You've got a big relevance problem, Germaine. Just get on with it. Picture: Sky News Source: PerthNow
FEMINIST Germaine Greer has attacked Queensland's literary world, saying half of the state can't read a newspaper or follow instructions on a medicine bottle.
The scathing comments came during the opening of the Brisbane Writers Festival on Thursday night - an event being launched by Ms Greer.
She said the festival - now in its 50th year - was monoglot and "worthy" rather than fun and she criticised the event for including school children in its program, saying it was the responsibility of schools to teach literacy and that including aspiring writers was also problematic.
"The problem with creating more writers is that writers need readers...and one of the traps that lies in wait here is vanity publishing," she said.
Greer told more than 250 people at the State Library of Queensland that self-published authors were being exploited by printers prepared to take money for second rate stories.
"Publishers, as much as they make us mad, make our work public. Amateurs don't understand that a book needs to be designed - even its type face and cover - and if you can not attract an agent then its back to the drawing board, not going along with your cheque book.
"It's just cruel exploitation of vulnerable people."
Her comments sent Brisbane writers into a Twitter frenzy, with local author Anita Heiss tweeted "wondering if @BrisWriters Fest are regretting asking Germain Greer to do the opening address" and another tweet described Greer as "disrespectful, condescending and patronising".
Greer said statistics had revealed 47 per cent of Queenslanders couldn't read a newspaper or instructions on a medicine bottle.
"You can not have a good time at a literary festival when that is the underlying bedrock truth," she said.
Greer also criticised BWF for featuring Brisbane writers in the past.
"It's as if you are trying to say we want to be irrelevant," she said.
"Why should Brisbane be the subject matter? What kind of cultural cringe is this?"
Is Germaine right? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
Greer said the Hay Festival of Literature and Arts, staged in five different continents, was the perfect prototype of a literature festival because it was fun rather than worthy.
She said festival organisers needed to understand their audience.
"The backbone of your audience is middle aged women and over," she said.
"It's because they don't know how to have fun. Men can go down to the river bank and sit there for eight hours and not have a bite and be perfectly happy but no woman can do that so she goes to a literary festival.
"She is the supporter of culture."
Chairman of the BWF management committee David Fishel thanked Greer for her "challenging and provocative" address and called on the audience to prove the Australian-born author and academic wrong by having fun at this year's BWF.
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