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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Lifestyle
Eleanor Gordon-Smith

Helen Garner and Dua Lipa’s interview caused a personal crisis. How can I be ‘quietly intelligent’?

Dua Lipa Helen Garner Eleanor GordonSmith
Painting: Miss Auras The Red Book by John Lavery (1892)
‘I think the heart of your question is how to reveal intelligence in a way that doesn’t feel like asserting hierarchy,’ writes Eleanor Gordon-Smith. Painting: Miss Auras The Red Book by John Lavery (1892). Photograph: Artepics/Alamy

Australian author Helen Garner offered a compliment to the unbelievably talented and beautiful Dua Lipa in a recent interview that has caused a somewhat personal crisis on my part.

She described Lipa as “quietly intelligent”.

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