{"id":91849,"date":"2015-11-11T17:02:29","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T22:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=91849"},"modified":"2015-11-11T17:12:24","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T22:12:24","slug":"elle-nous-juge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/11\/elle-nous-juge\/","title":{"rendered":"Elle Nous Juge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

From\u00a0Some Are More Human Than Others<\/i>.<\/p><\/div>\n

Early in 2016, New Directions will publish All the Poems<\/em>, the complete works of Stevie Smith. Smith\u2019s poetry\u2014which Diane Mehta<\/a> called \u201cplayful\u201d and \u201ccarnivalesque\u201d even as she acknowledged the elliptical voice\u2019s \u201cuncertain likeability\u201d\u2014have a well-deserved cult following. This makes sense. Her work has a whimsical flintiness, a combination she somehow pulls off; her performances were cannily theatrical such that people still talk about them today; and her books, as physical objects, are equally intriguing. Consider the literal\u00a0Novel on Yellow Paper<\/em>, or the unapologetically bizarre\u00a0<\/span>Cats in Colour<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>one of the best acts of literary defiance ever written or published.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the many charms of\u00a0All the Poems<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>is that it\u2019s illustrated with her idiosyncratic line drawings. But if you\u2019re not quite ready to tackle seven hundred\u2013plus\u00a0pages of Smithiana (inexplicable!), may I suggest her fauna-themed sketchbook,\u00a0Some Are More Human Than Others<\/a><\/em>? As James MacGibbon explains in the slim book\u2019s introduction, Smith would often write down snatches of overheard conversation and then illustrate them after the fact for her own amusement; this is the result. And like her poems, each sketch speaks volumes\u2014although in what language, one can never be sure. Why these are not tattooed over every limb in Brooklyn, I cannot say.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Sadie Stein is contributing editor of\u00a0<\/i>The Paris Review, and the\u00a0<\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent.
<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early in 2016, New Directions will publish All the Poems, the complete works of Stevie Smith. Smith\u2019s poetry\u2014which Diane Mehta called \u201cplayful\u201d and \u201ccarnivalesque\u201d even as she acknowledged the elliptical voice\u2019s \u201cuncertain likeability\u201d\u2014have a well-deserved cult following. This makes sense. Her work has a whimsical flintiness, a combination she somehow pulls off; her performances were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[20179,165,2047,13134,20180,7030],"class_list":["post-91849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-all-the-poems","tag-poetry","tag-poets","tag-sketches","tag-some-are-more-human-than-others","tag-stevie-smith"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSome Are More Human Than Others: Stevie Smith\u2019s Sketches<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"November 11, 2015 \u2013 Early in 2016, New Directions will publish All the Poems, the complete works of Stevie Smith. 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