One recalls how much the creative impulse of the best-sellers depends upon self-pity. It is an emotion of great dramatic potential.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Best-sellers often rely on self-pity, which is dramatic.
- In plain terms
- Popular authors use self-pity because it makes good drama.
- What can you take from it?
- Self-pity is a powerful tool in popular storytelling.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Why does self-pity resonate with readers?
- Is self-pity a weakness or strength in art?
Another view
It reduces all best-sellers to self-pity.
More from V. S Pritchett
To be identified with the public is the divine gift of the best-sellers in popular Romance and, no doubt, in popular realism. E. M. Forster once spoke of the n…
Permalink to quote #11 On one plane, the very great writers and the popular romancers of the lower order always meet. They use all of themselves, helplessly, unselectively. They are …
Permalink to quote #13 Like many popular best-sellers, he was a very sad and solemn man who took himself too seriously and his art not seriously enough.
Permalink to quote #10
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