Always and never are not words that have much meaning in literary study. For one thing, as soon as something seems to always be true, some wise guy will come along and write something to prove that it...
We have to bring our imaginations to bear on a story if we are to see all it's possibilitiess; otherwise it's just about somebody who did something. Whatever we take away from stories in the way of si...
The novels we read allow us to encounter possible persons, visions of ourselves that we would never see, never permit ourselves to become, in places we can never go and might not care to, while assuri...
T here’s no written rule anywhere that I know of stating this, no First-teenth Amendment to the Literary Constitution, but there might as well be: you get one national poet.
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden
If to get to the finish line the hero must walk over a sea of bodies, then so be it. He can die at said line, but he's got to get there.
And we feel that those characters couldn't be anywhere but where they are, that those characters couldn't say the things they say if they were uprooted and planted in, say, Minnesota or Scotland.
When it's over, we may feel wooed, adored, appreciated, or abused, but it will have been an affair to remember.
The process of dehuminazing the locals was under way, and it had very little to do with veracity. The Puritan narratives would continue that process and bring the devil into the mix. At least John Smi...
There is, in fact, no form of dysfunctional family or no personal disintegration of character for which there is not a Greek or Roman model.
So what did you think the devil would look like? If he were red with a tail, horns, and cloven hooves, any fool could say no.
Everywhere you look, the ground is already camped on. So you sigh and pitch your tent where you can, knowing someone else has been there before.
Characters as rich and complex as those we believe ourselves to be
Professors also read, and think, symbolically. Everything is a symbol of something, it seems, until proven otherwise.
Where readers of Murdoch can begin a new novel with a quiet confidence, opening a Burgess book is an exercise in anxiety: what the devil is he up to this time?