Everything is complicated; if that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.
Wallace StevensRead
Most modern reproducers of life, even including the camera, really repudiate it. We gulp down evil, choke at good.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that modern tools and media distort our perception of reality, favoring negativity over positivity.
Wallace Stevens reflects on the ironic relationship between modern representations of life, such as photography, and our understanding of good and evil. He indicates that society tends to embrace negative aspects of life while rejecting the positive, highlighting a troubling trend in how we consume and interpret the world around us.
Themes
PerceptionRealityNegativityPositivityMedia
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about media representation at a conference.
More from Wallace Stevens
All quotes βAfter one has abandoned a belief in God, poetry is that essence which takes its place as life's redemption.
Wallace StevensRead
Why should she give her bounty to the dead? What is divinity if it can come Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
Wallace StevensRead
LIGHT FROM WITHIN my friend, cancer got you damn it: you had it beat for seven years at least. how did it come back? Why all that pain. again. and you, such a fighter you fought me over and over with tears and words and promises. you fought for me with honesty and a light so bright it hurts my heart. sweet lorna. at peace now finally no more battles, just light from within a flickering candle in the dark burns with you.
Wallace StevensRead
Unfortunately there is nothing more inane than an Easter carol. It is a religious perversion of the activity of Spring in our blood.
Wallace StevensRead
Compare the silent rose of the sun And rain, the blood-rose living in its smell, With this paper, this dust. That states the point.
Wallace StevensRead
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