EvoLit 2011: Twixt Generosity and the Plague

Review of Future Babble: (NYTimes Book Review, 25 March 2011)

 "the future is deeply, intrinsically unknowable"

"Writers frequently take risks but I worry that literary critics are less likely to embrace these risks since unlike biological evolution, the selection force they employ often depends on factors from the past such as training and community." ... dfishervan

"I think what we crave in fiction is the ability to lose ourselves in someone else’s world, and Powers kept bringing us back to reality." ... kgrass

"If I were to write the chapters of my book in a continuous form, each time exhausting the chosen subject, they would certainly be more complete, more comprehensive, of a nobler character. But I fear lengthy texts, and you, reader, are worthy and capable of grasping the whole by means of a few random details, and knowing the end by learning the beginning" - Jahiz, The Book of Animals ... mindyhuskins

(re The Plague) "the lack of emotion or empathy shown by the main characters" ... rachelr

Return to Anne on Generosity/The Plague, and the evolution of literature