A disappointing article appeared in The Guardian today entitled “Get real. Terry Pratchett is not a literary genius“. The journalist who wrote the piece, Jonathan Jones, begins by telling readers that ‘I have never read a single one of his books and I never plan to. Life’s too short.’
I guess that on its own is a bit harsh to write about an author who very recently passed away and cannot defend himself, but at least it isn’t offensive. Well, hold on, because Jonathan Jones wasn’t done there. He decided that it is important that the world knows that ‘Pratchett is so low on my list of books to read before I die that I would have to live a million years before getting round to him.’
As with so many Literary Snobs, Jonathan Jones is acting in a defensive way towards his personal views of what Literature should be. He says the things he does about Pratchett’s work as a result of his fears that us fantasy readers may warp perceptions of what constitutes ‘good Literature’ for future generations. He himself explains that: ‘In the age of social media and ebooks, our concept of literary greatness is being blurred beyond recognition. A middlebrow cult of the popular is holding literature to ransom.’
Terry Pratchett once said, ‘Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one’ and a large part of Mr Jones’s problem seems to lie within the fact that he has, without reading Sir Terry’s work, mis-categoried it as Dragonlance-style fantasy. Should Mr Jones pick up the work of Terry Pratchett he would quickly find that he isn’t just a great writer of Fantasy, rather, Sir Terry Pratchett was one of the world’s finest satirists who used the medium of Fantasy Literature to comment on contemporary life. He would also surmise that it was a unique gift and one that should be celebrated.
The journalist’s argument is underpinned by his thoughts that Sir Terry’s books cannot possibly be labelled as good Literature because ‘all great books, can change your life, your beliefs, your perceptions’. But I’m sure I speak for anyone reading this who has picked up a Terry Pratchett book when I ask: ‘isn’t that exactly what Terry’s work did?’ Whether it was a look at Sexism, Feminism, Racism, Capitalism, Death, Religion, Political Systems – Pratchett was using heroes, orcs, goblins, mages, witches and dragons not to take rings to Mordor, but to explore issues that are affecting peoples’ lives today.
Essentially, Terry Pratchett’s books are a combination of journalism, history and travel twisted-up with Fantasy elements in order to have the reader view real-world events through a different lens. Reading about the creation of the railways or the greed of the banks or battles against racism and social constraints in a non-fiction novel offers some insight, but through Fantasy Sir Terry enabled readers first to see an event as fantastical or silly, but then force them consider just how serious and worrying the real-life equivalent of what we’ve just read about truly is.
I guess we should also comment on the fact that even if Jones doesn’t understand what Pratchett was doing with his work, his attitude is infuriating: “Actual literature may be harder to get to grips with than a Discworld novel, but it is more worth the effort. By dissolving the difference between serious and light reading, our culture is justifying mental laziness and robbing readers of the true delights of ambitious fiction.” For Jones to suggest that every single Fantasy-reader across the world is lazy and using their choice of Pratchett instead of his beloved Grass as proof of this is an example of why Literary Snobs are so hard to respect or even listen to. ‘If you don’t read what we read and applaud along with us then you must be simple or lazy’ is an incredibly sad way of thinking for a person living, working and commenting on art in 2015…
The ultimate outrage for me was Jones’s comments that “life really is too short to waste on ordinary potboilers” when referring to Pratchett. We’ve covered the problems of Literary Critics overlooking Fantasy before here on Fantasy-Faction, but for a journalist to wake up one morning and decide to attack Terry Pratchett’s work and demean people reading and enjoying his work is both heartless and ignorant. The BBC recently covered the release of Terry Pratchett’s final novel and I wonder whether Jones truly thinks that the people interviewed (see below) would be happier if we took their reading experiences of Terry Pratchett’s work and replaced them with memories reading Márquez, Grass, Austen or Bukowski?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNChGb104eQ
All artists have different ways of exploring the world around them and commenting upon it. To dismiss Pratchett’s work because it is unlike James Joyce’s is like dismissing Picasso’s work as art because it isn’t like Leonardo Da Vinci’s. Terry Pratchett spoke to a lot of people and his wit, wisdom and views of the world are just as great of a contribute to Literature as any other author Jones cares to name (again, as he would come to appreciate should he take the time to read a few of Sir Terry’s books!).
To give the final word to Sir Terry:
“They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it’s not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance”
Richard Marpole
Jennie Ivins
So…we should throw Gulliver’s Travels in the bin too? Cause that’s just a silly fantasy, isn’t it?
Very unwise to criticise something you’ve never read.
What Jones apparently fails to realise is that people can enjoy genre stuff AND serious [sic] lit. I can’t be the only reader who loves not only Pratchett (and other fantasy authors) but also Dickens, Austen, & Shakespeare (as in I read them for pleasure not ‘cos I’m a lit snob!).
You know, funny thing…much of the great literature of the past was the potboilers and pulp literature of their day. The literary stuff actually tends to be remembered as the footnotes.
