As awful as crime can be, it's what happens afterward - the struggling to get out of bed, to put one foot in front of the other - that alters people.
Karin SlaughterRead
Good crime writing holds up a mirror to the readers and reflects in a darker light the world in which they live.
Interpretation
Crime writing reveals uncomfortable truths about society.
Karin Slaughter's quote suggests that effective crime writing serves as a reflection of reality, illuminating the darker aspects of the human experience and society. By engaging with these stories, readers confront unsettling truths about their own world, allowing for deeper reflection and understanding of the complexities of life.
In practice
This quote can be used in a literary discussion about the role of crime fiction in understanding societal issues.
As awful as crime can be, it's what happens afterward - the struggling to get out of bed, to put one foot in front of the other - that alters people.
Reading is exercise for our brains in the guise of pleasure. Books give us insight into other people, other cultures. They make us laugh. They make us think. If they are really good, they make us believe that we are better for having read them.
Fiction is the only way I know a human being can inhabit the mind of another human being.
In an age when other fantastically speedy, widespread media are triumphing, and running the risk of flattening all communication onto a single, homogenous surface, the function of literature is communication between things that are different simply because they are different, not blunting but even sharpening the differences between them, following the true bent of written language.
I have this belief that we are so vulnerable when we open ourselves up to literature. We're reminded of these real parts of ourselves.
Sometimes I sensed that the books I read in rapid succession had set up some sort of murmur among themselves, transforming my head into an orchestra pit where different musical instruments sounded out, and I would realize that I could endure this life because of these musicales going on in my head.
Stories you read when you're the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes you'll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit.
The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don't consider myself a novelist.
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