An Evening with Doris Lessing
Edith Kurzweil:
I woul d li ke to introd uce Do ris Lessing, who has been
kind enough to co lli e in and talk to us. I don't thin k she needs much of an
introduction. Eve rybody knows her and everything she's done. Just to
remind you , some of her mos t famo us novels are
The Crass is Singing,
the
ChildrclI (ifViolellce seri es-Martha Q llcst, Tilc FOll r-cated City,
as well as the
rece nt book,
Love,A,\!aill.
Of course,
T ilc coldC/! No tebook
is w hat everybody
keeps rememberi ng. Her new book,
Wa lkillg ill til e Silade,
pa rt o f her auto–
biography, is in the stores . Do ri s Lessin g will speak fo r abo ut a half hour
and th en she w ill be happy
to
answe r ques tions.
Doris Lessing:
I'm in N ew York to promo te my book
Wa lkillg ill the
Silade,
whi ch is in the bookshops. It is th e second vo lume. T hat's all I'm
go in g to say abo ut that. I've done my duty.
I want to talk about somethin g else, which I've no doubt is of grea t
concern to all of you , it's what we call "dumbin g down ." I hear abo ut
nothin g else here and in England , so w hil e I don't thin k anything I'm
going to say is goin g to be startlingly novel, perhaps just putting it togeth–
er mi ght be a help. What is happenin g in Britain reveals the vari ous
symp toms of thi s ra th er terribl e situati on. Fo r exampl e, you fi nd that hi gh–
ly- educa ted peopl e and literary peopl e say, "Oh wel l, I' m no t go ing to
read that. It's too lo ng.
T il e M lltllal Frielld
is too di ffic ul t and anyway I don't
understand all th e words." T hi s is a kin d of style o r stance w hich is regard–
ed as qui te amusin g. Th ese are no t lazy o r stupi d peopl e, but th ey are
behaving lazily and stupi dly and apparentl y do n't know it. T here 's no
shame attac hed to it. One of our bri ght young men announ ced (I've fo r–
go tten whi ch literary paper it was in ) that if he had been around w hen
Virgini a Woolf jumped, he would have been very happy to make sure she
drowned and woul dn't come up. Aga in : thi s is a very "smart" remark,
admired . An o th er littl e symptom is that the classics are being abbreviated ,
are being publi shed in sho rtened and easy fo rms, and no one thinks thi s is
terrible o r shameful o r in any way remarkabl e. I'm just describing things
that I' m sure will no t surpri se you . An o ther thing is w hat's going on w ith
publi shers. If publi shers are here, I've got a feelin g th ey w ill agree w ith
whatever I say because the publi shin g houses are packed full of peopl e w ho
love li te rature and wh ose hea rts are be in g broken all the time by w hat hap–
pens, by the reign of the accountants.
T here is a ph enomenon which I call the Edu ca ted Barbarian . Thi s is
someone who could have been in schoo l or uni versity fo r many yea rs,
could have won pri zes by the score, and at th e end has read no thin g, knows
