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WPF Reading Guide How to Be Both Ali Smith

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WPF Reading Guide How to Be Both Ali Smith 25 2015 WINNER HOW TO BE BOTH BY ALI SMITH AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY in the present day – that, depending on the copy of the book you have, either comes first or second in Ali Smith was born in Inverness in 1962. She is the reading order. The plot isn’t hampered by whichever author of many novels, including most recently way you read the novel, but the ordering of the Autumn, Winter and Spring in the ‘Seasonal’ quartet. novel in this way questions ‘what comes first’ in any Her 2014 novel How to be Both won creative process. the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize and the Costa When George’s mother takes her to Novel of the Year Award. She has also see the frescoes in the Italian palazzo, been shortlisted once for the Orwell she asks her which comes first: the Prize, twice for the Orange Prize and artist’s sketches, or the painting four times for the Man Booker Prize, looked at by the observer? Though among many other prizes. Ali Smith George realises that the sketch is the lives in Cambridge. first part to exist, she also comes to see that the sketches are also then PLOT SUMMARY obscured forever by the paint, which will be the only part of the finished 16-year-old Georgia (or George) artwork to be seen by visitors to is dealing with her mother’s recent the gallery. death. As she stands looking at a painting in an art gallery, the spirit of In terms of other ‘which came first?’ Italian Renaissance artist Francesco questions the book asks, Del Cossa’s del Cossa returns to Earth from story comes first from a historical Heaven to consider George’s situation in relation to perspective, but on the other hand, George’s story his own life. Two tales of love and injustice twist into comes first in terms of the reader’s closeness to her a singular yarn where time gets timeless, knowing in time. gets mysterious, fiction gets real – and all life’s givens Lastly, whichever way around the reader accesses get given a second chance. the story is their ‘first’, and the order that they will thereafter remember the story, giving a 50-50 WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR degree of personalised versioning to the process How to be Both contains a dual narrative – one story of reading the book. In this way, Smith gives some told by the Italian renaissance artist Francesco del of the control, usually reserved for an all-powerful Cossa in the 1400s and one by George, a teenage girl author of the novel, to the reader. www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk © Women’s Prize for Fiction The Women’s Prize Trust is a registered charity (charity number 1181253) HOW TO BE BOTH BY ALI SMITH DISCUSSION POINTS QUESTIONS How to be Both contains a theme of gender identity How do George and her mother relate to Francesco’s in both narratives, as well as the theme of women experience, and he/she to theirs? hiding their identities in the art world. George’s What did the ‘sunlight’ of government attention and mother, part of a small group of Guerrilla Girls- being spied on by the mysterious Lisa Goliard do for style ‘Subvert Interventionists’, keeps her identity George’s mother? secret in order to perform and organise a number of What happens when Barto becomes aware of computer hacks and activist appearances. Francesco’s secret identity? In Francesco’s story, Francesco Why do you think women artists is in fact a girl living as a young and writers continue to produce man, which is the only way that work under male or androgynous she can be an artist. In George’s pseudonyms? story, George (preferring the androgynous form of her name Georgia) develops a romantic NEXT STEPS relationship with her female friend Describe a famous painting or H. On the reveal of her identity sculpture, either find it online as a young woman to her friend or go to a gallery or space and Barto on page 279, Francesco describe it as you see it. Be as says: detailed as you can, and describe “It was as simple as agreement, what you see, rather than using as understood and accepted and any previous knowledge about as pointless to mention as the the work. Note the colours, fact that we all breathed the same expressions, textures, smells or air: but there are certain things even tastes you associate with it. that, said out loud, will change the There’s no right or wrong hues of a picture like a too-bright interpretation; be as thorough as sunlight continually you can in connecting with the artwork and noting hitting it will.” what it means to you. Then, find out its given meaning How does this statement relate to contemporary or theme – either what the artist intended or the experiences of identity? What’s changed for people popular interpretation of the work. Does it change now? Do people still have to ‘hide’ their identities in how you perceive it? Which interpretation do you any way? prefer?’ For something extra, experiment with observing the people around you at a gallery or space where there ANCIENT AND MODERN MEET AND SPEAK TO EACH OTHER is artwork. Observe them looking at and talking IN THIS TENDER, BRILLIANT AND WITTY NOVEL OF GRIEF, about the art. Write about two different people’s LOVE, SEXUALITY AND SHAPE-SHIFTING IDENTITY. observations, or what you think their thoughts might SHAMI CHAKRABARTI, be looking at the art. Maybe intersperse their thoughts CHAIR OF JUDGES 2015 into one descriptive piece told by two voices. Does doing this make you see the artwork differently? BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS THE BLAZING WORLD BY SIRI HUSTVEDT HOW TO PAINT A DEAD MAN BY SARAH HALL www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk © Women’s Prize for Fiction The Women’s Prize Trust is a registered charity (charity number 1181253).
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