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Quote by Siri Hustvedt

Work

A Plea for Eros: Essays

This work presents a series of reflective essays that examine the nature of eros and its expression in human experience. The writing delves into questions of love, attraction, and the emotional bonds that connect people. Through literary analysis and personal reflection, the essays probe the complexities of desire and its role in art, relationships, and daily life. The collection offers readers an intellectual exploration of how eros shapes human perception and interaction with the world. more

Author

Siri Hustvedt
Siri Hustvedt

Siri Hustvedt is an American novelist born on February 19, 1955. Her works are known for their deep psychological insights and exploration of female experiences. Hustvedt's novels often blend philosophy, literature, and psychology, showcasing complex characters and inner worlds. more

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“An accurate accent is powerful because it is the ultimate gesture of empathy. It connects you to another person's culture in a way that words never can, because you have bent your body as well as your mind to match that person's culture. Anyone can learn "bawn-JURE" in a few seconds. To learn how bonjour fits your companion's mouth and tongue; to learn how to manipulate the muscles, the folds, and even the texture of your throat and lips to match your companion's -- this is an unmistakable, undeniable, and irresistable gesture of care.”

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“This paying attention is the foundational act of empathy, of listening, of seeing, of imagining experiences other than one's own, of getting out of the boundaries of one's own experience. There's a currently popular argument that books help us feel empathy, but if they do so they do it by helping us imagine that we are people we are not. Or to go deeper within ourselves, to be more aware of what it means to be heartbroken, or ill, or six, or ninety-six, or completely lost. Not just versions of our self rendered awesome and eternally justified and always right, living in a world in which other people only exist to help reinforce our magnificence, though those kinds of books and movies exist in abundance to cater to the male imagination. Which is a reminder that literature and art can also help us fail at empathy if it sequesters us in the Big Old Fortress of Magnificent Me.”

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“It's a shameful, wicked, abominable law, and I'll break it, for one, the first time I get a chance; and I hope I shall have a chance, I do! Things have got to a pretty pass, if a woman can't give a warm supper and a bed to poor, starving creatures, just because they are slaves, and have been abused and oppressed all their lives, poor things!" ... "Now, John, I don't know anything about politics, but I can read my Bible; and there I see that I must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the desolate; and that Bible I mean to follow.”

ReligionHumanityPoliticsFreedomCompassionEmpathyRacismSlaveryEqualityAfrican American
Author:Harriet Beecher Stowe
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