Current student Charlotte Stevenson reflects on her autumnal encounter with celebrated author Ali Smith at a recent event hosted by York Explore Library.
By Charlotte Stevenson
There are few writers who have a way of capturing life in its worst light to show that sometimes, this can be its best. This is perhaps a statement which is not critical enough to please a review column or positive enough to suit a prospective reader flicking through a Goodreads page, but it is one which is true nevertheless. Ali Smith has proven herself time and time again to be one such creative, with each of her projects taking part of the reality around us and translating it into a fiction which has hope.
The first book I read by Smith was Public Library and Other Stories, in which short pieces of prose are mixed with the thoughts of popular British writers (including the wonderful Pat Barker) to chastise cuts to public libraries; often the starting point for any want to be author as a child. After this, I moved through her books quicker than I got through the Harry Potter series. In each I found a rawness in the voicing which brought to life these witty, awful, hilarious, well informed, heart wrenchingly brilliant characters and their alternate realities of the world we live in. Never has this been more true than of her current series which, as with the music made infamous by Vivaldi, is based around the four seasons. Autumn was hailed the first ‘post- Brexit’ novel by the Guardian when it was published in 2016 and the publication of Winter collided with the run-up to the solstice this year.
Fortunately, I was able to procure tickets to go and listen to Ali Smith talk about her latest publication in November at York Explore and (perhaps equally fortunate) was able to finish reading Winter in time, as it was only published two days before the event. Unlike many author-reader events I have been to, this one was incredibly relaxed whilst also maintaining an air of awe at everything shared. Everything was discussed: An analysis of the first few pages of the novel (in which things being ‘dead’ in the 21st Century [E.g. Art is dead] was discussed), why structure is important, original influence behind the books, central themes etc.
But it was when she began to discuss her reading habits and the books which had led to the creation of Winter that things became particularly interesting. I have always known that creative individuals do not exist in a vacuum. Whilst plagiarism is never the way to go, every piece of art is made up from the masterpieces the creator has absorbed and ended up channeling in their own interpretations. For Smith here, major influences included Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The two are used so subtly that, whilst I already knew about the prominence of the Shakespeare, the latter struck me as particularly well used when it was pointed out; it is evident without leaping out as simply a carbon copy of Dickens – but that said, it read like the Dickens of our time. Ali Smith said that reading widely is important in this regard because it means that when you create a response to what is going in the world around you, it’s possible to channel the energy of a particular author. How would they see the present day? And how would they respond?
When the opportunity came up after this to ask questions, my hand was probably the first up. There were so many things I wanted to ask her after the many hours spent reading her thoughts, but the most important thing I thought to bring up in our brief conversation was:
As a reader of books, as someone who loves books, why do you write? What do you hope to give back through your writing to readers? And is this because this is something you look for yourself as a reader?
She paused before answering and in her lilting Scottish accent began with “give me a minute to think”. After a few moments of silence she looked up and answered with, “I want to give people relatability. In an age of increasing difference, young people need to stop saying I don’t like this and I don’t like that and be more accepting; to be critical. To say they don’t agree because of this and to interrogate why they respond the way they do”. This attention to diversity was certainly a recurring leitmotiv throughout the evening so it didn’t come as a surprise that, to such a politically aware writer, this is something she wishes to bring to the forefront of her reading public. And her encouraging of fiction readers to then go out and engage with the world around them, whether that be on a walk, in their own writing or through acknowledging the news, was aided hugely by her own enthusiasm for books. I came away with a list of other current writers she heralded superb, as well as those from across the years which never get old in what they teach.
By the end of the evening, I felt that every subject had been covered and this reminded me yet again why it is that literature is so important to me; in order to discuss one thing within it, you often end up overlapping on a myriad of different topics, each more fascinating and complex than the last. It also felt in a why like, keeping with the theme of seasons, coming full circle in that the conversation began with spring and ended once more with winter. I was last in line to get my book signed and in thinking of what to say to this writer who has given me so much, all I could think of was the stereotypical “I wish that I could write like you” to which she laughed and told me “no, you should wish only to write like yourself”. It took me a few minutes to explain what I meant – that she speaks through her stories with a hope that does not come naturally to me. A hope that is so bright it can make even the bleakest, most grey moment something bearable. I’ll leave you with her response to this, which is the most comforting piece of information I think I have ever been given.
I don’t think that hope comes naturally to any of us. There’s a writer who said once that death is something to be earned and that we must earn the right to die. But, in a similar vein, I think that we have to earn hope. Keep working hard, keep searching, and don’t stop. Here’s to hope.