#zadie williams

[good-books-to-read]

Cool Cover Monday

Title & Author: Studio City Songs by Zaide Williams

Summary: With a mix of traditional narrative and intimate, interview-style vignettes, Studio City Songs tells the tale of two shooting stars as they stop orbiting each other’s axes and crash headlong into the truth. Passion sears their every interaction, and resisting its pull only stokes the fiery love that is about to command center stage, changing them both forever.

Drop the needle and let the music play.

[thehappyscavenger]

Books Read in July 2024

Probably It Will Not Be Okay by Brekan Blakeslee

The first half of this was an incredibly unique dystopic work I will be thinking about for a long time. I'm just going to pretend the whole thing is the first half.

Good Behaviour by Molly Keane

I actually love books like this about decaying aristocracy and highly mannered societies and unreliable narrators. Deilcious and unpredicatable.

Nightmare Alley by William Lindsey Gresham

I don't care for Noirs at all and this really didn't change my opinion on that. This book felt almost overly constructed and like Gresham had a wonderful idea for an ending and wrote towards that but in a way that doesn't feel earned. Kind of a let down.

Has the World Ended Yet? by Peter Darbyshire

I feel like this book should be bigger or well more known. Scifi/superhero based short story about a world where the apocalypse is not quite here. Enjoyed it a lot even though it's harder scifi than I typically read.

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

I heard mixed things about this and a lot about how it was based on a real mistaken identity case but what this book is actually about is legacy, identity and what it means to be remembered. I'm not sure I loved it exactly but Smith remains, to me, an utterly fascinating writer.

Stray Dogs by Rawi Hage

I've struggled with Hage's longer works. While not all these stories worked for me they were clearly well written and there is one that will haunt me forever. Enjoyable.

Godshot by Chelsea Bieker

I realized sometime after I finished that this reminded me a lot of White Oleander in a weird way. A young girl growing up in a cult finds her way out basically. Very well written and surprisingly hopeful given the subject matter. I will be reading more Bieker.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing References: Tips & Advice

Some Tips & Advice for Writing Fiction

Active Reading ⚜ Hook ⚜ Outline ⚜ Summary ⚜ Wordiness

Allegory ⚜ Food ⚜ Horror ⚜ Humour ⚜ Memoir ⚜ Mystery

Beginning & Ending ⚜ Chapter Ending ⚜ Last Line ⚜ The End

Conscious Language ⚜ White Room Syndrome ⚜ Writing Style

Creative Writing ⚜ Journal Writing ⚜ Speculative Biology

Fight Scene Part 1 2 ⚜ Plot Twist ⚜ Subplot

Procrastination ⚜ Rejection ⚜ Vocabulary ⚜ Your Audience

Writer's Block: Part 1 2

Your Character: Hero ⚜ Likable ⚜ Morally Grey ⚜ Well-Rounded

Writers on Writing

Anaïs Nin ⚜ Andrew Motion ⚜ Annie Proulx

Elmore Leonard ⚜ Ernest Hemingway ⚜ Friedrich Nietzsche

George Orwell: Motives for Writing ⚜ On Poetry ⚜ On Nonsense Poetry

George Orwell: The Prevention of Literature ⚜ On Good "Bad Books"

George Orwell: Describes A Writer

H. P. Lovecraft ⚜ Henry Miller ⚜ Italo Calvino

Jack Kerouac: Are Writers Born or Made?

James Baldwin ⚜ John Rechy ⚜ John Steinbeck

Joyce Carol Oates ⚜ Ray Bradbury ⚜ Ronald Knox

Kurt Vonnegut: The Shapes of Stories

Margaret Atwood: On Plot

Rick Riordan: On Character ⚜ On Dialogue ⚜ On Plot

Rick Riordan: Some Common Problems in Unpublished Manuscripts

Stephen King ⚜ Ursula K. Le Guin ⚜ Vladimir Nabokov

Virginia Woolf: On Censorship ⚜ On Words

W. H. Auden ⚜ William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White

Zadie Smith: Dance Lessons for Writers

More: Worldbuilding ⚜ Plot ⚜ Character ⚜ For the Poets ⚜ Prompts Notes & References ⚜ Templates ⚜ Word Lists ⚜ Writing Basics

[nimzay1dstar]

James Baldwin’s Advice on Writing

Reflecting on what motivates great writers to write — an enduring question also addressed beautifully by George Orwell, David Foster Wallace, Italo Calvino, and William Faulkner — Baldwin sides with Bukowski and argues that the supreme animating force of the writer is the irrepressible impossibility of not-writing:

Something that irritates you and won’t let you go. That’s the anguish of it. Do this book, or die. You have to go through that. Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but most of all, endurance.

