Charles J. Shields
Charles J. Shields
Charles J. Shieldsis an American biographer, primarily of 20th-century American novelists...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth2 December 1951
CountryUnited States of America
self texture way
There is more to be pondered in the grain and texture of life than traditional fiction allows. The work of essayists is vital precisely because it permits and encourages self-knowledge in a way that is less indirect than fiction, more open and speculative.
book reality wells
Engaging and well paced, the book fills in the reality behind Vonnegut's work
suicide self sin
Self-pity is a sin. It is a form of living suicide.
skins approval negotiation
She just wanted to be comfortable in her own skin...But she would not stop to seek others' approval. The notion that she should never seemed to enter her head. Her right to live as she pleased was not up for negotiation, even if it ran against the grain of the milieu at Huntingdon.
bombed city combine experience haunted impression kurt pain pile residual saw theory top war
My theory is that Kurt had a lot of residual pain from his childhood. And when you pile that on top of his experience in World War II - he was in Dresden when it was bombed and saw a city annihilated. When you combine those two things, my impression of Kurt Vonnegut at 84 was that he was a very pained and haunted man.
destiny hands purpose
The great purpose in life is to take your destiny out of the hands of others.