MacTempest in a MacTeapot
An article on the Scotsman site reports on the lively debate in the Scottish media over the state of the nation’s contemporary literature. One camp claims that Scottish authors repeatedly depict Scotland as “a country populated by inward-looking people who celebrate failure and revel in a culture of poverty.” The latest to champion this view is Jenny Brown, a literary agent and former director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, who said, “In an age where readers are looking for feel-good novels, Scotland excels at feel-bad books.” The other side argues that Scottish authors are simply offering an accurate depiction of the national psyche, often with great humour and compassion. Bob McDevitt, head of the Scottish office of Hodder Headline, defends the authors by saying, “their characters are unemployed, dispossessed, drug-addicted, divorced, but there is still a modern sense of humour.” Actor Robert Carlyle was less restrained, calling the criticism “a fucking ridiculous thing to say…. It’s all right for people sitting in wee middle-class jobs in wealthy parts of Edinburgh or Perth, but a lot of people are outside of that.”
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Read the Scotsman piece
