Popular culture is where we go to talk to and agree with one another; to simplify ourselves; to find our herd. It’s like going to the Automat to buy an emotion. The thrills are cheap and the payoffs predictable and, after a while, the repetition is a bummer. Whereas books are where we go alone to complicate ourselves. Inside this solitude, we take on contours, textures, perspectives. Heightened language levitates the reader. Great art transfigures. And when we go back to it, it’s full of even more surprises. We get older; it gets smarter. John Leonard
About This Quote

In this quote, the author refers to the public sphere as a place where we go to talk to and agree with one another. It is a place of simplified conversations where everyone has a common theme or thought. It is a place of repetitive dialogue where the payoffs are predictable and the thrills cheap. In contrast, books give us a chance to be alone and contemplate what we have been through.

In this solitude, we take on contours, textures, perspectives. Heightened language levitates the reader. Great art transfigures.

And when we go back to it, it’s full of even more surprises. We get older; it gets smarter.

Source: Reading For My Life: Writings, 19582008

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  1. To say that one waits a lifetime for his soulmate to come around is a paradox. People eventually get sick of waiting, take a chance on someone, and by the art of commitment become soulmates, which takes a lifetime to perfect.
  2. If love is blind, then maybe a blind person that loves has a greater understanding of it.
  3. I would rather a romantic relationship turn into contempt than turn into apathy. The passion in the extremities make it appear as though it once meant something. We grow from hot or cold, but lukewarm is the biggest insult.
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