Ex Libris Kirkland

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First Written 1973
Genre Essays
Origin US
Publisher Vintage
ISBN-10 0679724850
ISBN-13 978-0679724858
My Copy paperback
First Read March 30, 2011

Forewards and Afterwards



quoting Simone Weil: Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating. 'Imaginative literature,' therefore, is either boring or immoral or a mixture of both.

Quoted on April 4, 2011

To preach, as Trollope did, the Protestant work ethic is fine, provided one is aware, as he was not, of the difference between a worker -- i.e., someone who is paid to do what he enjoys doing -- and a laborer whose job has no interest in itself; he does it only because he must, in order to feed himself and his family.

Quoted on April 4, 2011

It is rarely possible to retell and Andersen story in other words than his; after the tough and cheerful adventures of the folk-tales, one may be irritated with the Sensitive-Plantishness and rather namby-pamby Christianity of some of Andersen's heroes, but one puts up with them for the sake of the wit and sharpness of his social observation and the interest of his minor characters.

Quoted on April 4, 2011

Lastly there are the people who object to fairy stories on the grounds that they are not objectively true, that giants, witches, two-headed dragons, magic carpets do not exist; and that, instead of indulging his fantasies in fairy tales, the child should be taught to adapt to reality by studying history and mechanics. I find such people, I must confess, so unsympathetic and peculiar that I do not know how to argue with them.

Quoted on April 4, 2011


Ex Libris Kirkland is a super-self-absorbed reading journal made by Matt Kirkland. Copyright © 2001 - .
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