Endurance, indeed, is perhaps the sole common denominator among successful authors. Any aspiring writer, he admonishes, should have no illusion about the endurance required but should want to write anyway. A generation after Jack Kerouac considered the vital difference between talent and genius, Baldwin notes:

If you are going to be a writer there is nothing I can say to stop you; if you’re not going to be a writer nothing I can say will help you. What you really need at the beginning is somebody to let you know that the effort is real.

In a sentiment reminiscent of Joan Didion’s observation that she writes in order to gain better access to her own mind, Baldwin speaks to the consciousness-clarifying function of the creative impulse:

When you’re writing, you’re trying to find out something which you don’t know. The whole language of writing for me is finding out what you don’t want to know, what you don’t want to find out. But something forces you to anyway.

Echoing Hemingway’s abiding wisdom on the crucial art of revision, he adds:

Rewriting [is] very painful. You know it’s finished when you can’t do anything more to it, though it’s never exactly the way you want it… The hardest thing in the world is simplicity. And the most fearful thing, too. You have to strip yourself of all your disguises, some of which you didn’t know you had. You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.

(Decades later, Zadie Smith would observe in her ten rules of writing: “Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied.”) Baldwin offers:

When you’ve finished a novel, it means, “The train stops here, you have to get off here.” You never get the book you wanted, you settle for the book you get. I’ve always felt that when a book ended there was something I didn’t see, and usually when I remark the discovery it’s too late to do anything about it.

Baldwin shares his work habits:

I start working when everyone has gone to bed. I’ve had to do that ever since I was young — I had to wait until the kids were asleep. And then I was working at various jobs during the day. I’ve always had to write at night. But now that I’m established I do it because I’m alone at night.

Source

[pupsmailbox]

ROYALTY︰FANCY ID PACK

NAMES︰ adalinda. adam. adela. adelaide. adelio. adrienne. agnes. aladdin. alaric. alasdair. albert. alexander. alexandra. alexandria. alice. allegra. alyssa. amadeo. amelia. anais. anastasia. andrew. angelica. anita. annabelle. anne. anneliese. anthony. antoinette. ara. arabella. archibald. archie. aricia. ariel. armel. artemis. astrid. athena. augustus. aurelia. aurora. aymeric. balder. baldr. baldur. bano. basil. beatrice. belle. benjamin. blanche. blanchesse. blanchette. bonnette. bonnie. bowesse. bowette. brendan. briar. brioc. camilla. carl. caroline. caspian. catharina. catherine. cecilia. celeste. chainesse. chainette. chainne. charles. charlotte. chelidonis. christian. claude. clemente. clementine. cleopatra. corsette. crosse. crossette. crownesse. crownette. cynfael. damita. damyanti. darius. delphine. deoch. diana. duke. duncan. eadlin. edward. eleanor. eleanora. eleanore. elisabeth. eliza. elizabeth. elsa. emmanuel. erendira. eric. esperanza. estelle. eugene. eugenie. evelyn. fang. fangesse. fangette. farsiris. felix. frederick. frederik. frille. frillesse. frillette. gabriel. gabriella. gabrielle. gearesse. gearette. george. gladys. gormlaith. grace. griffith. haakon. harry. hector. henrik. henry. ingrid. isabella. isadora. izella. james. jasmine. joachim. josephine. julia. julien. kiana. kingsley. lacesse. lacette. lacey. laurent. leonore. lilibet. louis. louise. lucas. lucienne. mabel. madeleine. mael. maelie. maelle. maelys. magnus. mailys. margaret. maria. marie. marina. martha. michael. montgomery. nicolas. nikolai. nina. noire. noiresse. noirette. orla. oscar. palesse. palette. pari. paris. pearlesse. pearlette. philip. primrose. prince. princer. princessa. princesse. princette. princey. princie. prinze. prinzess. prinzessa. prynce. pryncess. quille. reagan. regina. regulus. ribbonesse. ribbonette. ribbonne. richard. robin. rognvaldr. rosalina. rose. rosette. rufflesse. rufflette. sabrina. sadie. saina. sara. sarah. sarai. sebastian. sharai. sofia. sophie. soraya. steven. sverre. theodora. tzeitel. vampesse. vampette. vampie. victoria. victorianne. vincent. watchesse. watchette. william. yseult. zadie.

PRONOUNS︰ blu/blush. bonnet/bonnet. bow/bow. chain/chain. che/cher. corset/corset. count/count. cro/crown. cro/own. cross/crosses. crown/crown. crown/crowned. crowned/prince. crowned/princess. dear/dear. dress/dress. dress/dress.apple/apple. dress/dresse. elegant/elegant. eth/ethel. fluff/fluff. frill/frill. frill/frilly, frill/frilly. frilly/frilly. gear/gear. gem/gem. gold/gold. grace/grace. he/heir. he/heiress. he/hir. he/ir. heart/heart. heir/ess. heir/heir. heir/heiress. heiress/heiress. jewel/jewel. king/king. lace/lace. lo/love. lord/lord. lord/lordship. love/love. luv/luv. melody/melodie. mirror/mirror. mon/arch. night/night. no/nobili. no/noble. pale/pale. pearl/pearl. pillow/pillow. pink/pink. polish/polish. pretty/pretty. pri/ince. pri/prince. pri/princess. prin/cess. prince/prince. princess/princess. princess/princesse. princess/princesses. queen/queen. rib/ribbon. ribbon/ribbon. ro/rose. ro/royal. robe/robe. rose/rose. roy/royal. royal/royal. royal/royalty, royal/royalty. royalty/royaltie. royalty/royalty, royalty/royalty. ruffle/ruffle. shine/shine. shy/hyr. silk/silk. silver/silver. sleep/sleep. snore/snore. suit/suit. tea/tea. throne/throne. ti/ara. ti/tiara. tiara/tiara. victorian/victorian. watch/watche. yawn/yawn. zzz/zzz. ⚔. ⚜. 🏰. 👑. 💎.

[fillo-sofia]

My personal masterlist of Dark Academia novels

Except I'm incredibly picky with DA

The Secret History, by Donna Tartt, obviously

The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco

Stoner, by John Williams

Babel, by R. F. Kuang

Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke

The Starless Sea, by Erin Morgenstern

Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh

On Beauty, by Zadie Smith

Portrait of the Artist, by James Joyce

[hvrricqneeee]

Books to read in the Autumn season:

SEPTEMBER

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery

The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë

On beauty - Zadie Smith

The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux

Mexican gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien

Coraline - Neil Gaiman

OCTOBER

The Fall of the House of Usher - Edgar Allen Poe

The Secret History - Donna Tartt

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Dracula - Bram Stoker

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

The Woman in Black - Susan Hill

The Halloween Tree - Ray Bradbury

We Have Always lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson

NOVEMBER

Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë

Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury

If we were villains - M. L. Rio

The Scarlett Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

Macbeth - William Shakespeare

Cider House Rules - John Irving

[forasecondtherewedwon]

Novels for Black History Month (Refreshed)

Titles, authors, and genres below the cut! Favourites are starred!

