To me, there is nothing higher than fiction. Nothing. It is fundamentally who I am. I am a teller of stories. For me, that's the only way I can make sense of the world, with all the dance that it involves.
Arundhati RoyRead
Impelled by feelings that were primal yet paradoxically wholly impersonal. Feelings of contempt born of inchoate, unacknowledged fear--civilization's fear of nature, men's fear of women, power's fear of powerlessness. Man's subliminal urge to destroy what he could neither subdue nor deify.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote explores the complex emotions that drive human behavior, particularly in relation to fear and power.
Arundhati Roy's quote reflects on the inherent, often unconscious feelings that compel humans to act in ways that may seem contradictory. It delves into the primal instincts behind contempt, connecting our fear of nature, the fear men hold towards women, and the fear of powerlessness, suggesting that these fears drive a destructive impulse in humanity when faced with the things we cannot control or venerate.
Themes
FearPowerDestructionNatureEmotions
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the psychological motivations behind environmental destruction.
More from Arundhati Roy
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Caste is about dividing people up in ways that preclude every form of solidarity, because even in the lowest castes, there are divisions and sub-castes, and everyone's co-opted into the business of this hierarchical, silo-ised society.
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When I decided to write 'The God of Small Things', I had been working in cinema. It was almost a decision to downshift from there. I thought that 300 people would read it. But it created a platform of trust.
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In California, there are huge problems because of dams. I'm against big dams, per se, because I think that they are economically unfeasible. They're ecologically unsustainable. And they're hugely undemocratic.
Arundhati RoyRead
To call someone 'anti-American', indeed, to be anti-American, is not just racist, it's a failure of the imagination.
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