Browsing Quotes With Tag: literature (4)
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Books are, let’s face it, better than everything else. If we played Cultural Fantasy Boxing League, and made books go fifteen rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time. Go on, try it. “The Magic Flute” vs. 'Middlemarch?’ 'Middlemarch’ in six. “The Last Supper” vs. 'Crime and Punishment?’ Fyodor on points. See? I mean, I don’t know how scientific this is, but it feels like the novels are walking it. You might get the occasional exception- “Blonde on Blonde” might mash up 'the Old Curiosity Shop,’ say, and I wouldn’t give much for 'Pale Fire’s’ chances against 'Citizen Kane.’ And every now and again you’d get a shock, because that happens in sport, so 'Back to the Future III’ might land a lucky punch on 'Rabbit, Run;’ but I’m still backing literature twenty-nine times out of thirty.
Speaker: Nick HornbySource: the Polysyllabic SpreePosted: 17 Oct 2010 at 7:39 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Written things are not for speech; their form is literary; they are stiff, inflexible, and will not lend themselves to happy effective delivery with the tongue. Where their purpose is merely to entertain, not to instruct, they have to be limbered up, broken up, colloquialized, and turned into the common form of unpremeditated talk; otherwise they will bore the house – not entertain it.
Speaker: Mark TwainPosted: 21 Aug 2008 at 7:10 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Nowadays even if you could write a prose like Traherne’s, you wouldn’t be allowed to, for the canon of ‘functionalism’ had disabled literature for half its functions.
Speaker: C.S. LewisPosted: 20 Aug 2008 at 8:00 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is admirable, complete and possesses magnitude…effecting through pity and fear the purification of such emotions.
Speaker: AristotlePosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 6:29 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment!