I've always had a compassion for characters in novels - the sense that they are, whatever they might think, living in a world that has a shape they don't know and can't finally alter.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the complexity of characters in novels, emphasizing their lack of control over their destinies.
This quote by John Crowley highlights the inherent struggle of fictional characters who, despite their thoughts and desires, find themselves bound by the confines of a narrative they cannot influence. It draws attention to the notion that while characters navigate their worlds, they are ultimately shaped by the author's intentions and the structure of the story, paralleling human experiences where individuals often feel powerless in the face of larger forces at play in their lives.
In practice
During a book club discussion about character development.
She had always lived her best life in dreams. She knew no greater pleasure than that moment of passage into the other place, when her limbs grew warm and heavy and the sparkling darkness behind her lids became ordered and doors opened; when conscious thought grew owl's wings and talons and became other than conscious.
Just as a lamp waved in darkness creates a figure of light in the air, which remains for as long as the lamp repeats its motion exactly, so the universe retains its shape by repetition: the universe is Time's body. And how will we perceive this body? And how operate on it?
A man with a machine and inadequate culture is a pestilence.
That in the soul which is called the mind is, before it thinks, not actually any real thing.
The most important thing in my life is Christ. He’s more important to me than winning or losing or whether I’m playing or not. Everything else is just a bonus.
People with the strongest and healthiest sense of calling are not obsessed with their calling. They are preoccupied with the Caller.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship.
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