YA:

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas*

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Pride by Ibi Zoboi

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas*

Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant*

Your Corner Dark by Desmond Hall

Yesterday is History by Kosoko Jackson

Mystery/Thriller:

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley

Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby*

Lightseekers by Femi Kayode

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

Sci-fi/Fantasy/Magic Realism:

Rosewater by Tade Thompson

Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis

The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin*

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Historical:

Deacon King Kong by James McBride*

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill*

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan*

Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan*

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson*

The Rib King by Ladee Hubbard

The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (May 2021)

Black Cloud Rising by David Wright Faladé*

Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe*

Contemporary:

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

New People by Danzy Senna

Swing Time by Zadie Smith*

Loving Day by Mat Johnson

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

The Turner House by Angela Flournoy

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson*

The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams*

Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson*

[its-tortle]

tortle's 2023 reads

persuasion by jane austen - ●●●●○

ragtime by e.l. doctorov - ●●●○○

a study in pink & the sign of the four by arthur conan doyle - ●●●○○

convenience store woman by sayaka murata - ●●●○○

jane eyre by charlotte brontë - ●●●●○

just kids by patti smith - ●●●○○

hamnet by maggie o'farrel - ●●●●○

gruppenbild mit dame by heinrich böll - ●●●●○

(rr) six of crows duology by leigh bardugo - ●●●●●

(rr) i'll give you the sun by jandy nelson - ●●●●○

in the skin of a lion by michael ondaatje - ●●●○○

brief an den vater by franz kafka - ●●●●○

when we were orphans by kazuo ishiguro - ●●○○○

one flew over the cuskoo's nest by ken kesey - ●●●○○

piranesi by suzanne collins - ●●●●●

the hundred secret senses by amy tan - ●●●●○

liebesperlen by mariana leky - ●●●●○

franny & zooey by j.d. salinger - ●●●●○

the overstory by richard powers - ●●●●●

the virgin suicides by jeffrey eugenides - ●●●●○

our wives under the sea by julia armfield - ●●●○○

everything i know about love by dolly alderton - ●●●●●

cat's cradle by kurt vonnegut - ●●●○○

untamed by glennon doyle - ●●●●○

der grosse sommer by ewald arenz - ●●●○○

(rr) mosquitoland by david arnold - ●●●●○

the grass is singing by doris lessing - ●●○○○

people person by candice carty-williams - ●●●●○

the tennant of wildfell hall by anne brontë - ●●●●○

the island of missing trees by elif shayak - ●●●●●

briefe an einen jungen dichter by rainer maria rilke - ●●●●○

white teeth by zadie smith - ●●●●○

this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone - ●●●●○

braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer - ●●●○○

wanderer, kommst du nach spa... by heinrich böll - ●●●●○

a hundred years of solitude by gabriel garcìa marquez - ●●●○○

matrix by lauren groff - ●●●○○

daisy jones and the six by taylor jenkins reid - ●●●●○

the age of innocence by edith wharton - ●●●●○

die frau auf der treppe by bernhard schlink - ●●●●○

midnight in the garden of good and evil by john berendt - ●●●●●

joan by katherine j. chen - ●●●●○

pigs in heaven by barbara kingsolver - ●●●●●

the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid - ●●●●○

percy jackson and the olympians (5 book series) - ●●●○○

i'm glad my mom died by jennette mccurdy - ●●●●○

(rr) the unbearable lightness of being by milan kundera - ●●●●●

the circle by dave eggers - ●●○○○

die blechtrommel by günter grass - ●●●●○

the secret history by donna tartt - ●●●●○

the hunger games (trilogy) by suzanne collins - ●●●●○

the ballad of songbirds and snakes by suzanne collins - ●●●○○

young mungo by douglas stuart - ●●●●●

ninth house by leigh bardugo - ●●●○○

last night at the telegraph club by melinda lo - ●●●○○

my book ranking system, for insight:

●●●●● -- loved loved loved this. it might have made me cry. i will be recommending this to everyone ●●●●○ -- nice!! a good read. would possibly reread and will be keeping it all pretty on my shelf ●●●○○ -- t'was a book! maybe not quite my genre or not what i needed in that moment, but no ragrets. i still got something out of it ●●○○○ -- eh. didn't really need to read this. it was kind of unoriginal and/or not my thing. will give away my copy ●○○○○ -- could not finish. who published this and why.

[purposechef]

Just dropping by to say that I love Love LOVE your illustrations!!! Obsessed with slice of life comics so to see it in combination with Sydcarmy/The Bear, I'm over the fucking moon! Also, the fact you wrote the oyster knife series, I'm gagged. You're so talented 😭! Follow up to another person's ask, you mention that your fav characters deal with a DEEP chasm of loneliness. Could we maybe get some recs for books and movies (or even just couples/fandoms) that feature this arc? It's a genre I really enjoy but it's hard to find. Thanks!

