Fail Better

“... somewhere between a critic’s necessary superficiality and a writer’s natural dishonesty, the truth of how we judge literary success or failure is lost.”

In a two article series for The Guardian, Zadie Smith (White Teeth, On Beauty) doesn’t pull any literary punches. Smith’s lengthy, two-part piece is wonderful, managing as it does to be both accessible (“That’s how young readers are, too, when they start out. They are doubters and seekers.”) and urbane (She quotes both Kierkegaard and Nobokov while somehow never losing her of-the-reading-masses tone).

I have said that when I open a book I feel the shape of another human being’s brain. To me, Nabokov’s brain is shaped like a helter-skelter. George Eliot’s is like one of those pans for sifting gold. Austen’s resembles one of the glass flowers you find in Harvard’s Natural History Museum.

There’s so much here that is terrific, the temptation is just to quote and quote and quote: most of what Smith shares in the space is worth repeating. But I’ll save both of us the effort: part one is here, put two is here. Savor it for yourself.