The deep joy we take in the company of people with whom we have just recently fallen in love is undisguisable.
John CheeverRead
What I am going to write is the last of what I have to say. I will say that literature is the only consciousness we possess and that its role as consciousness must inform us of our ability to comprehend the hideous danger of nuclear power.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Cheever emphasizes the importance of literature in shaping our understanding of the world and the dangers we face, particularly regarding nuclear power.
In this quote, John Cheever articulates the idea that literature serves as a fundamental aspect of human consciousness, enabling us to grasp complex and frightening realities, such as the threat posed by nuclear power. He suggests that through literature, we can gain insights into our own existence and the moral and ethical dilemmas that arise in contemporary society, urging us to be critically aware of the implications of technological advancement.
Themes
LiteratureConsciousnessNuclear PowerDangerComprehension
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the significance of literature in education, one might cite Cheever's quote to underscore the power of storytelling in shaping societal awareness.
More from John Cheever
All quotes →For me a page of good prose is where one hears the rain. A page of good prose is when one hears the noise of battle.... A page of good prose seems to me the most serious dialogue that well-informed and intelligent men and women carry on today in their endeavor to make sure that the fires of this planet burn peaceably.
John CheeverRead
For me, a page of good prose is where one hears the rain and the noise of battle. It has the power to give grief or universality that lends it a youthful beauty.
John CheeverRead
The world that was not mine yesterday now lies spread out at my feet, a splendor. I seem, in the middle of the night, to have returned to the world of apples, the orchards of Heaven. Perhaps I should take my problems to a shrink, or perhaps I should enjoy the apples that I have, streaked with color like the evening sky.
John CheeverRead
Art is the triumph over chaos.
John CheeverRead
The short story is the literature of the nomad.
John CheeverRead
Similar quotes
A people's literature is the great textbook for real knowledge of them. The writings of the day show the quality of the people as no historical reconstruction can.
Edith HamiltonRead
The novel as a form is usually seen to be moral if its readers consider freedom, individuality, democracy, privacy, social connection, tolerance and hope to be morally good, but it is not considered moral if the highest values of a society are adherence to rules and traditional mores, the maintenance of hierarchical relationships, and absolute ideas of right and wrong. Any society based on the latter will find novels inherently immoral and subversive.
Jane SmileyRead
It's difficult to tell the truth about how a book begins. The truth, as far as it can be presented to other people, is either wholly banal or too intimate.
Zadie SmithRead
Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.
Mickey SpillaneRead
I'm not sure that it's possible to write a novel about people who don't transgress or stumble, people who don't surprise themselves with the things they do, people who can explain all their actions with perfect logical consistency. At least it's not possible for me to write that sort of novel.
Tom PerrottaRead
Great books write themselves, only bad books have to be written.
F. Scott FitzgeraldRead