Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The novel lacks redeeming social value unless it can be repurposed as a cardboard box.
In plain terms
The novel is worthless socially unless recycled.
What can you take from it?
Critique works that add no social benefit.

Where it applies

  • book reviews
  • literary awards

Putting it to work

  • critical essays
  • reading group discussions

Questions to consider

  • Can a work be valuable without social impact?
  • How should we judge literary merit?

Another view

It dismisses artistic value beyond social utility.

More from Ellen Goodman

  1. I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people convinced that they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make…

    Permalink to quote #4
  2. In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right.

    Permalink to quote #6
  3. I began to realize that life is a growth stage I'm going through.

    Permalink to quote #3

Related quotes

  1. [F]olks would better off dipping their heads in a bucket of liquid [nitrogen] and battering them against a tree very very hard than reading Baxter's Titan. It …

    James NicollJames Nicoll quote #3
  2. There are no 'classics' of crime and detection. Not one. Within its frame of reference, which is the only way it should be judged, a classic is a piece of writ…

    Raymond ChandlerRaymond Chandler quote #26
  3. There's an expectation these days that novels - like any other consumer product - should be made on a production line, with one dropping from the conveyor belt…

    Donna TarttDonna Tartt quote #37