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sean67's review
3.0
Have you ever had a conversation with someone who is passionate about a person maybe an author, or actor and they love their work, and extol their virtues, but you have never heard of the person, so it slightly goes over your head, it makes you wonder if you should know the said person, or be more enthusiastic, and maybe investigate. their work, and maybe you will, and maybe you won't, but it does give you an insight into the other person, even though you don't know the subject.
Well that is how I saw this book.
Will I read Shirley Hazzard?
To be continued!
Well that is how I saw this book.
Will I read Shirley Hazzard?
To be continued!
wtb_michael's review
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.5
A wonderful short book that highlights Hazzard's brilliance.
ailsapeacock's review
4.0
Read this essay straight after finishing The Transit of Venus. Wonderful shards of observation on Hazzard's work. Breezy.
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"For Hazzard, understanding a work of literature requires 'a submission akin to that of generosity or love'. It's a sentiment that echoes Susan Sontag's call for an erotics of interpretation: for attentiveness to the experienced on offer, rather than a concern with analysis that can quickly glide into fantasies of superiority. " 14
"novelists trade in a form which fetishises the individual - which is to say ambiguity and contradiction, "all the movement of meaning which we know to be the nature of life'. 29
"One reason I value The Transit of Venus is because it reminds me not to mistake the limits of my understanding for the limits of art. "79
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"For Hazzard, understanding a work of literature requires 'a submission akin to that of generosity or love'. It's a sentiment that echoes Susan Sontag's call for an erotics of interpretation: for attentiveness to the experienced on offer, rather than a concern with analysis that can quickly glide into fantasies of superiority. " 14
"novelists trade in a form which fetishises the individual - which is to say ambiguity and contradiction, "all the movement of meaning which we know to be the nature of life'. 29
"One reason I value The Transit of Venus is because it reminds me not to mistake the limits of my understanding for the limits of art. "79
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