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New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues

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ObtuseIntolerant
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
Oh I meant to say this earlier...thanks for the piece on this gorgeous, wonderful brown girl role model. I love her.
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LyleFelange
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
Wow. I find Smith's argument (well, what's presented of it here) and most of these comments to be pretty ludicrous. I'm was a first-generation college student, now a first-generation Ph.D. The idea that because your parents didn't go to college necessarily means they wouldn't understand Anna Karenina is laughable at best and deeply classist at worst. My Dad's a construction worker who reads about string theory in his spare time. Not to mention...who gives a shit if someone's READ Anna K., let alone understood it. I can think of far more useful barometers of intelligence. I've also known quite a few idiots who were big fans of that dreadful book.
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Dogtanian
12/15/08

@LyleFelange: Yes. I'm actually rather stunned by this, as I'm the only person in my family to have gone to university and my parents are still two of my favourite people to talk to, that's despite an education gap, being opposite ends of the political spectrum and different religions. Interesting people are interesting people.

Also, I don't know if it's a U.S thing , since university education is so expensive there, but there seems to be far more personal importance placed on what you studied and it's impact on you in the U.S then in the U.K
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Diziet_Sma
12/15/08

@LyleFelange: Exactly! What you said. I am first-gen college and my mother is way more intelligent and interesting to talk to than, well, most people.
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Cam/ron
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
My dad and I have the same sense of humor (he raised me on Monty Python and Jewish comedy) and share a few political views but there's a little class divide between us. He's from the white-collar middle class as a former office supervisor, and I'm in the white-collar working class as a community newspaper reporter and music writer. He could never understand the worlds of unpaid internships, freelance writing that usually gets paid chump change as well as how little money is in the pockets of independent media.
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nex0s
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
I loved "White Teeth" but really disliked "On Beauty". I found myself profoundly annoyed by her second novel - it felt.... juvenile, whereas her first novel was so marvelous, it was a real let down.

I don't know if I can read this. I don't want to have my heart broken again!
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nessalicious
12/15/08

@nex0s: On Beauty was her third novel.
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nex0s
12/15/08

@nessalicious: Whoops! What's her second then? Just curious because I loved "White Teeth" so much.
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nessalicious
12/15/08

@nex0s: Autograph Man got terrible reviews but I really enjoyed it, it was much more light hearted than either White Teeth or On Beauty though, bit fluffy.

Then again I am a Zadie fangirl so my opinion is super biased.
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sportz.star
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
It's true that the problem of talking to your parents once you've achieved the goal of gaining more education, better employment, and "social status" (for lack of a better way to describe it) is rarely addressed. Someone should write that book. I could provide stories. Clashes occur about mundane things. Sometimes it's not easy.
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AthertonMerriweather
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
I was the first in my family to go to college, but I feel like my mother resents me for it. She's constantly telling me how easy I have it compared to when she was my age because I have an education. She's openly said that she wishes I didn't go to college because I only make her feel dumb.
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thesciencegirl wields the truth like a mighty axe.
12/15/08

@AthertonMerriweather: My mom sends mixed signals. She always told me to get an education and worry about marriage and kids later because she felt that she had no choices. So, I did that. But her insecurity about her intellect poisons our relationship sometimes. When she gets really upset with me, her favorite "insult" is to call me intellectual. "Don't be so intellectual," she'll say. It really hurts my feelings. It's not like I'm pretentious. But, okay, maybe my vocabulary and way of expressing myself is different from the rest of my family. It's tough.
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Jessi Ramsey
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
I'm the first person in my family to go to college and it is hard to talk about what I'm reading or current events sometimes. I'm the type of person that when I learn something new that really interests me I love sharing it with whomever will listen. It's easier with my dad who loves history and reading but not so much with my mom. With her it's easier to talk about the Real Housewives.
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bess marvin, girl detective
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
between zadie and that ad of eva green, there is too much beauty right now.
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ambitious
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
She has chipped away at my hate for her (the vernacular use in On Beauty - I still cannot forgive you, Zads!) by being charming at readings and this story, this history makes me edge towards loving her in full.
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PilgrimSoul
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
As a person who's now in a different class from her parents, a-fucking-men, Zadie. I am not a big fan of yours, but I basically feel as though I have no common culture with my family now, and it's a weird fend-for-yourself kind of existence.
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Dauphine
12/15/08

Anthrophagy, mm!

