“People like ourselves may see nothing wondrous in writing, but our anthropologists know how strange and magical it appears to a purely oral people - a conversation with no one and yet with everyone. What could be stranger than the silence one encounters when addressing a question to a text? What could be more metaphysically puzzling than addressing an unseen audience, as every writer of books must do? And correcting oneself because one knows that an unknown reader will disapprove or misunderstand?” PeopleKnowsWritingMayBookSilenceAudienceKnow HowStrangeReaderConversationOneselfStrangerEncountersUnseenWondrousCorrectingAnthropologistsPuzzling Book:Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business Source: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
“Readable text and authority so that readers know how to spend - no matter how much information there is, I have the same number of minutes in my day, and I need to look to sources that I trust.” KnowsNeedsLooksMatterNumbersKnow HowMinutesInformationSourceReaderAuthority Author:David Gelernter
“Richard Christian Matheson is a master of compression. He knows how to catch a moment in words and convey it straight to the reader's heart.” KnowsHeartMomentsChristianKnow HowMastersReaderCompression Author:Clive Barker
“I think every fantasy reader secretly believes they know how magic works.” ThinkingKnowsBelieveFantasyKnow HowMagicReader Author:Lev Grossman
“Dylan Landis knows how to unnerve a reader, even as she's appreciating being unnerved. Rainey Royal thrums with sex and power. A brave, exquisite book.” KnowsBookSexKnow HowReaderAppreciateBraveRoyalDylanExquisiteLandi Author:Mary Kay Zuravleff
“The problem with kitsch is that it is all too profound, manipulating deep libidinal and ideological forces, while true art knows how to remain at the surface, how to subtract it's subject from it's deepest context of historical reality. The same goes for contemporary art, where we often encounter brutal attempts to return to the Real, to remind the spectator or reader that he is perceiving a fiction, to awaken him from a sweet dream.” KnowsArtRealProblemDreamRealityForceFictionKnow HowSubjectsSweetReturnReaderHistoricalProfoundSurfaceContemporaryEncountersBrutalSpectatorsIdeologicalKitschContemporary ArtSweet Dreams Author:Slavoj Žižek
“I don't think we need a critic to negotiate with the audience. People say, "Who are you writing for?" I'm writing for myself but my audience is anybody who knows how to read. I think a story should engage anybody who knows how to read. And I hope that my stories do, maybe on a different level for more sophisticated readers than, say, a high school kid, but still a story has got to grab you. That's why we read it.” PeopleThinkingKnowsNeedsShouldWritingStillsDifferentStoriesKidsSchoolLevelsAudienceKnow HowReaderHigh SchoolCriticsSophisticatedDifferent Levels Author:T.C. Boyle
“A good writer preserves an air of freedom in his prose, so that the reader won't know how a story will end - even if he's reading a history book.” IfsKnowsBookEndsStoriesReadingKnow HowAirReaderPreservesProseGood WritersHistory Books Author:Thornton Wilder