I think that's one of the maybe under-discussed aspects of process - the difference between a good writing day and a bad one is the quality of the split-second decisions you made.
George SaundersRead
There might be a different model for a literary community that's quicker, more real-time, and involves more spontaneity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that literary communities can evolve to be more immediate and dynamic.
George Saunders highlights the potential for a new model of literary communities that embrace qualities like speed, real-time engagement, and spontaneity. This implies that traditional notions of literary interaction might be outdated and that a more immediate and responsive form of community could facilitate deeper connections among writers and readers. By inviting change and innovation, Saunders encourages an exploration of how literature and its discussions can adapt to modern times.
Themes
LiteraryCommunitySpontaneityModelReal-Time
In practice
Example use cases
During a literature festival, discussing how the internet has changed literary engagement.
More from George Saunders
All quotes →I still believe that capitalism is too harsh and I believe that, even within that, there is a lot of satisfaction and beauty if you happen to be one of the lucky ones, although that doesn't eradicate the reality of the suffering. It's all true at once, kind of humming and sublime.
George SaundersRead
Down in the city are the nice houses and the so-so houses and the lovers making out in dark yards and the babies crying for their moms, and I wonder if, other than Jesus, has this ever happened before. Maybe it happens all the time. Maybe there's angry dead all over, hiding in rooms, covered with blankets, bossing around their scared, embarrassed relatives. Because how would we know?
George SaundersRead
What a powerful thing to know: That one's own desires are mappable onto strangers; that what one finds in oneself will most certainly be found in The Other.
George SaundersRead
When you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in love with the world around you. What I want is to have the reader come out just 6 percent more awake to the world.
George SaundersRead
I don't think much new ever happens. Most of us spend our days the same way people spent their days in the year 1000: walking around smiling, trying to earn enough to eat, while neurotically doing these little self-proofs in our head about how much better we are than these other slobs, while simultaneously, in another part of our brain, secretly feeling woefully inadequate to these smarter, more beautiful people.
George SaundersRead
Similar quotes
A book is sent out into the world, and there is no way of fully anticipating the responses it will elicit. Consider the responses called forth by the Bible, Homer, Shakespeare - let alone contemporary poetry or a modern novel.
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The one thing about being a dude and writing from a female perspective is that the baseline is, you suck. The baseline is it takes so long for you to work those atrophied muscles - for you to get on parity with what women's representations of men are.
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I belong to Russian literature, but I am an American citizen, and I think it's the best possible combination.
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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.
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There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.
Thomas CarlyleRead