George Saunders on Anger, Ambition and Sin
#George Saunders #Literary Theory #Human Condition #Creative Writing #Morality #Modern Fiction #Self-Reflection
📌 Key Takeaways
- George Saunders explores the limitations of being labeled a 'kind' writer in contemporary literature.
- The author discusses anger as a productive force for identifying and addressing social injustices.
- Saunders defines the foundation of sin as the human tendency toward ego and self-centeredness.
- The dialogue highlights the shift in Saunders' career from status-driven ambition to a focus on the craft of storytelling.
📖 Full Retelling
🏷️ Themes
Literature, Philosophy, Ethics
📚 Related People & Topics
Literary theory
Systematic study of the nature of literature
Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, moral philosophy, social philosophy, and interdisciplinary themes relevant t...
Morality
Distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior
Morality (from Latin moralitas 'manner, character, proper behavior') is a doctrine or system of moral conduct which involves evaluative judgments about agents and actions, including assessments of actions as moral or immoral behavior and of character traits as virtues or vices, such as honesty or c...
Creative writing
Academic discipline concerned with creating literature
Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character development, literary tropes, genre, and poetics. Both ...
George Saunders
American writer (born 1958)
George Saunders (born December 2, 1958) is an American writer. He is best known for his short stories and his novel Lincoln in the Bardo (2017), which won the Booker Prize. Saunders' short stories have been published as several collections, including CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (1996) and Tenth of D...
Human condition
Ultimate concerns of human existence
The human condition can be defined as the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, reason, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered and analyzed from many perspectives, including those of...