It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
At this point, realism is perhaps the least adequate means of understanding or portraying the incredible realities of our existence.
Interpretation
Realism may fall short in capturing the true complexities of our existence.
In this quote, Ursula K. Le Guin suggests that the conventional approach of realism is often insufficient when trying to comprehend or depict the profound and intricate nature of life. The statement implies that there are deeper truths and experiences that realism may overlook, highlighting the limitations of a strictly realistic perspective in understanding human existence.
In practice
In a discussion on the limitations of traditional narratives in literature.
It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we're done with it, we may find - if it's a good novel - that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have changed a little... But it's very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed.
Reason is a faculty far larger than mere objective force. When either the political or the scientific discourse announces itself as the voice of reason, it is playing God, and should be spanked and stood in the corner.
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.
When he found that the administrators were upset, he laughed. βDo they expect students not to be anarchists?β he said. βWhat else can the young be? When you are on the bottom, you must organize from the bottom up
I hate American simplicity. I glory in the piling up of complications of every sort. If I could pronounce the name James in any different or more elaborate way I should be in favor of doing it.
Corliss wondered what happens to a book that sits unread on a library shelf for thirty years. Can a book rightfully be called a book if it never gets read? If a tree falls in a forest and gets pulped to make paper for a book that never gets read, but there's nobody there to read it, does it make a sound?
Human models are more vivid and more persuasive than explicit moral commands.
We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
As long as my record stands in federal court, any American citizen can be held in prison or concentration camps without a trial or a hearing.
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