For example, if you asked any cultured Elizabethan who would be remembered as the great writer of their age, they would reply without hesitation: “Christopher Marlowe.” As for this guy who happens to own part of a theatre company writing these crowd-pleasers for the masses, well nobody’s going to remember the low-brow work of a man like William Shakespeare…
Here here man. Well said. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
That’s the kind of criticism that books written by women for women receives every day. Welcome to the world of arrogant idiots with no journalistic or critical skills writing about something they know nothing about.
I have never read a single one of his articles, and I never plan to. Life’s too short.
Hmmm… What would Mr. Jones have had to say about Dickens. “His characters aren’t realistic!” “The hoi polloi enjoy them!” “It’s serialized trash!”
I happen to adore Pratchett and Dickens both. Plus many other “low” and “high” authors.
Life’s too short not to get a kick out of what you read – even if it does change your life and stuff.
Why should we give a critique of something by someone who has never read it the time of day, again? I mean, that’s just inherently silly.
Though I write novels now, I’ve never taken a creative writing course. I tried once, in the last semester of college. I showed up, and on the (I think) second day, the professor went off on a lecture about how there was genre fiction, and there was LITERATURE. Literature was deserving of praise, was worthy of effort, whereas all other fiction, most especially sci-fi and fantasy, was lesser.
I never went back to that class. And yes, I’ll admit that at least part of the reason was because it was my last semester, and it seemed too much like effort when I was coasting to the end. (Okay, that might have been 70+% of the reason. Senioritis is real.) But it was with Terry Pratchett’s books in mind that I knew that professor was full of shit.
People without the empathy to understand that different books can touch different people’s lives in different ways should be ignored. Especially those without the self-awareness to know that, if you haven’t read the damn thing, maybe you should make your argument with one helluva caveat. And not be so damn proud of your ignorance.
Though I did laugh when I saw that the Guardian had published an article rebutting this piece. Profiting off the controversy, I suppose.
“I have never read a single one of his books and I never plan to. Life’s too short.”
And I pretty much stopped reading right there.
Dear Mr Jones
OOK!
And I mean that sincerely!
The bit about how Marquez’s work, “can change your life, your beliefs, your perceptions” really stood out to me because, well, it didn’t. I enjoyed One Hundred Years of Solitude, but when I finished the semester I put it on my bookshelf and haven’t thought about it since then. The books that have changed my life have almost invariably been fantasy, including, yes, Sir Terry’s works.
“I have never read a single one of his books and I never plan to. Life’s too short.”
Isn’t writing an article about someone you never read an ultimate low in journalism? I thought that journalism was supposed to include some aspect of research if it was to be taken seriously.
Also, I don’t see the connection between reading fantasy/scifi and not reading Literary Snob Approved authors. I have no problem juggling my Pratchetts, Gaimans, Leckies with my Haushofers, Austens, Joyces, Bröntes and so on.
I think provocation is the sole reason behind this article.
Nice article Marc, unfortunately this is not surprising, the Guardian does itself few favours and seems to be on a mission to destroy it’s share of a declining market.
I look forward to Mr Jones collected works reaching 73 million copies sold until that point his words have very little meaning. Oh but he is an art critic not a writer. Eminently, then qualified to write about the newly dead as his refinement and taste must be above question and so close to the release of Terry’s last published work, what a gentleman.
Jones obviously cannot judge anyone’s work without reading it but he can troll the internet and populist opinion through the fading influence of dead tree media and his clickbait website.
1400+ comments were made on this article and nearly all of then telling him he is an arrogant ass.
Missinginaction sums it up far better than I am able.
“To describe a writer whose works you haven’t read as mediocre is arrogance of the highest calibre, but to expect to be paid for such atrocious bilge is a sure sign of hubris. “
Wow, what an ignorant a**hole. Bashing something you haven’t even read is so unprofessional, I wonder why the Guardian even gave him the platform to do so…
In all honesty Jones’ article probably only got published because the people in charge know it will get other people riled up. I bet their sales are low so they took the low road and published some bashing. Hey whatever puts them in the spotlight right? (sarcasm)
You can have opinions about stuff you’ve never read, but don’t write a critique or review about the work or the author. The ignorance displayed…I have no words. Jones is just a flash in the pan. Long live Pratchett.
PS. We should all go out and buy a Pratchett novel and mail it to Jones. That’ll show him.
To be fair, The Tin Drum is an amazing book. But so is Mort.
Another thing to mention is that even an ordinary run-of-the-mill fantasy book like ‘Dragonlance’ had a far more profound affect on my view of the world and literature than did any of the Jane Austen books I’ve read, or even any of the literary fiction I’ve read. Fantasy has at its core an element of the numinous that Jones’ chosen field of literary fiction cannot aspire to, by virtue of its very refusal to enter the realm of the fantastical.
As for Pratchett, I’ve mentioned it on Twitter and in my comments on the Guardian article itself. His work was able to make me smile and laugh in a time when I was suffering from deep depression, and that infusion of emotion is probably literally what saved my life. My life is only as long as it has been because of Terry Pratchett, so I find the implication that ‘life’s too short’ for his work to be offensive to my very core. You