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Quote by Raymond Williams

Work

Culture and Materialism: Selected Essays

This book compiles a selection of essays that delve into the intricate connections between cultural phenomena and materialistic aspects of society. The essays likely examine how cultural values, practices, and beliefs intersect with economic, social, and political structures influenced by materialism. more

Author

Raymond Williams
Raymond Williams

Raymond Williams was a British novelist celebrated for his exploration of social class and the human condition in his works. Born on August 31, 1921, in Cwmgiedd, Wales, Williams' career spanned several decades, during which he authored numerous novels and short stories. His writing is characterized by its richly detailed prose and complex characters, reflecting the diverse social and cultural landscapes of his era. more

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“Places come to exist in our imaginations because of stories, and so do we. When we reach for a "sense of place," we posit an intimate relationship to a set of stories connected to a particular location, such as Hong Kong or the Grand Canyon or the bed where we were born, thinking of histories and the evolution of personalities in a local context. Having "a sense of self" means possessing a set of stories about who we are and with whom and why.”

“The design of a book is the pattern of a reality controlled and shaped by the mind of the writer. This is completely understood about poetry or fiction, but it is too seldom realized about books of fact. And yet the impulse which drives a man to poetry will send another man into the tide pools and force him to try to report what he finds there.... It would be good to know the impulse truly, not to be confused by the 'services to science' platitudes or the other little mazes into which we entice our minds so that they will not know what we are doing.”

“Only one same reason is shared by all of us: we wish to create worlds as real as, but other than the world that is. Or was. This is why we cannot plan. We know a world is an organism, not a machine. We also know that a genuinely created world must be independent of its creator; a planned world (a world that fully reveals its planning) is a dead world. It is only when our characters and events begin to disobey us that they begin to live.”