I believe in broken, fractured, complicated narratives, but I believe in narratives as a vehicle for truth, not simply as a form of entertainment, though I love entertainment, but also a way of conveying what needs to be conveyed about the works that I care about.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of complex narratives in conveying deeper truths beyond mere entertainment.
Stephen Greenblatt's quote reflects his belief that narratives, even when broken or complicated, serve as powerful mediums for communicating essential truths about the subjects he is passionate about. While he enjoys entertainment, he prioritizes the narrative's ability to express what matters, indicating that stories can be much more than just enjoyable, but also meaningful and significant.
In practice
During a lecture on storytelling techniques, this quote can highlight the value of narratives in connecting with audiences on deeper issues.
I've been at this for 40 years. And, as an academic, I've been content with relatively small audiences, with the thought that the audience I long for will find its way eventually to what I have written, provided that what I have written is good enough.
What I wanted to do was to get that sense of being in touch with this lost world while holding onto what draws readers and audiences there in the first place.
What matters here are the works - finally without them his life would be uninteresting. What matters, that is, are the astonishing things that he left behind. If we can get the life in relation to the works, then it can take off.
The exercise of reason is not available only to specialists; it is accessible to everyone.
Compared to the unleashed forces of warfare and of faith, Mount Vesuvius was kinder to the legacy of antiquity.
The greatest obstacle to pleasure is not pain; it is delusion.
No author has created with less emphasis such pathetic characters as Chekhov has.
And If the surgeon is like a poet, then the scars you have made on countless bodies are like verses into the fashioning of which you have poured your soul.
It really upsets me that the media insists on turning 'Do the Right Thing' or 'Boyz N the Hood' into 'black films.' They are American films. They may open the window on the black experience, but they had things to say to everybody. That's why they were so successful.
Conceptual art became the liberating idea that gave the art of the next 40 years its real impetus.
The source of genius is imagination alone, the refinement of the senses that sees what others do not see, or sees them differently.
Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.
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