There's no better reading experience than going to the place where a text was written.
Kenzaburo OeRead
I am one of the writers who wish to create serious works of literature which dissociate themselves from those novels which are mere reflections of the vast consumer cultures of Tokyo and the subcultures of the world at large.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire to produce profound literature that moves away from superficial consumerism.
Kenzaburo Oe's quote emphasizes the importance of creating serious and meaningful literature that stands apart from the trivial narratives often influenced by consumer culture. He critiques the tendency of some modern novels to merely reflect the consumer-driven aspects of society, particularly in Tokyo and globally, and advocates for a deeper, more thoughtful exploration of the human experience in literature.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about contemporary literature and its influences.
There's no better reading experience than going to the place where a text was written.
You want in all cases for the story to get through the writing.
I think there are more good sportswriters doing more good sportswriting than ever before. But I also believe that the one thing that's largely gone out is what made sport such fertile literary territory - the characters, the tales, the humor, the pain, what Hollywood calls 'the arc.'
Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.
There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.
After I won the Newbery Medal for 'From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,' children all over the world let me know that they liked books that take them to unusual places where they meet unusual people.
Sartre said that wars were acts and that, with literature, you could produce changes in history. Now, I don't think literature doesn't produce changes, but I think the social and political effect of literature is much less controllable than I thought.
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