WOW, thank you for letting me know. It means so much to hear that people are enjoying my art and fanfic -- they're both truly a labor of love.

As for my ✨Loneliness Recs✨ I can mostly recommend books since that's what I consume the most. Not all of them are necessarily romantic, but most of the stories I like involve a) nothing much happening and b) a woman making bad decisions. If there's kissing in it, even better, but I save that for fanart/fic.

Writers & Lovers by Lily King Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano Seven Days In June by Tia Williams Assembly by Natasha Brown Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee Real Life by Brandon Taylor

Those are just some recent reads but other writers who I love who write loneliness well: Donna Tartt, Toni Morrison, Sally Rooney, Zora Neale Hurston, Zadie Smith, Halle Butler, Victor Hugo (Marius Pontmercy is my #1 Lonely King).

[mmepastel]

Zadie Smith est presque trop brillante.

Quand la semaine dernière j’ai appris qu’elle avait sorti un roman, se déroulant à l’ère victorienne, j’ai failli m’évanouir de joie. Je me suis précipitée dessus évidemment.

J’en ressors un peu déçue, je ne sais pas trop bien pourquoi puisque je n’ai pas de reproches à lui faire.

Elle nous mène tambour battant à travers l’Angleterre du XIXe, avec de courts chapitres enlevés, à travers la conscience d’Eliza Touchet, femme ayant réellement existé, au statut bancal, pourvue d’une famille étrange et d’un esprit drôlement affuté.

Le style est lumineux mais très sec. On sent que l’autrice s’est voulue exigeante, pas de sentimentalisme, des faits, un œil acéré sur l’époque. Roman victorien, non. Pas de narration linéaire, pas d’effusion, pas de chichis.

Eliza Touchet a été mariée et a eu un fils. Les deux sont morts tôt. Désargentée, elle a rendu service en vivant avec son cousin, un écrivain populaire (lui aussi réel mais aujourd’hui oublié), étant à la fois sa relectrice, sa gouvernante, son amante, sa confidente. Ça n’a pas empêché ledit cousin de se marier deux fois, ainsi la maisonnée, souvent délocalisée suite au déclin du succès des romans de William, est devenue un genre de microcosme composite : une épouse officielle (la deuxième) issue des bas quartiers, leur jeune fille, les trois filles de William de son premier mariage (avec Frances, avec laquelle Eliza a vraiment connu l’amour), et Eliza, qui gère tout ce beau monde et essaie de comprendre sa place dans cette maison, dans ce pays, dans cette époque.

Justement, le pays se passionne pour un procès célèbre. L’histoire d’un imposteur qui voudrait bien croquer une part des restes de l’argent généré par l’esclavage en Jamaïque, à peine aboli. Cette idée est très forte dans le livre et elle en est le cœur. A travers ce personnage et son domestique Bogle, un noir remarquablement stoïque, le pays se déchire. Eliza se passionne pour Bogle et sa conscience catholique abolitionniste s’en trouve renforcée.

Mais c’est là que cela s’est corsé pour moi : je n’avais pas les connaissances suffisantes pour comprendre toutes les subtilités économiques et politiques que soulevaient ce procès. La mort d’une époque, la fin de certains privilèges, je ne les ai compris que péniblement car Zadie Smith est plus ironique que pédagogue (et elle a raison !) ; n’empêche que c’est dur de suivre. Avec les sauts dans le temps aussi. La navigation d’une époque à une autre. Je n’aurais pas craché sur un poil plus d’explications contextuelles.

