"An old essay by John Updike begins, 'We……" — John Updike
"An old essay by John Updike begins, 'We live in an era of gratuitous inventions and negative improvements.' That language is general and abstract, near the top of the ladder. It provokes our thinking, but what concrete evidence leads Updike to his conclusion ? The answer is in his second sentence : 'Consider the beer can.' To be even more specific, Updike was complaining that the invention of the pop-top ruined the aesthetic experience of drinking beer. 'Pop-top' and 'beer' are at the bottom of the ladder, 'aesthetic experience' at the top."
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John Updike
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339 Quotes by John Updike
John Updike has 339 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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You always find things you didn't know you were going to say, and that is the adventure...
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Among the repulsions of atheism for me has been its drastic un-interestingness as an intellectual position. Where was the ingenuity,…
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The golf swing is like a suitcase into which we are trying to pack one too many things.
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I imagine most of that stuff on the information highway is roadkill anyway.
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I assume my stance, and take back the club, low, slowly; at the top, my eyes fog over, and my…
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In memory's telephoto lens, far objects are magnified.
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Without rain, there would be no life.
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Natural beauty is essentially temporary and sad, hence the impression of obscene mockery which artificial flowers give us.
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Many men are more faithful to their golf partners than to their wives and have stuck with them longer.
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What other sport holds out hope of improvement to a man or a woman over fifty? True, the pros begin…
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"Hit it with the back of your left hand" was the first swing thought I ever heard, brusquely bu not…
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...as all souls are equal before their Maker, a two inch putt counts the same as a 250 yard drive.…
See all 339 quotes by John Updike »
More Abstract Quotes
This quote is filed under Abstract Quotes,
one of 741 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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To those who have exhausted politics, nothing remains but abstract thought.
— Honore de Balzac
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I was a really lousy artist as a kid. Too abstract expressionist; or I'd draw a big ram's head, really…
— Jean-Michel Basquiat
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In the abstract conception of universal wrong, all concrete responsibility vanishes.
— Theodor Adorno
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None of the abstract concepts comes closer to fulfilled utopia than that of eternal peace.
— Theodor Adorno
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Good science fiction is intelligent. It asks big questions that are on people's minds. It's not impossible. It has some…
— Nicolas Cage
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Science fiction is a way that I can go into the abstract, go into the imagination, and audiences are still…
— Nicolas Cage
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I am searching for abstract ways of expressing reality, abstract forms that will enlighten my own mystery.
— Eric Cantona
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Abstract art: a product of the untalented sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.
— Al Capp
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Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change…
— Saul Alinsky
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'Woman on the Plaza,' with its distinct horizon, snow-like surfaces, wintry wall, stunning sunlight, sharp shadows, and hurrying figure, would…
— Sam Abell
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Old ideas give way slowly; for they are more than abstract logical forms and categories. They are habits, predispositions, deeply…
— John Dewey
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It is difficult to talk about fashion in the abstract, without a human body before my eyes, without drawings, without…
— Giorgio Armani
See all 741 Abstract Quotes »