Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Speaking In Tongues



A friend turned me in to this New York Public Library lecture by one of my favorite writers Zadie Smith, on the topic of speaking in many ways and having many voices in your ear. It is complex and thoughtful, moving from Shakespeare to Little Wayne to Obama to Pygmalion to Eliza Doolittle.

Listen if you have a moment.

3 comments:

Ola said...

Thank you for sharing this.
I just saw White Teeth, as it was available on Hulu. I was surprised I had never heard of Zadie. Now I wish I had come across the actual book before I saw the show. Which of her books do you recommend I start with?

P.S. who is the Captian? I have skimmed your blog and love it, but I feel I am missed something, lol. Maybe I should go back and actually read things properly.

Camille Acey said...

Hi Ola,

God I just watched White Teeth yesterday on Youtube. It is cute, but. I don't think they should allow people who haven't read the book to watch the movie since you just miss so much. The scenes in the movie were so short, it was like a one page outline of the book and everyone was a caricature of the fleshed-out characters from the book. I am sure Zadie Smith probably didn't really like it.

As for reading, begin at the beginning: White Teeth.

The Captain is my partner.

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for this. I've been wondering for a while what she's been up to - I'm expecting/hoping for a novel soon (for better or for worse, she always writes about interesting topics). I look forward to listening to this!