In novels, and American novels in particular, it's not just about redemption, it's about forward movement and healing oneself. Americans are very big on getting better.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the American belief in personal growth and healing through literature.
Hanya Yanagihara highlights the profound themes often present in American novels, specifically the journey of redemption alongside an essential focus on personal growth and healing. This reflects a broader cultural narrative in America that values self-improvement and the aspiration to 'get better' in life, suggesting that literature can be a powerful catalyst for such transformations.
In practice
A book club discussion on the themes of personal growth in modern American literature.
It's a funny thing about cities: Some have brief, bright moments of cultural and political dominance, decades- or centuries-long spells when they seem the center of their particular nation, or region, or empire... only to later fall into obscurity and disrepair, never to regain their former glory.
I assume I don't need an introduction.
Reading a good long novel is in many ways like having a long and satisfying affair
I have been attacked in Turkey more for my interviews than for my books. Political polemicists and columnists do not read novels there.
I think that what's unique about sci-fi - at least from the view of a lot of Chinese writers - is that sci-fi is least-rooted in the particular culture that they're writing from.
It infuriates me that the work of white American writers can be universal and lay claim to classic texts, while black and female authors are ghetto-ized as 'other.'
My theory is that literature is essential to society in the way that dreams are essential to our lives. We can't live without dreaming - as we can't live without sleep. We are 'conscious' beings for only a limited period of time, then we sink back into sleep - the 'unconscious.' It is nourishing, in ways we can't fully understand.
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