For Zadie Smith, fiction 'now seems like a bit of an outrage'

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The award-winning author of White Teeth and On Beauty talks about the new radical power of fiction and the book in our current era.

In Australia for talks at the Wheeler Centre and Sydney Opera House, Smith talked about how our consumption of books and news and the written word has dramatically changed — and changed us in the process.

"Suddenly, there's this very scandalous feeling of, 'Why should I have to read this thing which isn't real?' That's suddenly [society's] feeling."But books have acquired a curious new currency in the digital, data-driven 'surveillance age', says Smith. "When I am feeling very optimistic I think the future of fiction is a radical future of people who are really determined to exist in the privacy of books."When Smith was writing White Teeth, she couldn't imagine anyone other than her family and friends and members of the north-west London community where she lived reading or understanding it.

 

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So....is this a public interest story........or an advertorial for the author? One of those options seems inappropriate for a government funded broadcaster.

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