For even the ordinary well-read person, the French Enlightenment is largely restricted to the three big-name philosophes: Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire. Michael Dirda More Quotes by Michael Dirda More Quotes From Michael Dirda Make sure your message is clear, yet that you are faithful to its complexity. Michael Dirda faithful editing writing Many readers simply can't stomach fantasy. They immediately picture elves with broadswords or mighty-thewed barbarians with battle axes, seeking the bejeweled Coronet of Obeisance ... (But) the best fantasies pull aside the velvet curtain of mere appearance. ... In most instances, fantasy ultimately returns us to our own now re-enchanted world, reminding us that it is neither prosaic nor meaningless, and that how we live and what we do truly matters. Michael Dirda axes velvet battle The world is a library of strange and wonderful books, and sometimes we just need to go prowling through the stacks. Michael Dirda library book world I think the essence of [Kurt] Vonnegut's humanism lay in his emphasis on human kindness as, so to speak, our saving grace. Michael Dirda essence kindness thinking In PLATO AT THE GOOGLEPLEX, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein set out to showcase, in sometimes startling ways, the continuing relevance of a classic philosopher. But what's remarkable is that she actually brings off this tour de force with both madcap brilliance and commanding authority. Michael Dirda philosopher plato way In Madame Bovary Flaubert never allows anything to go on too long; he can suggest years of boredom in a paragraph, capture the essence of a character in a single conversational exchange, or show us the gulf between his soulful heroine and her dull-witted husband in a sentence (and one that, moreover, presages all Emma's later experience of men). (...) This is one of the summits of prose art, and not to know such a masterpiece is to live a diminished life. Michael Dirda husband character art Once we know the plot and its surprises, we can appreciate a book's artistry without the usual confusion and sap flow of emotion, content to follow the action with tenderness and interest, all passion spent. Rather than surrender to the story or the characters - as a good first reader ought - we can now look at how the book works, and instead of swooning over it like a besotted lover begin to appreciate its intricacy and craftmanship. Surprisingly, such dissection doesn't murder the experience. Just the opposite: Only then does a work of art fully live. Michael Dirda passion book art Нe [Kurt Vonnegut] felt that life was largely a crap shoot and that we simply need to muddle on as best we can, being as kind and loving to one another as possible, right now. It's a pretty good philosophy, no matter what one's religious beliefs or lack of them. Michael Dirda religious matter philosophy Science fiction is, after all, the art of extrapolation. Michael Dirda science-fiction fiction art Order and surprise: these are two intertwined elements that make for any great library or collection. Michael Dirda library two order I have now and again tried to imagine the perfect environment, the ideal conditions for reading: A worn leather armchair on a rainy night? A hammock in a freshly mown backyard? A verandah overlooking the summer sea? Good choices, every one. But I have no doubt that they are all merely displacements, sentimental attempts to replicate the warmth and snugness of my mother's lap. Michael Dirda reading mother summer Best selling authors are always worth listening to, even if you choose to ignore their advice. Michael Dirda selling listening advice Throughout history the exemplary teacher has never been just an instructor in a subject; he is nearly always its living advertisement. Michael Dirda advertisements instructors teacher This Is Not a Novel memorializes the treasures and detritus of one man's singularly cultured mind. (...) If you don't know Writer's work at all, try This Is Not a Novel. There may be some doubt about exactly what kind of book it is, but not that it's altogether wonderful. Michael Dirda doubt men book I am shocked that we seemed to have learned nothing, absolutely nothing, from Vietnam. Michael Dirda shocked absolutely-nothing vietnam I sometimes lie awake at night and try to imagine what would be the best period in history to spend one's seventy-odd years. Michael Dirda night lying years Nearly all the writing of our time is likely to disappear in a hundred years. Certainly most readers - and nearly all critics - feel that [Kurt] Vonnegut started to repeat himself, to grow increasingly self-indulgent and meandering, and to sometimes just blather in his later work. But his books up to "Slaughterhouse-Five" do possess a distinctiveness that will insure some kind of permanence, if only in the history of the 1960s and of science fiction. Michael Dirda self writing book I think that his [Kurt Vonnegut's] appeal, though, will always be chiefly to adolescents. His sense of the world matches that of young people, who feel deeply life's absurdity. Michael Dirda people world thinking What matters are those ordinary acts of kindness and of love, not vaulting ambition with its attendant hubris and smugness. Michael Dirda what-matters ambition kindness [Kurt] Vonnegut was a writer whose great gift was that he always seemed to be talking directly to you. He wasn't writing, he wasn't showing off, he was just telling you, nobody else, what it was like, what it was all about. That intimacy made him beloved. We can admire the art of John Updike or Philip Roth, but we love Vonnegut. Michael Dirda writing talking art
