--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The great majority of interpretations of…" description: "\"“The great majority of interpretations of Apocalypse assume that the End is pretty near. Consequently the historical allegory is always having to be re..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b4f/frank-kermode-16485_apocalypses_the-great-majority-of-interpretations-of_764533.jpg" --- # The great majority of interpretations of Apocalypse assume… ![“The great majority of interpretations of Apocalypse assume that the End is pretty near. Consequently the historical allegory is always having to be revised; time discredits it. And this is important. Apocalypse can be disconfirmed without being discredited. This is part of its extraordinary…” quote by Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b4f/frank-kermode-16485_apocalypses_the-great-majority-of-interpretations-of_764533.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b4f/frank-kermode-16485_apocalypses_the-great-majority-of-interpretations-of_764533.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b4f/frank-kermode-16485_apocalypses_the-great-majority-of-interpretations-of_764533.jpg) > ““The great majority of interpretations of Apocalypse assume that the End is pretty near. Consequently the historical allegory is always having to be revised; time discredits it. And this is important. Apocalypse can be disconfirmed without being discredited. This is part of its extraordinary resilience. It can also absorb changing interests, rival apocalypses, such as the Sibylline writings. It is patient of change and of historiographical sophistications. It allows itself to be diffused, blended with other varieties of fiction--tragedy, for example, myths of Empire and of Decadence--and yet it can survive in very naïve forms. Probably the most sophisticated of us is capable at times of naïve reactions to the End.”” [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Apocalypse narratives persist by adapting to new contexts, blending with other genres, and remaining resilient despite changing interpretations. **In simple terms:** Apocalypse stays relevant by evolving and mixing with other stories. Key Takeaway Recognize adaptability in enduring ideas. Themes resilience adaptation genre blending historical interpretation mythology Mood analytical thoughtful Type critical interpretive When to use this quote - literary analysis - theology - cultural studies - media criticism - historical research Key Concepts cultural persistence narrative flexibility symbolic endurance Questions to Reflect On - How does blending with other genres affect its impact? - Can resilience become complacency? A Different Perspective Apocalypse can be reinterpreted but may lose original urgency. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Apocalypses](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/apocalypses/) [Literary criticism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/literary-criticism/) ## Related quotes > [“Thus apocalypses set an audience’s space within the context of a larger, invisible world, and they set the audience’s time in the context of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-a-desilva/thus-apocalypses-set-an-audience-s-space-within-the-context-of-a/) [David A. Desilva](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-a-desilva/) > [The Apocalypse to end all Apocalypses.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nikhil-saluja/the-apocalypse-to-end-all-apocalypses/) [Nikhil Saluja](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nikhil-saluja/) > [“This view of the next valley is a view, at one remove, of your own mind, of everybody's mind as it exists above and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aldous-huxley/this-view-of-the-next-valley-is-a-view-at-one-remove-of-your-own-mind/) [Aldous Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aldous-huxley/) > [“How we all love extreme cases and apocalypses, fires, drownings, stranglings, and the rest of it. The bigger our mild, basically ethical, safe middle…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/saul-bellow/how-we-all-love-extreme-cases-and-apocalypses-fires-drownings/) [Saul Bellow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/saul-bellow/) > [As a Protestant minister's son I am partial to apocalypses.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matt-ruff/as-a-protestant-minister-s-son-i-am-partial-to-apocalypses/) [Matt Ruff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matt-ruff/) > [“I am willing without further exercise in pain to open my heart. And this needs no doctrine or theology of suffering. We love apocalypses…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/saul-bellow/i-am-willing-without-further-exercise-in-pain-to-open-my-heart-and/) [Saul Bellow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/saul-bellow/) > [“Big contrast: While the foreign media are obsessed with Apocalypses, the Japanese people are already talking of rebuilding.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-gibson/big-contrast-while-the-foreign-media-are-obsessed-with-apocalypses/) [William Gibson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-gibson/) > [Of all the apocalypses in all the world - she had walked into his.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mari-mancusi/of-all-the-apocalypses-in-all-the-world-she-had-walked-into-his/) [Mari Mancusi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mari-mancusi/) > [“Life, as I know it, is cataclysms and apocalypses. With each passing day I feel that much more incompetent even to trace gestures or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/life-as-i-know-it-is-cataclysms-and-apocalypses-with-each-passing-day/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [“Erm.. dear, do I ride out for Apocalypses?' Mrs War took the lid off the saucepan and prodded viciously at something inside. 