'We refuse to be each other'

In October I saw Zadie Smith deliver a lecture at the New Yorker Festival. At the time I thought, 'Yes, she's done it, she's put something central and unspoken about writing into words that are exactly right, and then she's managed to think about it intelligently.' More than any of her novels (which I like just fine), this lecture convinced me that Zadie Smith is really, really smart, and that she might turn out to be Major. I was disappointed when she said, in response to a question, that she wasn't planning to include it in a book of essays on literature she's preparing.

RoBros' much-beloved mutual mother has just alerted me to the fact that the lecture's text was published in the Guardian last month. It turns out that it's as good as I thought it was. Part one can be read here; part two is here. It is long, so you should print it out.