Germaine Greer can always be relied on to rattle people’s cages… and she’s upset a lot of people by comments made at the Brisbane Writer’s Festival. You can see one version in the Brisbane Times (Fairfax) and another in the Courier Mail (News Ltd)
There are two main things that upset people – the assertion that 47% of Queenslanders are not sufficiently literate to read complex documents, news stories etc. Reading the comments, I think that 47% seems somewhat understated but we won’t take those who rage on the comments sections of news sites as representative.
The second was that she dared to question why there are children’s events at the Writers Festival. How refreshing it is when you hear someone publicly question something you’ve always doubted.
I used to go to the BWF, decades ago – in the days when it was a writer’s festival – that is a festival for writers and for people who are serious about the business of writing. Before you shriek “money” I don’t mean the publishing industry, I mean the serious work that is about words, meanings, influences, ideas, philosophy, politics. Bringing writers together, both visiting and local writers, to discuss, debate, to listen and generate is a worthwhile thing to do. But where do children’s events fit into that? They don’t.
A thoughtful, literate young person who aspires towards the literary world could benefit from going along to serious events and taking it all in. Indeed, giving such a student days off school to do so would be eminently sensible.
But organised events especially for children? What exactly do they achieve? Book sales? Yes. Warm fuzzy feelings about kids having fun with books? Yes. A day that looks like “quality time” to put on a school newsletter? Yes. But not much else. I would suggest that the beneficiaries of the children’s events are not the children but the adults.
I doubt that such events will encourage non-readers to want to learn to read, or expand many young horizons. Many of these things are better achieved by events like Book Week, author visits to schools, decent arts programs on television, and sitting quietly and reading.
So, thank you Germaine for pointing out the obvious. Writers festivals are for writers, writing and ideas. The children’s events serve a totally different purpose and dilute rather than enhance a writer’s festival.
