James Wood citations

“An excess of storytelling has become the contemporary way of shrouding, in majesty, a lack; it is the Sun King principle. The lack is the human.”

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James Wood

Hysterical realism
The Irresponsible Self (2004)

“The big contemporary novel is a perpetual motion machine that appears to have been embarrassed into velocity. It seems to want to abolish stillness, as if ashamed of silence. Stories and sub-stories sprout on every page, and these novels continually flourish their glamorous congestion.”

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James Wood

Hysterical realism
The Irresponsible Self (2004)

“The hypocrite, among other things, can be a deformed ambassador of the truth.”

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James Wood

The Irresponsible Self (2004)