Doris Lessing has won the Nobel Prize for literature. Good on her and good on them. Not only is she a fantastic novelist but she's a lovely woman; she came to give a talk to my bookgroup a few years ago and we were all in awe. I must admit that I've only read one of her books, 'The Golden Notebook', which was striking and memorable if occasionally baffling, and without doubt an incredibly important work for and about female writers - I'd say seminal, but that is entirely the wrong word. Ovarian? And now, as the BBC website says in its po-faced way, "She can... expect a rise in sales", including, probably, to me.The Nobel prize money is £763000. Doris Lessing is 87 years old. What would you do with £763000 if you were 87? I think I would develop a massive drug habit. It's clearly idiotic to become a crack and heroin addict at 31 where you're in serious danger of losing your health, your family, your friends, your career, and eventually all of your money, leaving you in a life of degradation and crime. At 87, though, and with a spare £763000 in your pocket, it seems like a pretty good option. You'd be hard pushed to spend all of that on even the best drugs, your health is shot anyway, most of your family and friends are probably dead, and it's certainly not too young to retire. I am fully planning to spend the kids' inheritance on drugs, which my grandchildren can score for me and bring over to the nursing home. What else are you going to do with your twilight years? Watch 'This Morning'? Knit?
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10 comments:
Lovely to have you visit, Marie, and lovely to discover your blog in return.
I find bits of Doris Lessing baffling too - even more so these days when I'm no longer an earnest 20-something.
I'm sure once she uses the Nobel dosh to build up a decent Ice addiction her next novel will once again be clear to me...
Marie, if you're going to boost her sales try The Canopus in Argus series - SF at it's dazzling intellectual best. Well I thought so at the time...
PS Sorry. Forgot to answer your question. I think I would definitely start smoking again (feel too guilty about the kids now) and if I were widowed I think I might try to have inappropriate sex with strangers on the basis that that would REALLY embarrass the grandchildren.
Good plan, Jane. You could get some high quality male escorts for £763000. And a whole lot of post-coital cigarettes.
I think I'd take up really high risk extreme sports, like base jumping or free diving, in exotic locations. Great craic and, at 87, a relatively low risk endeavour, no?
Hmmn...maybe eighty-seven is a good age to finally try LSD. ("Just to see what the stink was about/ There goes the neighbourhood...")
The only thing I've read by Doris Lessing that I understood is a short story entitled "To Room Nineteen". It depressed me so inutterably that I've never had the courage to read it again. So I'd steer away from that when I finally drop acid...
I'd pay someone to do all the boring things I hate doing for me and pay them very well.
And spend the rest on booze and chocolates.
You could buy a lot of red hats for that kind of cash, and always have money left for butter.
Persephone I'll have to agree to disagree, I thought To Room Nineteen was brilliant (though you're right it isn't exactly a happy tale). I'd forgotten the title yesterday, so thanks for reminding me. I can't remember anything at all about The Golden Notebook though.
I didn't say it wasn't brilliant, Jane, just that it depressed me beyond belief. Obviously, it has stuck with me, even with only one reading! I think, even at age 22 (the age I was when I read it), it was hitting too close to home.
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