Saturday, July 17, 2010

Rendering comprehensible different kinds of unhappiness

While it's true that, as Tolstoy observed, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, and everyone on planet Earth, vale of tears that it is, is certainly entitled to the specificity of his or her suffering, one nonetheless likes to think that literature has the power to render comprehensible different kinds of unhappiness. If it can't do that, what's it good for?
-Elif Batuman, The Possessed

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My opinion, unhappiness has many different styles but only one essential cause and nature.