A Person Who Knows Nothing About Literature

The Tricky Or Boastful Gods Of Ancient Myths And Primitive Folk Tales Are Characters Of The Same Kind That Turn Up In Faulkner Or Tennessee Williams.

In Our Day The Conventional Element In Literature Is Elaborately Disguised By A Law Of Copyright Pretending That Every Work Of Art Is An Invention Distinctive Enough To Be Patented.

Metaphors Of Unity And Integration Take Us Only So Far, Because They Are Derived From The Finiteness Of The Human Mind.

Literature Is Conscious Mythology: As Society Develops, Its Mythical Stories Become Structural Principles Of Story-telling, Its Mythical Concepts, Sun-gods And The Like, Become Habits Of Metaphoric Thought. In A Fully Mature Literary Tradition The Writerenters Intoa Structure Of Traditional Stories And Images.

Failure To Grasp Centrifugal Meaning Is Incomplete Reading; Failure To Grasp Centripetal Meaning Is Incompetent Reading.