The power of literature portrayed in Ali Smith’s There but for the
This week’s #FictionFriday is brought to you by Chiara van Ommeren.
‘A lot of the people Anna had seen had trouble speaking, either because of translation problems or because a rain of blows had made them distrust words. Or both. Translation was sometimes itself a little rain of blows. How could what had happened to them be possible in one language, never mind be able to be retold in another?
In any language, it was almost always about what home was.’
Here Smith highlights the importance of words, how important it is to have a voice, to be heard and to be able to communicate. Not just because the people Anna sees have trouble speaking, but also because Anna needs to shorten the things that they are able to say for her job. Similarly to certain people, or certain groups, nowadays that are not heard. The importance of language is connected to the feeling of home, of having somewhere to belong. A very powerful message.
‘What would it be like, to be crouched, hidden, for thousands of miles in a dark lorry full of lightbulbs? Everything round you, to the sides of you, towering above you, would be light and fragile, cardboard and glass, and you would know, too, that each of the thousands of bulbs in the truck heading blindly of a lightsocket somewhere, was held more secure, padded up in its box inside a box, and on its way to a surer destination than you.
You would know yourself to be worth less than a lightbulb.’
There but for the, Ali Smith, 2011
Through all my reading I have come to appreciate Ali Smith as a writer. It is extremely refreshing to read a writer who is not scared to write about contemporary politics and does not shy away from the strength that literature can have. I strongly recommend reading her books.