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John Dos Passos: the major nonfictional prose

This volume brings together a selection of John Dos Passos's significant nonfictional writings, offering readers insight into his thought and his exploration of various subjects across different periods of his career. more

Author

John Dos Passos
John Dos Passos

John Dos Passos was an American novelist born on January 14, 1896, and died on September 28, 1970. His works are known for their unique narrative style and profound insights into the realities of American society. more

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“The only excuse for a novelist, aside from the entertainment and vicarious living his books give the people who read them, is as a sort of second-class historian of the age he lives in. The "reality" he missed by writing about imaginary people, he gains by being able to build a reality more nearly out of his own factual experience than a plain historian or biographer can.”

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Book:John Dos Passos: the major nonfictional prose
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“One of the most extraordinary things about industrial society of the present day is its idiot lack of memory. Tabloids and movies take the place of mental processes and revolts, crimes, despairs pass off in a dribble of vague words and rubber stamp phrases without leaving a scratch on the mind of the driven instalment-paying, subway-packing mass.”

MindProcessMemoriesCrimeDespairMassExtraordinaryLeavingDrivenIdiotPhrasesVagueStampsScratchesRevoltSubwayPresent DayRubberTabloidsExtraordinary ThingsPackingDribble
Book:John Dos Passos: the major nonfictional prose
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“There are too many "creative writing" courses and seminars, in which young wirters are constantly being taught to rewrite the previous generation. They should be experimenting on their own. Every writer faces different problems which he must solve for himself.”

ShouldWritingDifferentProblemFacesYoungCoursesCreativeGenerationsTaughtSolveCreative WritingSeminarsPrevious Generations
Book:John Dos Passos: the major nonfictional prose
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