Literary Significance & Criticism
Like many of Wolfe's works, There Are Doors is often praised for its intricate plot which many find can only be fully interpreted after several readings. It is often considered alongside Castleview and Pandora, By Holly Hollander, forming a trilogy of stand-alone works written by Wolfe in the late 1980s, nearly unique to his bibliography in that they have a contemporary, American setting.
Read more about this topic: There Are Doors
Famous quotes containing the words literary, significance and/or criticism:
“It is a good lesson—though it may often be a hard one—for a man who has dreamed of literary fame, and of making for himself a rank among the world’s dignitaries by such means, to step aside out of the narrow circle in which his claims are recognized, and to find how utterly devoid of all significance, beyond that circle, is all that he achieves, and all he aims at.”
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864)
“Politics is not an end, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. It is the art of government. Like other values it has its counterfeits. So much emphasis has been placed upon the false that the significance of the true has been obscured and politics has come to convey the meaning of crafty and cunning selfishness, instead of candid and sincere service.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)