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How Literature Saved My Life

David Shields

3.36/5 (748 ratings)

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Blending confessional criticism and anthropological autobiography, Shields explores the power of literature (from Blaise Pascal’s Pensées to Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, Renata Adler’s Speedboat to Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past) to make life survivable, maybe even endurable. Shields evokes his deeply divided personality (his “ridiculous” ambivalence), his character flaws, his woes, his serious despairs. Books are his life raft, but when they come to feel un-lifelike and archaic, he revels in a new kind of art that is based heavily on quotation and consciousness. And he shares with us a final irony: he wants “literature to assuage human loneliness, but nothing can assuage human loneliness. Literature doesn’t lie about this––which is what makes it essential.”

Format:

Pages:: 207 pages

Publication:

Publisher:

Edition:: American First, First Edition

Language:

ISBN10:: 0307961524

ISBN13:: 9780307961525

kindle Asin:: B00957T76C

How Literature Saved My Life

David Shields

3.36/5 (748 ratings)

Read Download

Blending confessional criticism and anthropological autobiography, Shields explores the power of literature (from Blaise Pascal’s Pensées to Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, Renata Adler’s Speedboat to Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past) to make life survivable, maybe even endurable. Shields evokes his deeply divided personality (his “ridiculous” ambivalence), his character flaws, his woes, his serious despairs. Books are his life raft, but when they come to feel un-lifelike and archaic, he revels in a new kind of art that is based heavily on quotation and consciousness. And he shares with us a final irony: he wants “literature to assuage human loneliness, but nothing can assuage human loneliness. Literature doesn’t lie about this––which is what makes it essential.”

Format:

Pages:: 207 pages

Publication:

Publisher:

Edition:: American First, First Edition

Language:

ISBN10:: 0307961524

ISBN13:: 9780307961525

kindle Asin:: B00957T76C

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