The function of a book or a poem or a story is to delight, to enchant, to beguile.
Interpretation
Literature serves to entertain and captivate readers with its creativity.
This quote by Philip Pullman emphasizes the transformative power of literature, suggesting that the primary role of stories, books, and poems is to bring joy and wonder to readers. By using the words 'delight,' 'enchant,' and 'beguile,' Pullman highlights how literature can evoke strong emotional responses and transport individuals to different realms of imagination and beauty.
In practice
In a book club discussion, one could cite this quote to emphasize the enjoyment found in reading.
Education and health were always matters of charity. You educated children and you helped the sick because they were good things to do, not because you were going to make money out of them. If you let the money-making principle, the profit-seeking motive, anywhere near education and health, things go bad.
To get the best out of life here ...Good grief. There's plenty of it about, so indulge. Give yourself some thing to remember. Fall in love. Fall out of love. Gamble. Get drunk. See how long you can stay awake. Go for long walks at night. Discover what you're afraid of doing, and then do it.
People should decide on the books' meanings for themselves. They'll find a story that attacks such things as cruelty, oppression, intolerance, unkindness, narrow-mindedness, and celebrates love, kindness, open-mindedness, tolerance, curiosity, human intelligence.
I told him I was going to betray you, and betray Lyra, and he believed me because I was corrupt and full of wickedness; he looked so deep I felt sure he'd see the truth. But I lied too well. I was lying with every nerve and fiber and everything I'd ever done...I wanted him to find no good in me, and he didn't. There is none.
Lyra learns to her great cost that fantasy isnβt enough. She has been lying all her life, telling stories to people, making up fantasies, and suddenly she comes to a point where thatβs not enough. All she can do is tell the truth. She tells the truth about her childhood, about the experiences she had in Oxford, and that is what saves her. True experience, not fantasy - reality, not lies - is what saves us in the end.
If a coin comes down heads, that means that the possibility of its coming down tails has collapsed. Until that moment the two possibilities were equal. But on another world, it does come down tails. And when that happens, the two worlds split apart.
The modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating.
The Poet is a kinsman in the clouds Who scoffs at archers, loves a stormy day; But on the ground, among the hooting crowds, He cannot walk, his wings are in the way.
The best thing commercially, which is the worst artistically, by and large, is the most successful.
Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for.
It has often been observed that the repercussion of poetic language on prose language can be considered a decisive cut of a whip.
I am a novelist. I traffic in subtleties, and my goal in writing a novel is to leave the reader not knowing what to think. A good novel shouldn't have a point.
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