“Grosvenor and Burke suggest that continually, though silently, a school building tells students who they are and how they should think about the world. It can help to manufacture rote obedience or independent activity; it can create high self-confidence or low self-esteem.” ThinkingWorldShouldSelfHelpingSchoolSelf EsteemStudentsBuildingActivityLowsIndependentSelf ConfidenceEsteemObedienceLow Self EsteemSchool Buildings Author:Alison Lurie
“America has a history of political isolation and economic self-sufficiency; its citizens have tended to regard the rest of the world as a disaster area from which lucky or pushy people emigrate to the Promised Land.” PeopleWorldSelfAmericaPoliticalUnited StatesEconomicLandCitizensLuckyAreasRegardDisasterArroganceIsolationSelf SufficiencySufficiencyPromised LandPushy Author:Alison Lurie
“in a sense much great literature is subversive, since its very existence implies that what matters is art, imagination, and truth. In what we call the real world, on the other hand, what usually counts is money, power, and public success.” WorldArtRealMatterHandsLiteratureImaginationExistenceReal WorldWhat MattersSubversiveMoney PowerGreat Literature Author:Alison Lurie
“Attempts to limit female mobility by hampering locomotion are ancient and almost universal. The foot-binding of upper-class Chinese girls and the Nigerian custom of loading women's legs with pounds of heavy brass wire are extreme examples, but all over the world similar stratagems have been employed to make sure that once you have caught a woman she cannot run away, and even if she stays around she cannot keep up with you. ... Literally as well as figuratively modern women's shoes are what keeps Samantha from running as fast as Sammy.” IfsWorldWellsHas BeensRunningGirlClassFeetModernExampleLimitsFemaleUniversalShoesAncientCaughtHeavyExtremesLegsChinesePoundsCustomsSexismRunning AwayEmployedWireBindingMobilityBrassUpper ClassStratagemModern WomanSamantha Author:Alison Lurie
“Many Americans think of the rest of the world as a kind of Disneyland, a showplace for quaint fauna, flora and artifacts. They dress for travel in cheap, comfortable, childish clothes, as if they were going to the zoo and would not be seen by anyone except the animals.” IfsThinkingWorldKindAnimalTravelComfortableClothesDressesZoosDisneylandArtifactsQuaintFlora Author:Alison Lurie
“The great subversive works of children's literature suggest that there are other views of human life besides those of the shopping mall and the corporation. They mock current assumptions and express the imaginative, unconventional, noncommercial view of the world in its simplest and purest form. They appeal to the imaginative, questioning, rebellious child within all of us, renew our instinctive energy, and act as a force for change. This is why such literature is worthy of our attention and will endure long after more conventional tales have been forgotten.” WorldHumansChildrenLongHas BeensFormLiteratureEnergyForceViewsAttentionEndureForgottenCurrentsWorthyTalesAppealsCorporationsHuman LifeAssumptionShoppingQuestioningConventionalSimplestImaginativeRebelliousMockMallsSubversiveUnconventionalChildren's LiteratureRebellious Child Author:Alison Lurie
“Fashion is free speech, and one of the privileges, if not always one of the pleasures, of a free world” IfsWorldInspirationPleasureFashionSpeechPrivilegeFree SpeechFree World Author:Alison Lurie
