Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 September 2009
The dialogic means of seeking truth is counterposed to official monologism, which pretends to possess a ready-made truth, and it is also counterposed to the naive self-confidence of those people who think that they know something, that is, who think that they possess certain truths. Truth is not born nor is it to be found inside the head of an individual person, it is born between people collectively searching for truth, in the process of their dialogic interaction.
Mikhail Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoyevsky's Poetics, ed. and tr. Caryl Emerson (Minneapolis, 1984), p. 110The novel's spirit is the spirit of complexity. Every novel says to the reader: “Things are not as simple as you think.” That is the novel's eternal truth, but it grows steadily harder to hear amid the din of easy, quick answers that come faster than the question and block it off.
Milan Kundera, The Art of the Novel, tr. Linda Asher (New York, 1986), p. 18I would not have you … complain … of the Contradiction of your Character, since that is of a Piece with the whole Design of my Book.
I hate all that's common, even to common Sense.
Defoe to Robinson Crusoe, in Charles Gildon, The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Mr. D— De F—, of London, Hosier (1719), pp. xvi, xvTo save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
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