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Reflections of a working writer and reader

 

 

Elif Shafak on Fiction and Imagination

john baker, July 22nd, 2010. 2 comments. Filed under literature, quotations, writing.

Listening to stories widens the imagination; telling them lets us leap over cultural walls, embrace different experiences, feel what others feel. Elif Shafak builds on this simple idea to argue that fiction can overcome identity politics.

“Knowledge that takes you not beyond yourself is far worse than ignorance.”

Thanks to Donigan Merritt for pointing this one out.

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2 Responses to “Elif Shafak on Fiction and Imagination”

  1. Jim Murdoch says:
    22nd July 2010 at 6:13 pm

    That quote could have been phrased a bit clearer. I think self-knowledge is a thing to be sought after personally. Too many of us only think we know ourselves. As the years go by and we get tested, only then do we start to see that our earlier estimations were far out.

  2. john baker says:
    22nd July 2010 at 8:05 pm

    True, Jim. On both counts. But the mountain remains, whatever part of it we manage or fail to scale.