{"product_id":"incarnation-metamorphosis-can-literature-change-us-9781589881723","title":"Incarnation \u0026 Metamorphosis: Can Literature Change Us?","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Witty and heartfelt essays, shaken and stirred.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"\u003cb\u003eDavid Mason believes in literature as a weather event--even an extreme one. He reads to be changed--drenched, burned, blown away. He has no wish to have his standing position confirmed, and is alert to the ways in which his subjects are changed, both by their writing and its reception. These essays move comfortably from the lines of a Nobel Prize-winning poet to the dwelling of a Greek peasant who could have stepped out of Homer, on to the perils of literary biography. Mason is a reader as much as he is a writer. He looks into the political in order to find the personal--not the other way round. Incarnation \u0026amp; Metamorphosis is engaging all the way through, not least when Mason acts on the assumption, 'The imagination is free.'\"\u003cbr\u003e--James Campbell, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eTalking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Literary criticism,\" David Mason writes, \"ought to entertain as well as illuminate.\" In these essays Mason tells stories about embodiment and change, incarnation and metamorphosis, drawing connections between art and life without confusing the two. Mason considers the many kinds of change we encounter in our lives, our desire for justice, and the ways great writers complicate that desire. He discusses the lives and works of writers like Montaigne, Diderot, and Neruda as well as his colorful father's fascination with a fictional character. He takes up such contemporary figures as the daring Australian writer Helen Garner, the playwright Tom Stoppard, and the poet-critic Dana Gioia; has fresh things to say about the perils of fame in the careers of Sylvia Plath and Seamus Heaney; and mourns the loss of poet Michael Donaghy.\u003ci\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIncarnation \u0026amp; Metamorphosis\u003c\/i\u003e is a book about living with literature--Mason writes that literature \"is telling us that we are seen, warts and all. Criticism, such as the essays in this book, is a way of seeing back.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Paul Dry Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/07\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781589881723\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 226\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.65lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/15\/2022\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"David Mason","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42589580624053,"sku":"9781589881723","price":16.96,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_2c9efbd3-fa1a-460b-8bf4-eb9c82a00cec.jpg?v=1673327123","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/incarnation-metamorphosis-can-literature-change-us-9781589881723","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}