Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
E. M. ForsterRead
This element of surprise or mystery — the detective element as it is sometimes rather emptily called — is of great importance in a plot. It occurs through a suspension of the time-sequence; a mystery is a pocket in time, and it occurs crudely, as in "Why did the queen die?" and more subtly in half-explained gestures and words, the true meaning of which only dawns pages ahead. Mystery is essential to a plot, and cannot be appreciated without intelligence.
Interpretation
Mystery in storytelling captivates readers and shapes their understanding through the manipulation of time and suspense.
E. M. Forster emphasizes the vital role of mystery in narrative creativity, suggesting that effective plots often include elements that suspend readers' expectations and provoke curiosity. This creates pockets of suspense that engage the audience and allow for deeper revelations over time, ultimately enhancing the story's emotional and intellectual impact.
In practice
This quote can be used in a creative writing workshop to discuss the importance of suspense in storytelling.
Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.
One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
Oxford is Oxford: not a mere receptacle for youth, like Cambridge. Perhaps it wants its inmates to love it rather than to love one another.
The fact is we can only love what we know personally. And we cannot know much. In public affairs, in the rebuilding of civilization, something less dramatic and emotional is needed, namely tolerance.
One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.
Anybody can make the simple complecated. Creativity is making the complecated simple.
He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion... no, make that: he - he romanticized it all out of proportion. Yes. To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin.
You don't know how much artists go through to make it look so easy. It's all in the practice.
When I sit down to write a song, it's a kind of improvisation, but I formalize it a bit to get it into the studio, and when I step up to a microphone, I have a vague idea of what I'm about to do.
The crown of literature is poetry.
A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.
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