Christopher Ricks
Christopher Ricks
Sir Christopher Bruce Ricks, FBA is a Britishliterary critic and scholar. He is the William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the Humanities at Boston Universityand Co-Director of the Editorial Institute at Boston University, and was Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxfordfrom 2004 to 2009. He is the immediate past-president of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics. He is known as a champion of Victorian poetry; an enthusiast of Bob Dylan, whose lyrics he has analysed...
living worse
The one thing worse than not living for ever would be living for ever
community courtesy creates language present within
When a language creates as it does a community within the present, it does so only by courtesy of a community between the present and the past.
community courtesy creates language present within
When a language creates -- as it does -- a community within the present, it does so only by courtesy of a community between the present and the past.
rocks genius fields
Geniuses are at work in the rock music field, and great popularity is no proof you aren't good.
art fun dirty
The fabliau, then, is a short story that is a tall story. It combines a burly blurting of dirty words with a reveling in humiliations that are good unclean fun. A popular venture that is keen to paste—épater—everybody (not just the bourgeoisie), it is the art of the single entendre. Highly staged low life, it guffaws at the pious, the prudish, and the priggish. High cockalorum versus high decorum…. The introduction here, like the translator’s note, tells well the story of the comic tales, anonymous for the most part, usually two or three hundred lines long, of which about 160 exist.
people connections genius
Geniuses are people who notice things and connections between things which others haven't noticed. Genius must be a surprise.
simplicity good-man may
For it is characteristic of true simplicity that there may radiate from its utmost directness a good many glinting things.
art attention great-work
A great work of art is one that continues to repay attention.
communication past community
When a language creates - as it does - a community within the present, it does so only by courtesy of a community between the present and the past.
account followed gives latest less saying seemed taken truth
That's not the same thing as saying that the latest account that he gives should be unmistakably taken as the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I wouldn't say he never wanted to be followed or be called a leader. (But) he probably wanted it less than it seemed at the time.
cult good human self wish
I think the wish to disassociate from the cult of self is a good human impulse,