Unstated: Scottish Writers on Independence

Unstated: Scottish Writers on Independence contains 27 essays by writers with varying attitudes towards the question of independence. Unfortunately upon publication in December 2012 only one of the essays, Alasdair Gray’s Settlers and Colonists, was discussed in the media, as critics accused him of promoting racism. It is a provocative essay but the assertion that Gray is anti-English suggests critics had only bothered to read as far as the title. The furore around Gray's essay ensured the book sold out in six days but it skewed the debate. The volume was meant to about different voices and diverse opinions but only one was heard, and what was heard of that opinion was distorted out of recognition. Despite the media attention, Unstated was never reviewed in a Scottish newspaper.

At the Scottish Writers' Centre event at the CCA, editor of Unstated Scott Hames was joined by authors Magi Gibson and Jenni Calder to discuss the independence question and the role of writers in the debate. Both began by reading their contribution to the publication. Gibson’s essay compared Scotland to a woman in an unhappy marriage - always complaining about her husband, bragging about what she could have been and yet never leaving. Trapped in a “union of unequals.” It’s a powerful metaphor, creating a feeling of a shame that Scotland, like the woman in the story, is afraid to be “the architect of her own future.” However Hames acknowledged that the metaphor can only take us so far, the fallout of independence being more complicated than who gets the house. Calder’s essay describes her journey from Scotland to visit her son in Wales and questions the necessity of yet another border separating them across such a short deistance.

Much of the debate focused on the effects an independent Scotland would have on culture. A brief audience vote demonstrated that culture isn’t the reason people will be voting in the referendum, but control of Scotland’s economic and political future. Scottish culture doesn’t feel threatened in the current political climate; in fact it has flourished in a dependent country. There is an undercurrent to the argument that since so much writing was born from the failure of the last referendum, a No vote will once again ignite the literary scene. It is often said that Thatcher was the best thing that happened to the arts, as it gave people something to react against. Rasing the question, if we had achieved independence in 1979, would the great texts and poems of the 80s have still been written? It suggests a lack of faith in our own culture that we question its ability to flourish independently. Returning to Gibson's metaphor, doesn’t that suggest we are happy to complain, to react against England but not to take action and Scotland’s future into our own hands?