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Quote by Renata Adler

“A favorite strategy was the paragraph-terminating: Right? Followed immediately by Wrong. This linear invitation to a mugging was considered a strategy of wit.”

Quote by Renata Adler

Book:Speedboat
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Work

Speedboat

In this novel, the protagonist embarks on a transformative journey aboard a speedboat, reflecting on her personal history and the complexities of her cultural heritage. The narrative delves into the protagonist's struggle with identity and belonging, as she navigates the waters of her own life and the broader currents of her society. more

Author

Renata Adler
Renata Adler

Renata Adler (born October 19, 1938) is an American author, journalist, and critic. Known for her sharp prose and incisive cultural commentary, she was a staff writer for The New Yorker and wrote novels like Speedboat and Pitch Dark. Her work explores themes of power, media, and language, earning her recognition as a significant voice in American literature. more

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“Intelligent people, caught at anything, denied it. Faced with evidence of having denied it falsely, people said they had not done it and had not lied about it, and didn't remember it, but if they had done it, or lied about it, they would have done it and misspoken themselves about it in an interest so much higher as to alter the nature of doing and lying altogether.”

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Book:Speedboat
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“Though films become more daring sexually, they are probably less sexy than they ever were. There haven't been any convincing love scenes or romances in the movies in a while. (Nobody even seems to neck in theaters any more.) ... when the mechanics and sadism quotients go up, the movie love interest goes dead, and the film just lies there, giving a certain amount of offense.”

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“The motion picture is like journalism in that, more than any of the other arts, it confers celebrity. Not just on people - on acts, and objects, and places, and ways of life. The camera brings a kind of stardom to them all. I therefore doubt that film can ever argue effectively against its own material: that a genuine antiwar film, say, can be made on the basis of even the ugliest battle scenes ... No matter what filmmakers intend, film always argues yes.”

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Author:Renata Adler
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“In almost every thriller, a point is reached when someone, usually calling from a phone booth, telephones with a vital piece of information, which he cannot divulge by phone. By the time the hero arrives at the place where they had arranged to meet, the caller is dead, or too near death to tell. There is never an explanation for the reluctance of the caller to impart his message in the first place.”

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Book:Speedboat
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