'No, dear,'…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/terry-pratchett/erm-dear-do-i-ride-out-for-apocalypses-mrs-war-took-the-lid-off-the/) [Terry Pratchett](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/terry-pratchett/) > [Apocalypses don't happen very often. They tend to be separated by tens or even hundreds of millions of years.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dale-jamieson/apocalypses-don-t-happen-very-often-they-tend-to-be-separated-by-tens/) [Dale Jamieson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dale-jamieson/) > [There were a lot of apocalypses that didn't make it into this assemblage because they didn't suit the world. And defining that world and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lucy-corin/there-were-a-lot-of-apocalypses-that-didn-t-make-it-into-this/) [Lucy Corin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lucy-corin/) > [“When tragedy established itself in England it did so in terms of plots and spectacle that had much more to do with medieval apocalypse…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/when-tragedy-established-itself-in-england-it-did-so-in-terms-of/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“It is already the fashion to diminish Eliot by calling him derivative, the mouthpiece of Pound, and so forth; and yet if one wanted…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/it-is-already-the-fashion-to-diminish-eliot-by-calling-him-derivative/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“The first phase of modernism, which so far as the English language goes we associate with Pound and Yeats, Wyndham Lewis and Eliot and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/the-first-phase-of-modernism-which-so-far-as-the-english-language/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) ## More by Frank Kermode > [“The first phase of modernism, which so far as the English language goes we associate with Pound and Yeats, Wyndham Lewis and Eliot and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/the-first-phase-of-modernism-which-so-far-as-the-english-language/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“It is already the fashion to diminish Eliot by calling him derivative, the mouthpiece of Pound, and so forth; and yet if one wanted…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/it-is-already-the-fashion-to-diminish-eliot-by-calling-him-derivative/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“I suppose it would be better if one were aggressive, contentious and so on. But there's rarely any occasion to be savage.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/i-suppose-it-would-be-better-if-one-were-aggressive-contentious-and/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“When tragedy established itself in England it did so in terms of plots and spectacle that had much more to do with medieval apocalypse…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/when-tragedy-established-itself-in-england-it-did-so-in-terms-of/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“The novel, then, provides a reduction of the world different from that of the treatise. It has to lie. Words, thoughts, patterns of word…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/the-novel-then-provides-a-reduction-of-the-world-different-from-that/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“The books which seal off the long perspectives, which sever us from our losses, which represent the world of potency as a world of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/the-books-which-seal-off-the-long-perspectives-which-sever-us-from/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“the buoyancy of chiliasts”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/the-buoyancy-of-chiliasts/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [It is one of the great charms of books that they have to end.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/it-is-one-of-the-great-charms-of-books-that-they-have-to-end/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“The discords of our experience--delight in change, fear of change; the death of the individual and the survival of the species, the pains and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/the-discords-of-our-experience-delight-in-change-fear-of-change-the/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“It might be useful here to say a word about Beckett, as a link between the two stages, and as illustrating the shift towards…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/it-might-be-useful-here-to-say-a-word-about-beckett-as-a-link-between/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“You sometimes hear people say, with a certain pride in their clerical resistance to the myth, that the nineteenth century really ended not in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/you-sometimes-hear-people-say-with-a-certain-pride-in-their-clerical/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“Having compared the novel-reader with an infant and a primitive, one can go further and call him a psychopath; and this I shall shortly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/having-compared-the-novel-reader-with-an-infant-and-a-primitive-one/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“I hope I have now made it clear why I thought it best, in speaking