Zadie Smith Reading Responses
- Who is Zadie Smith, and why should we pay attention to her essay?
Zadie Smith is an English novelist and essay writer. She has written about race religion and other hard topics. She is known for work like this and is a veteran in the writing world.
2. In what ways does Smith “distinguish between joy and pleasure” and how do these distinctions match up with your own interpretations of the two experiences?
Zadie Smith says that joy cannot come from little moments, but pleasure can. I disagree with her because for me the little moments are where I get my joy from. Smith, however, has only felt joy 5 or 6 times in her entire life. I think it is because she holds her idea of joy to a higher standard. She feels pleasure from many things but not joy. Smith says, “Until quite recently I had known joy only five times in my life, perhaps six, and each time tried to forget it soon after it happened…” (Smith 331). She says it herself that only in those times has she thought that she felt joy. Her standard of what she wants from joy is too high.
3. According to Smith, why is joy difficult to manage, and live with? Do you agree with her? Why or why not? Practice using a complete Quote Sandwich (utilizing a direct quote from the essay) within your response.
I understand what she means, but I see it as something to center myself. Without joy, I would be so mean and negative. Joy helps me stay optimistic and I think that is very important. Smith wrote “For as long as that high lasted, they seemed to pass beyond their own egos. And it might really have been joy…” (333). She says it herself that the people around you can help bring you joy, and that it does not matter how often you feel it, as long as it is a genuine feeling, like she said this was, you should consider it joy and use it to make yourself feel better so those around you will hopefully notice and do the same.
4. In a well-developed paragraph, respond to the following question: What’s the value of reading about, thinking about, and discussing joy?
Joy is something that is only ever talked about in children’s books, trying to teach kids to be happy with what they have. It is really unfortunate because if people started writing about joy in an academic setting, I think that people would start recognizing that there is joy all around them, waiting for people to see it. I also think that if people decided to write about joy in a non-academic way, like in a fiction novel, it could help lots of people who haven’t been able to feel joy due to their circumstances.
5. How does Smith’s essay overlap or connect or contradict previous readings from this semester?
I think that it goes well with DFW because he talks about being mindful of others, and Smith talks about something similar when she is talking about the smileys. Their willingness to help, and happily do it, makes others feel happy. DFW talks about cutting someone off, it will make them angry, but you did it because you are angry you are caught in traffic. Well no one wants to be stuck in traffic so if you use that mindset then I think that your traffic will be less infuriating.
