{"product_id":"the-strength-to-dream-samantha-devin-9781913209018","title":"The Strength to Dream: Literature and the Imagination","description":"In this intense and revealing essay, Wilson analyses our literary heritage from the standpoint of existential criticism. Using specific examples and detailed biographical data, he reveals a fact that we tend to ignore: that almost all modern literature is an ode to despair, a stubborn cult to the man in the street, to the defeated, the loser. The prevailing romantic disability we suffer has diminished the stature of man to unforeseen levels. The imagination to which Wilson appeals in this book is a power capable of transcending the immediate, of freeing us from the limits of what is possible. Those who can imagine in this way have dominion over the earthly world and for that reason alone are liberated from the futility of the ordinary. To imagine is to invoke the impossible, to reject things as they are and dare to shape them as they should be. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"...art in the twentieth century - literary art in particular - has ceased to take itself seriously as the primary instrument of existential philosophy. It has ceased to regard itself as an instrument for probing questions of human significance. \u003ci\u003eArt is the science of human destiny.\"\u003c\/i\u003e Colin Wilson \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Existential criticism is therefore the attempt to judge works of art by the contribution they make to the science of living, to judge them by standards of meaning as well as impact.\" Colin Wilson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Samantha Devin, Colin Wilson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1913209016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781913209018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Aristeia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/28\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 362\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.17lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.81d","brand":"Samantha Devin","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43993344835839,"sku":"9781913209018","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_6d284f2c-0fec-494f-a1e7-c94e4c84b6b3.jpg?v=1683323850","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-strength-to-dream-samantha-devin-9781913209018","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}