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”
