I believe in broken, fractured, complicated narratives, but I believe in narratives as a vehicle for truth, not simply as a form of entertainment, though I love entertainment, but also a way of conveying what needs to be conveyed about the works that I care about.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of complex narratives in conveying deeper truths beyond mere entertainment.
Stephen Greenblatt's quote reflects his belief that narratives, even when broken or complicated, serve as powerful mediums for communicating essential truths about the subjects he is passionate about. While he enjoys entertainment, he prioritizes the narrative's ability to express what matters, indicating that stories can be much more than just enjoyable, but also meaningful and significant.
In practice
During a lecture on storytelling techniques, this quote can highlight the value of narratives in connecting with audiences on deeper issues.
I've been at this for 40 years. And, as an academic, I've been content with relatively small audiences, with the thought that the audience I long for will find its way eventually to what I have written, provided that what I have written is good enough.
What I wanted to do was to get that sense of being in touch with this lost world while holding onto what draws readers and audiences there in the first place.
What matters here are the works - finally without them his life would be uninteresting. What matters, that is, are the astonishing things that he left behind. If we can get the life in relation to the works, then it can take off.
The exercise of reason is not available only to specialists; it is accessible to everyone.
Compared to the unleashed forces of warfare and of faith, Mount Vesuvius was kinder to the legacy of antiquity.
The greatest obstacle to pleasure is not pain; it is delusion.
For what is a poem but a hazardous attempt at self-understanding: it is the deepest part of autobiography.
Pop art is a way of liking things.
Music is one of the most powerful things the world has to offer. No matter what race or religion or nationality or sexual orientation or gender that you are, it has the power to unite us.
I am an artist, and I have the ability and the free will to choose the way the world will envision me.
For us artists there waits the joyous compromise through art with all that wounded or defeated us in daily life; in this way, not to evade destiny, as the ordinary people try to do, but to fulfil it in its true potential - the imagination.
We've come from the same history - 2000 years of persecution - we've just expressed our sufferings differently. Blacks developed the blues. Jews complained, we just never thought of putting it to music.
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