"The ascendancy of the novel is historically associated with the ascendancy of the middle class and the spread of general literacy, and those in turn, in the West at least, with the development of the institutions of liberal democracy and the civil state. … No doubt I am being both biased and superstitious, but because of that historical connection I think of the novel (and, by extension, of general literacy) as a canary in the coal mines of democratic civil society. … If this particular canary really does go belly-up, I'm old-fashioned enough to fear for the general civic air."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesPostmodern authorsJohns Hopkins University alumniNovelists from MarylandJohns Hopkins University faculty
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"The Novel in the Next Century" (1992), pp. 362–362
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Barth
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
John Barth
John Simmons Barth (May 27, 1930 – April 2, 2024) was an American novelist and short-story writer, known for the postmodernist and metafictive quality of his work.
39 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by John Barth →
Related Quotes
"Marilyn Marsh, who had about had it with Spain, declared to him [the old Spanish man]: … But it redounds to your nati…"
"One of the things I miss about teaching is that students would tell me what I ought to read. One of my students, back…"
"Women thought me charmingly shy, and sometimes stopped at nothing to “penetrate the disdainful shell of my fear,” as …"
"[N]othing is intrinsically valuable; the value of everything is attributed to it, assigned to it, from outside, by pe…"
"[T]here is no will-o'-the-wisp so elusive as the cause of any human act."
"[I]t is sometimes pleasant to stone a martyr, no matter how much we may admire him."
"More history's made by secret handshakes than by battles, bills, and proclamations."
"'Tis e'er the wont of simple folk to prize the deed and o'erlook the motive, and of learned folk to discount the deed…"
"'Tis e'er the lot of the innocent in the world to fly to the wolf for succor from the lion."
"The night-sea journey may be absurd, but here we swim, will-we nill-we, against the flood, onward and upward, toward …"