#criticism

The Stetson passage is an allusion to Frazer theory in The Golden Bough that religion originated as agricultural engineering. Through a grotesque process of literalization, all of the dying gods and heroes in The Golden Bough, along with Christ and the Fisher King, are transferred from mythic to modern consciousness ( Frazer himself was an unabashed positivist) to be made explicable in scientific terms as fertilizer. ↗

— Jewel Spears Brooker

#religion

Had she any respect for him at all, his words would've affected her. But no value accompanies comments spewed from the mouth of a brute. ↗

— Richelle E. Goodrich

#comments #criticism #remarks #respect #richelle

All I’m arguing for really is that we should have a conversation where the best ideas really thrive, where there’s no taboo against criticizing bad ideas, and where everyone who shows up, in order to get their ideas entertained, has to meet some obvious burdens of intellectual rigor and self-criticism and honesty—and when people fail to do that, we are free to stop listening to them. What religion has had up until this moment is a different set of rules that apply only to it, which is you have to respect my religious certainty even though I’m telling you I arrived at it irrationally. ↗

— Sam Harris

#religion #religion

The thing people don't realize, God bless them, is that my books are supposed to suck. ↗

— Stephenie Meyer

#literary-criticism

Don't criticize what you can't understand. ↗

— Bob Dylan

#criticism #song-lyrics #understanding

It isn't deep," the Eddisian Ambassador said from the other side of the bed. He was leaning over the wound, looking critical and mildly disappointed. Eugenides didn't miss a beat. "It is...too...deep!" he insisted, outraged. ↗

— Megan Whalen Turner

#criticism

Dismissing fantasy writing because some of it is bad is exactly like saying I'm not reading Jane Eyre because it is a romance and I know romance is crap. ↗

— China Miéville

#genres #literary-criticism #pulp #criticism

I criticize by creation, not by finding fault. ↗

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

#creativity #criticism #wisdom #wisdom-quote #wise

Different authors have different points of view. You can't just say, 'I believe in the Bible. ↗

— Bart D. Ehrman

#bible #criticism #literature #skepticism #atheism

Ah, Sir, a novel is a mirror carried along a high road. At one moment it reflects to your vision the azure skies, at another the mire of the puddles at your feet. And the man who carries this mirror in his pack will be accused by you of being immoral! His mirror shews the mire, and you blame the mirror! Rather blame that high road upon which the puddle lies, still more the inspector of roads who allows the water to gather and the puddle to form. ↗

— Stendhal

#novels #satire #social-criticism #satire