2. The kind of knowledge that we derive from literature is
worth acquiring because it is a picture of how the
world is.
The world can be known about in an unproblematic
way.
The author stands in a confident, descriptive
relationship to the world.
The novel copies without problem the features of the
world: its order, nature and dynamics, and those of the
people encountered in it.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9. The fire-bombing of Dresden and the
subsequent firestorm. Feb. 13th 1945.
4000 tonnes of bombs. Firestorm of 1500°C.
25,000 to 100,000 dead.
Hiroshima – 75,000.
In the novel 135,000 are killed.
The higher estimate is by David Irving,
holocaust denier and Nazi propagandist. David
Irving vs Penguin and Deborah Lipstadt, 2000.
10. Tension between:
the wish to believe in a humanistic society
founded on progressive, enlightened, liberal
and rational values
a view of human society as corrupt, arbitrary,
violent and perversely willed towards self-
destruction