La meilleure idée du livre selon moi, celle que j’ai pleinement comprise et aimée, en riant souvent, c’est de placer au cœur de cette société patriarcale et raciste une femme intelligente et sarcastique, qui observe tout et a pris l’habitude de tout cacher pour sa sécurité et sa tranquillité. Eliza voit tout, observe tout, juge tout et tous, même Dickens en personne (et il n’est pas épargné par sa sagacité). Elle comprime ses pensées car une femme n’est pas censée penser ni parler politique. Elle supporte en serrant les dents les discussions des littéraires plus ou moins avisés ou alcoolisés, essaie de naviguer dans le petit sillon qui est le sien, se faire sa propre conscience, et agir selon ses convictions. Elle n’a pas beaucoup de marge de manœuvre, mais elle s’y tient. Cette droiture va de pair avec une immense solitude. Solitude que j’ai pleinement ressentie quand elle pose des questions existentielles en son for intérieur, questions qui comptent, cruciales, qu’elle ne peut poser à personne et qui résonnent dans le livre comme autant de coups contre une boîte dans laquelle les femmes et les noirs étaient enfermés en ces temps qu’on voudrait résolument révolus…

Peut-être faudrait-il que je relise ce livre, un jour, en ayant pris les informations nécessaires, en ayant bossé en quelque sorte ! Je crains d’être passé un peu à côté du bijou que ce doit être. Je vous dit, Zadie Smith est plus intelligente que nous. Enfin moi. Mais bon, franchement, elle est au-dessus du lot, largement.

[lifewouldbebetteronmars]

Please clarify in the tags what you voted for on the options that are multiple choice!!!

Tagging: @wagner-fell @hahahax30 @petalsofaflower-shutupthomas

[iishtar]

Articles no. 20

The Musical History Lesson Buried Beneath the Song of the Summer by Dan Charnas Slate June 2024

Zadie Smith is just the latest. Fashion and literature have a long history by Rachel Tashijan Washington Post August 2023

Hyperreal Individualism by Safy Hallan-Farah princess babygirl March 2024

Princess Babygirl Forever by Safy Hallan-Farah princess babygirl February 2024

Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha by Lesley Downer New York Times 2001

A Matter of Survival: On the Value of Fashion in Literature by Rachel Wagner The Millions October 2017

It Girl: A Girardian Analysis by Safy Hallan-Farah princess babygirl June 2024

The 'Espresso' Theory of Gender Relations by Spencer Kornhaber The Atlantic June 2024

Brat Summer: is the long era of clean living finally over? by Zoe Williams The Guardian July 2024

My stepfather sexually abused me as a child. My mother, Alice Munro, chose to stay with him by Andrea Robin Skinner Toronto Star July 2024

[bettsfic]

craft essay a day #4

fuck yesterday's essay. to me, this is the only breakdown of "write what you know" that matters.

"Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction" by Zadie Smith

beginner | intermediate | advanced | masterclass 

filed under: process, character, favorite, pedagogy

summary

yesterday's Johnston essay and today's Smith essay have very similar theses, and yet one upset me deeply (yes, i got so angry i cried; almost nothing upsets me more than the blatant disrespect of the creative process*), and one i take to be the gold standard of this entire discussion. in fact i rely so much on Smith's essay that i rarely bother to come up with my own words on the topic. why would i, when she says it better (and with more authority, knowledge, and wisdom) than i ever could?

*i know that sounds ridiculous, but when you have had dozens of students in your office visibly shaking in terror of receiving individual feedback, or who repeatedly self-sabotage because it's easier to handle failure when you tell yourself you don't care, or who start crying when you compliment their work because that's how rarely anyone gives them praise or attention, it's hard to read something that spits in the face of their experiences. i've had students write in detail about their suicide attempts and they honestly believe it doesn't matter, that those experiences are worthless. i've had students write mountains of love poems for their real partner or ideal partner or horse or one time even just frogs, generally--and they think they don't matter. they think no one cares, no one's listening. and so yeah, when i read an essay that's so narrowly focused, so clearly confirms all these wonderful students' worst fears about writing, about being seen and received and accepted, yes, i get angry.

Smith opens the essay by describing what it feels like to have the voices of so many fictional characters in your head all the time, and quotes the Whitman "i contain multitudes" poem that has now been distorted by internet meme culture in the vein of Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese" and William Carlos Williams' "This Is Just to Say." she uses Whitman to introduce the idea of "containment": that we as writers contain identities other than our own, and in writing about them, face the adage of "writing what you know."

