Literary Significance & Criticism
This novel can be most clearly understood as a commentary on globalization via a fictional account of the effects of the Earth's expanding political, economic and social influence over human inhabited planets. Barnes appears to suggest that those most harmed by globalization are the ones least willing to change in response.
Read more about this topic: A Million Open Doors
Famous quotes containing the words literary, significance and/or criticism:
“The [Loyal] legion has taken the place of the clubthe famous Cincinnati Literary Clubin my affections.... The military circles are interested in the same things with myself, and so we endure, if not enjoy, each other.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (18221893)
“History is the interpretation of the significance that the past has for us.”
—Johan Huizinga (18721945)
“A bad short story or novel or poem leaves one comparatively calm because it does not exist, unless it gets a fake prestige through being mistaken for good work. It is essentially negative, it is something that has not come through. But over bad criticism one has a sense of real calamity.”
—Rebecca West (18921983)