Anyone who regards poetry as an entertainment, as a 'read,' commits an anthropological crime, in the first place against himself.
Interpretation
Poetry should be regarded as a profound experience rather than mere entertainment.
In this quote, Joseph Brodsky suggests that treating poetry solely as a form of entertainment diminishes its value and meaning. He argues that engaging with poetry should be a deep, reflective experience that speaks to the human condition, rather than a superficial activity that one engages in casually. Such an approach not only disrespects the art form but also limits personal growth and understanding.
In practice
In a literary discussion about the importance of engaging with art deeply.
Basically, it's hard for me to assess myself, a hardship not only prompted by the immodesty of the enterprise, but because one is not capable of assessing himself, let alone his work. However, if I were to summarize, my main interest is the nature of time. That's what interests me most of all. What time can do to a man.
One always pulls the trigger out of self-interest and quotes history to avoid responsibility or pangs of conscience.
On the whole, infinity is a fairly palpable aspect of this business of publishing, if only because it extends a dead author's existence beyond the limits he envisioned, or provides a living author with a future he cannot measure. In other words, this business deals with the future which we all prefer to regard as unending.
The invention of ethical and political doctrines, which blossomed into our own social sciences, is a product of times when things appeared manageable. The same goes for the criticism of those doctrines, though as a voice from the past, this criticism proved prophetic.
Try not to pay attention to those who will try to make life miserable for you. There will be a lot of those - in the official capacity as well as the self-appointed.
To put it in plain language, Russia is that country where the name of a writer appears not on the cover of his book, but on the door of his prison cell.
I was told stories, we were all told stories as kids in Nigeria. We had to tell stories that would keep one another interested, and you weren't allowed to tell stories that everybody else knew. You had to dream up new ones.
Seek for the boldest color possible, content is irrelevant.
It's been a long time...I shouldn't have left you_x000D_ _x000D_ Without a strong rhyme to step to.
The essence of dramatic form is to let an idea come over people without it being plainly stated. When you say something directly, it's simply not as potent as it is when you allow people to discover it for themselves.
As a young man, even if I was going to see a play or a film by myself, I didn't feel like I was alone. There was something that was unfolding up there that brought me into it. And I recognised that. For those two hours, it made me feel like I belonged to something really good.
but writers, Garp knew, were just observers - good and ruthless imitators of human behavior.
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