"The old—and never especially helpful—adage 'write what you know' has morphed into something more like a threat: 'Stay in your lane.' This principle permits the category of fiction, but really only to the extent that we acknowledge and confess that personal experience is inviolate and nontransferable. It concedes that personal experience may be displayed, very carefully, to the unlike-us, to the stranger, even to the enemy—but insists it can never truly be shared by them. This rule also pertains in the opposite direction: the experience of the unlike-us can never be co-opted, ventriloquized, or otherwise 'stolen' by us."

to me, what lends the most credence to Smith's argument is that she acknowledges that it's rational and reasonable to be wary of reading/writing a social identity you don't share. containment, she says, has colonial implications, and it's important to consider the greater historical context of oppression.

"Containment—as a metaphor for the act of writing about others—is unequal to the times we live in. These times in which so many of us feel a collective, desperate, and justified desire to be once and for all free of the limited—and limiting—fantasies and projections of other people." 

she then introduces an idea to better represent the concept of containment: "presumption," as defined specifically in a Dickenson poem, writing the presumption of others' grief.

"The counterargument would be that when it comes to presumption, we are in far less danger of error when writer and subject are as alike as possible. The risk of containment is the risk of false knowledge being presented as truth—it is the risk of caricature. Those who are unlike us have a long and dismal history of trying to contain us in false images. And so—the argument runs—if we are to be contained by language, let that language at least be our own."

her argument is nuanced and she makes many other interesting points, however in my summary i'm mostly concerned with defining the terms she sets out as a way to put the abstraction of writing the self/other into sharper relief. (i'm particularly interested in the paragraph about how it's the sentences themselves that create believability, and i have Thoughts on that i'm still working through.)

she concludes with what, to me, is the only answer: it depends. some writers do it right, and some writers do it wrong. some people will agree, some people won't. but you can't make sweeping declarations of what should or should not be, when the question at hand is so complicated.

"We know some representations are privileged and some ignored. Prejudice in these matters must be thought through, each and every time. Is this novel before me an attempt at compassion or an act of containment? Each reader will decide."

my thoughts

between these two essays (Johnston's essay yesterday and Smith's essay today), the ultimate point is that writing fiction is to reach outside oneself, even if we're constrained to our limited identities and experiences. and yet Johnston's essay comes at it from a place of privilege: not just that you can write outside yourself, but you should write outside yourself, and you should not write about yourself. he dismisses differences of race, gender, orientation, ability, and other oppressed social identities into a single paragraph that basically boils down to "don't worry about it." meanwhile, Smith acknowledges that the separation between self and other is a complicated one when considering the entire history of civilization. because within that history (and present), there's systemic oppression of certain social identities. and within that oppression, art exists. literature exists. publishing exists. there are identities and experiences that are offered a platform far wider and higher than others. so no, you can't just say "don't worry about it." thoughtfulness on this topic is imperative.

i labeled this essay "beginner" because i think it's a must-read for all writers and readers. ironically i haven't taught this essay yet, so i don't have a handy dandy lesson plan to quote my talking points or discussion questions. i have, however, been taught this essay in a workshop, and strangely i can't remember how the discussion went, or what i had to say about it, or what anyone else had to say about it either. this is strange namely because i'm very vocal (and possibly overbearing) in group discussion and end up replaying in my head all the things i said, wishing i'd said them better.

it does make me a little sad that Smith sort of declares fiction dead and writes about it in the past tense. i really don't think things are as abysmal as she makes them seem in certain paragraphs. there are a lot of amazing writers out there doing such great work. i don't think fiction is dead. i don't think it can ever die.

it's interesting to think of this essay in the context of fanfiction, because fanfiction is fundamentally about writing the other. we're not writing our characters, we're writing someone else's characters in our way. the concept of "self" in fandom is so flimsy anyway; as authors, as readers, we're usually either pseudonymous or anonymous. we often tuck the self as far away as we can. "write what you know" i think takes on a whole new meaning here. because...what do we know? we know our canon text, its universe and the characters within it. we are the audience receiving it and the creators speaking back to it. the readers of fanfic, presumably in the fandom for which they're reading, are also reading what they know. and yet it's always building new territory. i have a lot to think about still, and this overall topic is one that i'm considering a lot. as time goes on and i learn more, my opinions as writer, as teacher, as editor become more disparate and complicated.

