It may be that the books that were best liked in your lifetime are not the ones that are best liked 100 years later.
Interpretation
The value of books may change over time, reflecting different societal preferences and historical contexts.
This quote by Salman Rushdie reflects on the transient nature of literary appreciation, suggesting that what is celebrated and adored in one generation may not hold the same significance a century later. It emphasizes the idea that the cultural and temporal context heavily influences our understanding and enjoyment of literature, implying that timelessness in art is subjective and often elusive.
In practice
During a discussion on the evolution of literature in a book club.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
On being asked by someone how he could become famous, Diogenes responded: 'By worrying as little as possible about fame
I love revisions...We can't go back and revise our lives, but being allowed to go back and revise what we have written comes closest.
As soon as I observed myself from outside myself, I recognized and understood that I had a long-standing habit of keeping an eye on myself. That's how I managed to pull myself together, over the years, checking myself from the outside.
No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle and good, without the world being better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness.
A famously wise old man in a village was once asked how he came by his wisdom. "I got it from my good judgment," he answered. And where did his good judgment come from? "I got it from my bad judgment."
This is what I am learning, at 82 years old: the main thing is to be in love with the search for truth.
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