Is not the most erotic part of the body wherever the clothing affords a glimpse?
Roland BarthesRead
Literature is that which he can not read without pain, without choking on truth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Literature can expose harsh truths that may cause discomfort or challenge our perceptions.
In this quote by Roland Barthes, he emphasizes that literature often contains profound truths that can be difficult for individuals to confront. The act of engaging with such literature may evoke a visceral reaction, as it forces readers to grapple with realities that can be painful or unsettling, ultimately highlighting the powerful role of literature in shaping human experience and understanding.
Themes
LiteratureTruthPainReadingUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a book club discussion, one might introduce this quote to emphasize the challenging nature of literature.
More from Roland Barthes
All quotes βIf I acknowledge my dependency, I do so because for me it is a means of signifying my demand: in the realm of love, futility is not a "weakness" or an "absurdity": it is a strong sign: the more futile, the more it signifies and the more it asserts itself as strength.)
Roland BarthesRead
The gesture of the amorous embrace seems to fulfill, for a time, the subject's dream of total union with the loved being: The longing for consummation with the other.
Roland BarthesRead
The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture.
Roland BarthesRead
I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object.
Roland BarthesRead
All those young photographers who are at work in the world, determined upon the capture of actuality, do not know that they are agents of Death.
Roland BarthesRead
Similar quotes
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George SaundersRead
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Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
When a reader falls in love with a book, it leaves its essence inside him, like radioactive fallout in an arable field, and after that there are certain crops that will no longer grow in him, while other, stranger, more fantastic growths may occasionally be produced.
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To whom do I give my new elegant little book? Cui dono lepidum novum libellum?
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I want to remind people of the great and profound joy that can be found in stories, and that stories can connect us to each other, and that reading together changes everybody involved.
Kate DicamilloRead
It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.
Henry JamesRead