9 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2018
    1. takes time, flips time, gives us time,

      I had never thought about a novel this way. It is very interesting how differently various novels treat time. Some focus on a short amount of time, others a long amount. Also, some novels tell stories out of sequence. This is interesting to think about why an author chooses to treat time the way he or she does.

    2. the novel matters, because it makes matter, and matters, new to us every time.

      I like this line and the author's point here.

    3. the novel matters even more, because to some extent we all live by fictions, we have all along survived by using them. But in an age in which living by fiction means having powerful fictions politically, nationally, internationally foisted upon us, fiction lets us read and understand such fictions.

      This passage confuses me in some ways. However, I think I understand what the author is trying to say. Is she saying if we live by fictions, then reading fiction novels will help us to understand our lives and situations we might be in?

    4. The Yellow Spot and it simply lists – early enough to make it clear to everyone who read it what was happening and what would come of its lists – as many of the injustices and brutalities happening to the Jewish people who lived in Germany as it could.

      This might be very hard to read, however I would imagine this to be a hugely important text. It might act as documentation of these people's lives and this novel, like many others, had a great meaning because of that.

    5. be active, be alive to them and them in turn alive to the reader.

      I agree with the author here. I have a difficult time reading books if I cannot insert myself into the narrative. I think Smith says this very nicely here, and it is an important personal preference which I agree with entirely.

    6. He sees existence as dead or deadened if it is divided, or split, or forced to live as part of a pattern rather than part of a living changing process. The novel matters to Lawrence because it reminds us not to be dead to life, and to spot the patterns or stories that leave the human state deadened.

      I think novels can play a huge role in this. I believe they can help us spot patterns throughout history and have the potential to make us more aware about life.

    7. Plus, the novel, as well as a creature of time, is a creature of its time. I’m not so sure there’s really such a thing as the historical novel or the futurist novel. I think a novel always reflects its time, the time it’s written in. It can’t not.

      This is a very interesting point made by the author. I believe she is trying to say that a novel cannot be historical nor can it be futurist because it is inherently impacted by life at any present moment. I agree with this because it would be hard to use none of our experiences as inspiration for a novel, therefor it is not historical or futuristic.

    1. It was a repudiation of feminism itself.

      This is so true

    2. it happened that “women” was the one tent large enough to contain almost every major strain of protest against Trump.

      I find this to be so interesting. The march this year was more than just a women's march. People marched for all kinds of things mainly in opposition of Trump. It is amazing to me that instead of starting protests or something, everyone came out and marched united.