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About this quote

What does it mean?
The value of a literary form is often shown by how much low-quality work it tolerates.
In plain terms
A writing style is important if it can hold both great and bad work.
What can you take from it?
Great forms endure even bad examples.

Where it applies

  • criticism
  • publishing
  • education

Putting it to work

  • evaluate works holistically
  • recognize genre strengths
  • avoid judging form by worst examples

Questions to consider

  • Does bad work ruin a genre?
  • What makes a literary form valuable?

Another view

Some might argue trash degrades the form rather than proving its strength.

More from Albert Camus

  1. The Empire supposes a negation and a certainty: the certainty of the infinite malleability of man and the negation of human nature.

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  2. The great novelists are philosopher-novelists whom write in images instead of arguments.

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  3. The doctrines of evolution and the notions of selection that accompany them have made of the future of society a final end. The political utopias that were gra…

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