Tag Archives: Ali Smith

Ali Smith – an endless inspiration

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/ali-smith-how-i-write

A few minutes ago, I was reading this old interview with Ali Smith.

With a few clicks on the keyboard, I found myself in the dashboard of this cobwebbed and abandoned blog.

It’s been quite a while since I read any of her works or went down a rabbit hole of nibbling bits and pieces of articles about the great woman on the internet. And it’s been so long since I last blogged. Pardon me, for I seriously couldn’t find meaningfulness behind blogging about books and literature, when I was not reading much.

At this point, I’m sure that I have lost my 3-person readership. But this is more for me to just write all the overwhelming, melancholic and depressing thoughts in my head and less for the sake of others. And I will try and do less pointless meandering because this is also about Ali Smith and I really want to say something beautiful about her.

Ali Smith Annotation Project | literary analysis

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Ali Smith is my favourite writer for many reasons. Her whimsical prose, her curious characters, the way her works look at everything with such compassion and curiosity, are some of the prominent reasons why her books appeal to me. Her stories are extremely optimistic and they thrive with art and life. But they are not just bubbles of forced fictional optimism. Rather they are the celebration of so many things – art, life, death, good, bad, literature, books, bricks, buildings, form, style, gender, sex, women, laughter, words, ghosts and as I type this with an enthusiastic fervour, the list keeps going on. Because that woman is amazing. And reading her books makes me experience all of these emotions at once.

Ali Smith grew on me over time. Initially, I struggled a little to get into her world. I remember reading the first few pages of Winter and thinking ‘okay, this is one of those pretentious surreal books’ (Oh the BLASPHEMY!!!). But when I finally got into her world and let the quirky, whimsical and witty tone of her stories get to me, I kind of bonded with them.

Ali Smith writes these hilarious, short but whirlwind of stories and they are such a comfort to read.

In 2021, I am on a mission to reread and annotate all the Ali Smith’s books that I own and just pour my heart out about them. These posts aren’t going to be in the form of reviews. I am not going to rate them or recommend them. I am just going to be pretty self-indulgent and write about my fEeLiNgs about them. And I hope that it is interesting and insightful in some ways to others too.

Looking forward to a year of delightful fangirling.