Advertising - A Judicious Mixture Of Flattery

[science Fiction Is] A Mode Of Romance With A Strong Inherent Tendency To Myth.

Literature As A Whole Is Not An Aggregate Of Exhibits With Red And Blue Ribbons Attached To Them, Like A Cat-show, But The Range Of Articulate Human Imagination As It Extends From The Height Of Imaginative Heaven To The Depth Of Imaginative Hell.

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.

Characters Tend To Be Either For Or Against The Quest. If They Assist It, They Are Idealized As Simply Gallant Or Pure; If They Obstruct It, They Are Characterized As Simply Villainous Or Cowardly. Hence Every Typical Character...tends To Have His Moral Opposite Confronting Him, Like Black And White Pieces In A Chess Game.

Those Who Are Concerned With The Arts Are Often Asked Questions, Not Always Sympathetic Ones, About The Use Or Value Of What They Are Doing. It Is Probably Impossible To Answer Such Questions Directly, Or At Any Rate To Answer The People Who Ask Them.