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About this quote

What does it mean?
Stein claims writers pretend to care about politics simply because it gives them something to talk about. She believes no real writer is genuinely interested in political matters.
In plain terms
Writers discuss politics just to have topics for conversation.
What can you take from it?
Distinguish between genuine interest and using topics to speak.

Where it applies

  • literary criticism
  • writer interviews
  • political discourse

Putting it to work

  • question surface-level political engagement
  • analyze writer motivations

Questions to consider

  • Why do writers talk about politics?
  • Is political engagement genuine or performative?

Another view

Many writers do engage seriously with political issues.

More from Gertrude Stein

  1. Americans are very friendly and very suspicious, that is what Americans are and that is what always upsets the foreigner, who deals with them, they are so frie…

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  2. Most of us balk at her soporific rigmaroles, her echolaliac incantations, her half-witted-sounding catalogues on numbers; most of us read her less and less. Ye…

    Permalink to quote #119
  3. The contemporary thing in art and literature is the thing which doesn't make enough difference to the people of that generation so that they can accept it or r…

    Permalink to quote #116

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