@PilgrimSoul: I so know how you feel. There came a point where, when my parents were asking me about school and I was trying to explain it, that we just stopped the whole thing because it was almost like trying to converse in two different languages. The "no common culture" is a very alienating experience and by the time you realize it, it almost seems like you can't undo it.
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girlhappy
12/15/08

@Dauphine: My parents wanted to read my master's thesis, and my mom's response was to tell me that it was well-written, and then to send me a copy of her garden club newsletter, to show me what *she* had been writing. Sigh. The gulf is wide, and real, and sad.
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Sev
12/15/08

@PilgrimSoul: I've had the same experience. Not with my parents as much, but with my extended family. If we're not talking about the weather or another family member, we have nothing to talk about.
I may have a BA and I'm on my way to getting my masters, but I feel like I had to trade in any ties to my family to get those things. However, considering how crazy my family is, maybe it's not a bad thing.
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PilgrimSoul
12/15/08

@Sev: I'm sorta with you there - my severance with my family is not monocausal - but I just feel sad when I'm chattering away about what books I read and my parents are like, "huh"?

The flip side of this too is that I don't quite fit in enough to my "new" class either because my childhood was not dominated by parents who wanted me to read all the write books and love the symphony and listen to CBC Radio...
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thesciencegirl wields the truth like a mighty axe.
12/15/08

@girlhappy: I'm the first person to go to grad school on either side of my family. Last year, I had to present a proposal of my grad research on malaria. They streamed it over the web, and my parents wanted to watch. My dad (1st gen college grad in his family) understood the intro at least (he's a computer guy, so microbiology is not really his thing). My mom told me that my hair looked nice. :-/

Sometimes, the divide makes me uncomfortable, but mostly, they're just proud. I wonder what it will be like when I'm out-earning my dad. Actually, I look forward to being able to help out my parents in their old age.
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Evie Havok
12/15/08

@PilgrimSoul: @thesciencegirl:@Sev: Although my parents didn't get completely through college we still have a lot to talk about. There's always something to talk about. My parents still listen when I tell them about my class and then they ask. They ask for things to be explained. It's fun telling them what I've learned and having them learn new things. I don't know if that's the "great divide or all. But I have no problem at all because at least my parents are interested and like to ask about what I'm studying. Then there's also politics which is . . . eh . . . interesting to talk about with family members.
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sportz.star
12/15/08

@PilgrimSoul: Yes! Mom did college, dad didn't, I'm a lawyer. They ask to read my stuff whenever I publish an article or something and they always respond that they believe it's well written but don't have a clue what I'm talking about. We talk sports when I'm home.
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sventurata
12/15/08

@PilgrimSoul: So you have no common values from your childhood? No shared beliefs or interests?

A good education should make people more, not less, empathetic with others. If you can parse difficult theories from other eras, surely you can get the mixed emotions that come from seeing another generation supersede one's life-lived knowledge?
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aspiringexpatriate
12/15/08

@sventurata: Ah, you're getting a "good education" mixed up with an "upper class" education. Both are possible to get at upper crust universities, but you actually have to work hard to get a "good" one.

@PilgrimSoul: I don't think my parents and I have such a great divide, I'm more second generation, and my dad was always intellectually inclined. He still made sure I understood the value of the working class, for which I'm grateful. So many of my peers didn't.

As for Smith, I've still not read any of her novels. I did however hear her read "How to Love Like a Boy," a story about a girl at uni falling in love with another girl. So I've always respected her writing ability.
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Evie Havok
12/15/08

@aspiringexpatriate: I really want to know what an "upper class" education is? Tell.
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Aesop's Foibles. YES.
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
When it becomes available to read on the NY, I'll read it. I loved White Teeth. It was sad and interesting and funny and had a poetic flavor all throughout. She is teh awesome.
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