despite that, my final thought is to read widely. read fanfiction, literary fiction, sci fi, fantasy, erotica. read academic journals, pop science nonfiction, memoirs and essay collections. read poems, short stories, novels, 12-book series. read old and new. read in translation. read old favorites with new eyes. read everything.

good news! i'm now cross-posting these entries to AO3, along with inputting a backlog of some of my older posts (the ones about/referring to fanfiction, to keep with the TOS) for better archiving/organizing. (all commercial hyperlinks will be removed and replaced with MLA citations in the end notes.)

craft essay a day tag | writing advice tag | ask me something

[itstuesdayidontknow]

just for personal reference because this is my journal now

fiction

the little stranger, sarah waters

brooklyn crime novel, jonathan lethem

wolf hall, hilary mantel

on beauty, zadie smith

the guest, emma cline

non-fiction

the age of eisenhower, william hitchcock

the bitter road to freedom, william hitchcock

once in a great city, david maraniss

yalta: the price of peace, sm plokhy

the black wave, kim ghattas

fanfiction

rūs riña, cartographies (hotd)

running up that hill, scorpiod (mysterious skin)

games beyond the game, gileonnen (the wire)

those who will wait, kinderhook (hotd)

anchor stitch, sweetandsure (original work)

[queersrus]

hi!!! do you have any names (or pronouns) that are like. prince themed? princess is okay too! /nf :]

oui! of course, ma fleur royale!

prince-

names:

including names of princes and meaning prince

Prynce, Princey, Princie, Princer, Prinze, william, george, louis, harry, andrew, archie, edward, james, richard, michael, oscar, carl, philip, alexander, gabriel, julien, nicolas, haakon, sverre, magnus, frederik, frederick, christian, vincent, joachim, nikolai, felix, henrik, emmanuel, laurent, aymeric, amadeo, baldr, baldur, brioc, cynfael, regulus, brendan, mael, maelys, maelle, armel, adelio, mailys, alaric, balder, griffith, hector, henry, paris, rognvaldr,

1st p: i/me/my/myself

pri/prin/princes/princeself pry/pri/prince/princeself cro/crown/crowns/crownself hi/he/heirs/heirself

2nd p: you/your/yourself

pri/prince/princeself cro/crown/crownself hei/heir/heirself

3rd p: they/them/theirs/theirself

pri/prince/princes/princeself pri/ince, prince/princes cro/crown/crowns/crownself cro/own, crown/crowns crown/crowned crowned/prince he/hir/heirs/heirself he/heir, heir/heirs, he/ir

princess-

names:

including names of princesses and meaning princess

Pryncess, Prinzess, Prinzessa, Princessa, princesse, charlotte, lilibet, beatrice, eugenie, louise, anne, alexandra, michael, catherine, victoria, estelle, madeleine, adrienne, leonore, ingrid, martha, isabella, josephine, athena, elisabeth, eleanore, delphine, astrid, sadie, sarai, sharai, sara, sarah, zadie, soraya, adalinda, aricia, alyssa, anneliese, bano, chelidonis, camilla, damita, damyanti, deoch, diana, eadlin, erendira, farsiris, gormlaith, gladys, izella, kiana, maelie, orla, pari, quille, sabrina, saina, tzeitel, yseult,

1st p: i/me/my/myself

pri/prie/princess/princesself pri/prine/princesses/princesself cro/crown/crowns/crownself ti/tia/tiaras/tiaraself hi/heir/heiress/heiresself

2nd p: you/your/yourself

pri/princesses/princesself cro/crowns/crownself tia/tiaras/tiaraself hei/heiresses/heiresself

3rd p: they/them/theirs/theirself

pri/prine/princesses/princesself prin/cess, princess/princesses cro/crown/crowns/crownself cro/own, crown/crowns crown/crowned crowned/princess ti/tiara/tiaras/tiaraself ti/ara, tiara/tiaras he/heir/heiresses/heiresself heir/ess, heir/heiress, heiress/heiresself

many more names found here

did not include fictional or (many) historical names.