What a test that is: more than devotion, admiration, passion. If you long and long for someoneβs company you love them.
Iris MurdochRead
But fantasy kills imagination, pornography is death to art.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fantasy can stifle creativity, and pornographic content destroys the essence of artistic expression.
In this quote, Iris Murdoch emphasizes the detrimental effects that both fantasy and pornography can have on genuine creativity and artistic expression. She suggests that when creativity is clouded by unrealistic or superficial fantasies, it limits the depth and originality of imagination, whereas pornography degrades authentic artistic endeavors, reducing them to mere explicitness rather than allowing them to evoke genuine emotions and insights.
Themes
FantasyImaginationArtCreativityPornography
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the impact of media on creativity, one might use this quote by Iris Murdoch to illustrate how certain influences can hinder artistic growth.
More from Iris Murdoch
All quotes βThe bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.
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Man's creative struggle, his search for wisdom and truth, is a love story.
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All art deals with the absurd and aims at the simple. Good art speaks truth, indeed is truth, perhaps the only truth.
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A bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia.
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Perhaps when distant people on other planets pick up some wavelength of ours all they hear is a continuous scream.
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