He will wipe the tears from all faces.' It takes nothing from the loveliness of the verse to say that is exactly what will be required
Marilynne RobinsonRead
There are worries that seem to me sustained by the love of worry. For example, that people are reading from screens, or listening to recorded books. Why scold the impulse to enjoy language and narrative in whatever form it takes?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that concern over how people consume literature and language may stem from a misplaced love for the act of worrying itself.
Marilynne Robinson expresses a critical view on the tendency to worry about modern modes of consuming literature, such as through screens or audiobooks. She questions the validity of criticizing these new forms, urging us to embrace the enjoyment of language and narrative, regardless of the medium through which they are presented. This perspective encourages a more open-minded approach to how we engage with stories in contemporary society.
Themes
WorryLanguageNarrativeMediumEnjoyment
In practice
Example use cases
During a book club discussion, I quoted Marilynne Robinson's view on how we should embrace different forms of narrative consumption.
More from Marilynne Robinson
All quotes →It seems to me there is less meanness in atheism, by a good measure. It seems that the spirit of religious self-righteousness this article deplores is precisely the spirit in which it is written. Of course he's right about many things, one of them being the destructive potency of religious self-righteousness. (p. 146)
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A narrow pond would form in the orchard, water clear as air covering grass and black leaves and fallen branches, all around it black leaves and drenched grass and fallen branches, and on it, slight as an image in an eye, sky, clouds, trees, our hovering faces and our cold hands.
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The moon looks wonderful in this warm evening light, just as a candle flame looks beautiful in the light of morning. Light within light...It seems to me to be a metaphor for the human soul, the singular light within that great general light of existence.
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Teaching is a distraction and a burden, but it's also an incredible stimulus. And a reprieve, in a way. When you're trying to work on something and it's not going anywhere, you can go to school and there's a two-and-a-half-hour block of time in which you can accomplish something.
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Every single one of us is a little civilization built on the ruins of any number of preceding civilizations, but with our own variant notions of what is beautiful and what is acceptable - which, I haste to add, we generally do not satisfy and by which we struggle to live.
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