Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
E. M. ForsterRead
Our easiest approach to a definition of any aspect of fiction is always by considering the sort of demand it makes on the reader. Curiosity for the story, human feelings and a sense of value for the characters, intelligence and memory for the plot. What does fantasy ask of us? It asks us to pay something extra.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that fiction demands engagement and investment from the reader, especially in terms of imagination and emotional connection.
E. M. Forster's quote reflects the idea that fiction goes beyond mere storytelling; it requires readers to bring their curiosity, empathy, and understanding to fully appreciate the narrative and its characters. By engaging with fantasy, readers must also contribute an additional layer of imagination and effort, transcending their immediate reality to explore the depths of the fictional world.
Themes
FictionCuriosityImaginationReader EngagementFantasy
In practice
Example use cases
In a book club discussion about reader engagement in fiction.
More from E. M. Forster
All quotes →A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.
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One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
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Oxford is Oxford: not a mere receptacle for youth, like Cambridge. Perhaps it wants its inmates to love it rather than to love one another.
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The fact is we can only love what we know personally. And we cannot know much. In public affairs, in the rebuilding of civilization, something less dramatic and emotional is needed, namely tolerance.
E. M. ForsterRead
One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.
E. M. ForsterRead
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