“It was a pleasant cafe, warm and clean and friendly, and I hung up my old water-proof on the coat rack to dry and put my worn and weathered felt hat on the rack above the bench and ordered a cafe au lait. The waiter brought it and I took out a notebook from the pocket of the coat and a pencil and started to write"

~Ernest Hemingway~

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Behind the Text

I have no photos to show you today, but I did rediscover an interesting quote.

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.” 
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye


Fiction is so fascinating to me in what it tells you about humanity, society, and the author themselves. I love when a book provokes you to deeper thought and I've definitely experienced the feeling of yearning to know what an author meant by certain comments and why they introduced certain subjects. 
Posted by at

6 comments:

  1. VeritasJanuary 12, 2012 at 11:36 AM

    Absolutely. So, how do we solve this predicament? I want all of you to become published writers. I already know I'd be blown away by what you create :3

    Hehe.

    In any case, I agree. Fiction has the potential to provoke one to deeper thought, but there are those books that may not do so...are they worth reading? What is the difference between good fiction and bad fiction? O.o Hmmm...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NGPFebruary 19, 2012 at 9:33 PM

      I disagree. There is no such thing as bad fiction, at least not entirely. The value lies in the reader and I believe that there is information to be gleaned or understandings to be made from any book.

      Delete
    2. LynFebruary 29, 2012 at 3:45 PM

      I agree with the Nicole. :)

      Delete
    3. VeritasFebruary 29, 2012 at 4:48 PM

      I think I agree for the most part too. I just find it hard to say that all books are equally as valuable. If they were, it would be awfully hard to prioritize D: In any case, I was not saying that there is bad fiction. Your post seemed to beg that question, which is why I posed it. Also it seems to me that some books are read solely for entertainment. I mean, I do believe everything has the potential to provoke deeper thought, but some books seem not to be targeting an audience that wants to gain a better understanding of life. Anyway, I'm not exactly sure what I'm saying. Perhaps someone can help me play Devil's advocate (:

      Delete
  2. LynMarch 3, 2012 at 8:46 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LynMarch 3, 2012 at 8:49 AM

    I know what you mean, but I won't be helping you play Devil's advocate on this one. I look at books as stories, and stories as perspectives, and perspectives as people. And I cannot and will not say that any people are more valuable than others. Even if they seem to be living on the surface. There is always an opportunity to go deeper. How does one judge 'value' anyway? Does it not differ from person to person, from place to place? If you do not find value in a text, perhaps you should not blame it, but, rather, yourself.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)