important issues, neither is war and peace, moby dick, lolita, don quixote, les miserables, even though they all encompass human insight and discuss issues of class and race, at its barebones, these are good stories that are fun to read.
Pushkin was black, eugene onegin is famous for its story and no one cares about the race of its author.

You need education to produce great literature. When i say education, i don't necessarily mean university but at least, you need to read a lot, which is a form of education. You need time and means for that. If you are from a struggling class, odds are you won't have the time and means.

What she’s saying is spot on! 💜 Zadie is such an inspiration and will always be.

does anyone else hear that high pitched beeping?

In the UK the big division between people is based on class, not race.

Regrettably, the US is moving more in the direction of the UK, in the sense that increasingly those who pursue advanced degrees in Eng. lit and creative writing come from upper middle class or wealthy backgrounds. Higher ed is far more expensive than it used to be, so if someone comes from a working-class background, they're far more likely to pursue a degree in a field that provides greater job/financial opportunities, Consequently, the humanities and writing programs are disproportionately filled w/ students from similar economic backgrounds--i.e., relatively wealthy--and it follows that these are the people who are likely to become professional and/or established writers. I don't think race is nearly as much of a factor, and Zadie Smith is right that in the US writers of color are doing quite well, though again, these are POC overwhelmingly from upper class backgrounds.

Wow she dropped a major truth bomb! The distinction she makes between music and literature (I'd add others too) is so well put, really helpful and clarifying!

Utter nonsense. The notion that the working class cannot become literary masters because it requires an upper class education is not true. There are countless examples of people who complete disprove her point. The same old victimhood mentality once again. Do better.

You don't need an education to write (at least not official). Many of the greats didn't go University. In the same way many of the best musicians were working class were intuitive enough to teach themselves. Academia and the arts is mostly an oxymoron.