Furthermore, Smith does not believe that there should be a difference between a president's voice and the many voices that a poet can have. All of our voices should be able to coexist. However, Smith admits that she is unsure of the possibility of a multi-voiced president: "My audacious hope in Obama [his different voices] is based, I'm afraid, on precisely such flimsy premises." (194) Smith continues to talk about her opinion in the next paragraph where she states, "We'll see if Obama's lifelong vocal flexibility will enable him to say proudly with one voice, 'I love my country,' while saying with another voice, 'It is a country like other countries'"(194). As Smith says, I guess we will have to see if President Obama's voices will be effective or not.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
5 of 12: The Voices of a Poet and President Obama
According to Zadie Smith's essay Speaking in Tongues, it is better for a poet to have multiple voices than it is for a president. "Being many-voiced may be a complicated gift for a president, but in poets it is a pure delight in need of neither defense nor explanation" (193).
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Thank you for this interesting post! Basically, you are saying that you agree with Smith in all that she writes? As much as I agree that to have flexibility in one's voice is important and that it could be beneficial for the President as well, I feel that it is also risky for the president to utilize all his voices; when is the right time to use different voices? I suppose in different situations, it would be beneficial.
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