Zadie Smith on reading
More from Zadie Smith’s essay:
> A novel is a two-way street, in which the labour required on either side is, in the end, equal. Reading, done properly, is every bit as tough as writing - I really believe that. As for those people who align reading with the essentially passive experience of watching television, they only wish to debase reading and readers. The more accurate analogy is that of the amateur musician placing her sheet music on the stand and preparing to play. She must use her own, hard-won, skills to play this piece of music. The greater the skill, the greater the gift she gives the composer and the composer gives her.
I’m going to start a series of posts on reading Any Day Now. After listening to a bunch of literary courses on audiobook and thinking hard about reading in building Unreads, I want to say some things about reading that relate to this topic. More soon.
[tags]reading,zadie+smith[/tags]
> A novel is a two-way street, in which the labour required on either side is, in the end, equal. Reading, done properly, is every bit as tough as writing - I really believe that. As for those people who align reading with the essentially passive experience of watching television, they only wish to debase reading and readers. The more accurate analogy is that of the amateur musician placing her sheet music on the stand and preparing to play. She must use her own, hard-won, skills to play this piece of music. The greater the skill, the greater the gift she gives the composer and the composer gives her.
I’m going to start a series of posts on reading Any Day Now. After listening to a bunch of literary courses on audiobook and thinking hard about reading in building Unreads, I want to say some things about reading that relate to this topic. More soon.
[tags]reading,zadie+smith[/tags]