of the dissonances between fiction and reality in our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/i-hope-i-have-now-made-it-clear-why-i-thought-it-best-in-speaking-of/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“The formerly absolute distinction between time and eternity in Christian thought--between nunc movens with its beginning and end, and nunc stans, the perfect possession…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/the-formerly-absolute-distinction-between-time-and-eternity-in/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [“For Aristotle the literary plot was analogous to the plot of the world in that both were eductions from the potency of matter. Sartre…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/for-aristotle-the-literary-plot-was-analogous-to-the-plot-of-the/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) [Explore all 39 Frank Kermode quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) ## More Apocalypses quotes > [There were a lot of apocalypses that didn't make it into this assemblage because they didn't suit the world. And defining that world and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lucy-corin/there-were-a-lot-of-apocalypses-that-didn-t-make-it-into-this/) [Lucy Corin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lucy-corin/) > [Apocalypses don't happen very often. They tend to be separated by tens or even hundreds of millions of years.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dale-jamieson/apocalypses-don-t-happen-very-often-they-tend-to-be-separated-by-tens/) [Dale Jamieson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dale-jamieson/) > [“Erm.. dear, do I ride out for Apocalypses?' Mrs War took the lid off the saucepan and prodded viciously at something inside. 'No, dear,'…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/terry-pratchett/erm-dear-do-i-ride-out-for-apocalypses-mrs-war-took-the-lid-off-the/) [Terry Pratchett](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/terry-pratchett/) > [“Life, as I know it, is cataclysms and apocalypses. With each passing day I feel that much more incompetent even to trace gestures or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/life-as-i-know-it-is-cataclysms-and-apocalypses-with-each-passing-day/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [Of all the apocalypses in all the world - she had walked into his.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mari-mancusi/of-all-the-apocalypses-in-all-the-world-she-had-walked-into-his/) [Mari Mancusi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mari-mancusi/) > [“Big contrast: While the foreign media are obsessed with Apocalypses, the Japanese people are already talking of rebuilding.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-gibson/big-contrast-while-the-foreign-media-are-obsessed-with-apocalypses/) [William Gibson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-gibson/) > [“I am willing without further exercise in pain to open my heart. And this needs no doctrine or theology of suffering. We love apocalypses…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/saul-bellow/i-am-willing-without-further-exercise-in-pain-to-open-my-heart-and/) [Saul Bellow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/saul-bellow/) > [As a Protestant minister's son I am partial to apocalypses.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matt-ruff/as-a-protestant-minister-s-son-i-am-partial-to-apocalypses/) [Matt Ruff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matt-ruff/) > [“How we all love extreme cases and apocalypses, fires, drownings, stranglings, and the rest of it. The bigger our mild, basically ethical, safe middle…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/saul-bellow/how-we-all-love-extreme-cases-and-apocalypses-fires-drownings/) [Saul Bellow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/saul-bellow/) > [“This view of the next valley is a view, at one remove, of your own mind, of everybody's mind as it exists above and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aldous-huxley/this-view-of-the-next-valley-is-a-view-at-one-remove-of-your-own-mind/) [Aldous Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aldous-huxley/) > [The Apocalypse to end all Apocalypses.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nikhil-saluja/the-apocalypse-to-end-all-apocalypses/) [Nikhil Saluja](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nikhil-saluja/) > [“Thus apocalypses set an audience’s space within the context of a larger, invisible world, and they set the audience’s time in the context of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-a-desilva/thus-apocalypses-set-an-audience-s-space-within-the-context-of-a/) [David A. Desilva](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-a-desilva/) [Browse all 13 Apocalypses quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/apocalypses/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The great majority of interpretations of Apocalypse assume that the End is pretty near. Consequently the historical allegory is always having to be revised; time discredits it. And this is important. Apocalypse can be disconfirmed without being discredited. This is part of its extraordinary resilience. It can also absorb changing interests, rival apocalypses, such as the Sibylline writings. It is patient of change and of historiographical sophistications. It allows itself to be diffused, blended with other varieties of fiction--tragedy, for example, myths of Empire and of Decadence--and yet it can survive in very naïve forms. 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