“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
“If it were possible adequately to present the whole of a culture, stressing every aspect exactly as appears in the culture itself, no single detail would appear bizarre or strange or arbitrary to the reader, but rather the details would all appear natural and reasonable as they do to the natives who have lived all their lives within the culture.” IfsWholeCultureNaturalStrangeReaderAspectStressDetailsReasonableBizarreArbitrary Author:Gregory Bateson
“The question so often asked of modern painting, "What is it?", contains more than the dull skepticism of the man who is not going to have the wool pulled over his eyes. It speaks of a fundamental placement in relation to the work, that of a voyager in the world coming upon a strange object. The reader reconstitutes the work by his active participation, by approaching the object, tapping it, shaking it, holding it to his ear to hear the roaring within. It is characteristic of the object that it does not declare itself all at once, in a rush of pleasant naïveté.” MenWorldDoeEyeSpeakModernObjectsStrangeHe ManPaintingReaderEarsRelationFundamentalsActiveCharacteristicsPleasantHis EyesDullSkepticismParticipationShakingRoaringTappingWoolVetsPlacementActive ParticipationShaking It Author:Donald Barthelme
“Pickover's lively, provocative travel guide takes readers into the fascinating realm of mystic math, from perfectly strange numbers to fractured geometries and other curious nooks and crannies of ancient worlds and modern times.” WorldNumbersModernStrangeReaderAncientMathGuidesCuriousRealmsFascinatingGeometryMysticLivelyProvocativeModern TimesAncient World Author:Ivars Peterson
“The connection that I have with my readers makes me very happy, and gives meaning to the strange profession of writing” GivingWritingStrangeReaderConnectionsProfessionVery Happy Author:Isabel Allende
“I think that the more alien and strange a world or situation is, the more concise you have to be if you want the reader to follow you. It depends on what effect you're looking for.” IfsThinkingWorldWantSituationEffectsStrangeDependsReaderAliensConcise Author:Karin Tidbeck
“The beginning [of Lincoln in the Bardo] is strange, and I did a lot of work calibrating that so that a reader with a certain level of patience would get through it and in the nick of time start to figure out what was going on. In a short book, you can do that.” BookCertainCan DoLevelsFiguresStrangeReader Author:George Saunders
“As a non-western artist, you have to ask yourself a question fairly early in your life: do I want to become a bridge maker, do I want my culture to be understood by the west? I have no intentions of doing such things. I'm fine being a little strange to a non-western audience. It doesn't bother me if my book doesn't change a generation of American readers.” IfsWantLittlesBookArtistCultureAsksAudienceGenerationsStrangeFineReaderUnderstoodIntentionWestWesternBridgesBotherMakers Author:Sarnath Banerjee
“The funny thing is, nationalism only could have come about in Europe after the invention of printing. You could have this thing that was a book in a vernacular language, and you could imagine there were other readers of this book who you couldn't see, but they were a theoretical union of readers who all use the same language. That is kind of a prerequisite for a national fantasy. You need that thing, and it's a strange thing.” NeedsKindBookUseLanguageFantasyImagineStrangeReaderEuropeUnionsInventionNationalismTheoreticalFunny ThingsPrintingStrange ThingsPrerequisitesVernacular Author:Ben Katchor