The challenge for a nonfiction writer is to achieve a poetic precision using the documents of truth but somehow to make people and places spring to life as if the reader was in their presence.
Simon SchamaRead
What can art really do in the face of atrocity?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote questions the impact of art when confronted with extreme acts of violence or suffering.
Simon Schama's quote reflects a deep philosophical inquiry about the role of art in society, particularly in the context of human atrocities. It suggests that while art can evoke powerful emotions and provoke thought, its ability to address or mitigate the profound suffering caused by such events is debatable, prompting contemplation of art's limitations and purpose in the face of reality's harshness.
Themes
ArtAtrocityImpactSufferingSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the role of public art in memorializing tragedies.
More from Simon Schama
All quotes →In its Greek origins, historia meant inquiry, and from Thucydides onwards, the past has been studied to understand its connections with the present.
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Jewish history turns out not to be an either/or story - as in, either pure Judaism detached from its surroundings or else assimilation - but rather, for the vast majority, the adventure of living in between.
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I understood when I was quite small that there were two special things about the Jews. That we'd endured for over 3,000 years despite everything that had been thrown at us, and that we had an extraordinarily dramatic story to tell.
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History is admirably dangerous. It is not the soft option. Teachers need to be grown up and brave. Sensitivity is fine, but it stops at the door of honest narrative.
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History gives you insight of the same quality of truth as poetry or philosophy or a novel.
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