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Letting the Past Testify
Sep. 5th, 2008 12:15 pmI loved the review of Marilynne Robinson's new novel in the current issue of the New Yorker.
I need to find her essay, "Puritans and Prigs." Here's a quote that the reviewer, James Wood, uses in his review:
We are forever drawing up indictments against the past, then refusing to let it testify in its own behalf -- it is so very guilty, after all. Such attention as we give it is usually vindictive and incurious and therefore incompetent.
Is the past more guilty than the present? Is that a useful question to think about when considering our own responsibilities to the world as it is now?
I need to find her essay, "Puritans and Prigs." Here's a quote that the reviewer, James Wood, uses in his review:
We are forever drawing up indictments against the past, then refusing to let it testify in its own behalf -- it is so very guilty, after all. Such attention as we give it is usually vindictive and incurious and therefore incompetent.
Is the past more guilty than the present? Is that a useful question to think about when considering our own responsibilities to the world as it is now?