nonfiction if the librarian believed the author, and as fiction if she thought he was lying. It is difficult to see what use such a distinction can be to a literary critic.
“Fourth Essay: Rhetorical Criticism: Theory of Genres” (1957), Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (2006), CW, 22.
Automobile
Washington was a city designed for automobiles rather than pedestrians long before there were any automobiles: Los Angeles, a city never designed at all, seems to have broken through the control even of the automobile. It was, after all, named after angels, who traditionally do not travel through space but simply manifest themselves elsewhere.
“Canada: New World Without Revolution” (1975), Northrop Frye on Canada (2003), CW, 12.
Aviation
Technology is the most dramatic aspect of this development: one cannot take off in a jet plane and expect a radically different way of life in the place where the plane lands.
“Canadian Culture Today” (1977), Northrop Frye on Canada (2003), CW, 12.
Technology can improve the efficiency of aeroplanes to a degree that outstrips the wildest dreams with which it began. But no sooner has it done so than the airline companies go broke, airports get clogged up, citizens complain about sonic-boom noise, and terrorists develop a taste for free rides to Cuba.
“The Quality of Life in the ’70s” (1971), Northrop Frye on Modern Culture (2003), CW, 11.
What’s produced the aeroplane is not so much a desire to fly as a rebellion against the tyranny of time and space. And that’s a process that can never stop, no matter how high our Titovs and Glenns may go.
“The Motive for Metaphor,” The Educated Imagination (1963), “The Educated Imagination” and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1933–1963 (2006), CW, 21.
Elsewhere the plane may mean a loosening of bonds, a way of escape; in Canada it is a means of tightening the country into a recognizable shape.
“View of Canada” (1976), Northrop Frye on Canada (2003), CW, 12.
… it’s the airplane, I think, that has made one crucial difference to the Canadian consciousness. The airplane supplied a perspective that began to pull the country together.…
“View of Canada” (1976), Northrop Frye on Canada (2003), CW, 12.
The airplane is a recent invention, but the vision that produced it was already ancient in the arts when Daedalus flew out of the labyrinth and Jehovah rode the sky on the wings of a seraph.
“The Imaginative and the Imaginary” (1962), “The Educated Imagination” and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1933–1963 (2006), CW, 21.
Awards
Our real judgments, therefore, are positive, not comparative or superlative.
“Governor General’s Awards (I)” (1963), on being a judge, Northrop Frye on Canada (2003), CW, 12.
But the real importance of the awards, and the justification for associating them with so distinguished an office, is not that they pick the “best” books, but that they indicate a specific interest on the part of the nation in the production of good ones.
“Speech on Acceptance of the Governor General’s Award for Northrop Frye on Shakespeare” (1987), Northrop Frye’s Writings on Shakespeare and the Renaissance (2010), CW, 28.
Lobbying for a writer to get a prize which, if she won it, would become worthless because she won it doesn’t strike me as a very dignified occupation.
Entry, 23 Jan. 1952, 58, on refusing to join a recommendation that Mazo de la Roche be considered for a Nobel Prize, The Diaries of Northrop Frye: 1942–1955 (2001), CW, 8.
We are not conferring a distinction on them; we are merely pointing out the distinction they themselves have achieved.
“Governor General’s Awards (I)” (1963), speaking as a judge, Northrop Frye on Canada (2003), CW, 12.
Axis mundi
About the axis mundi, we can say two things, first, that it is not there, and second, that it won’t go away.
“The Koiné of Myth: Myth as a Universally Intelligible Language” (1984), “The Secular Scripture” and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1976–1991 (2006), CW, 18.
Ayatollah
God doesn’t create post-mortem hells even for people devoting their lives to cruelty and tyranny, but if he did the Ayatollah would certainly be howling in one of them forever.
Entry, Notes 53 (1989–90), 162, Northrop Frye’s Late Notebooks, 1982–1990: Architecture of the Spiritual World (2000), CW, 6.
B
Babel
The society of power always tends to resemble the pyramid or tower of Babel: the society of love tends to resemble the communion table.
“The Church: Its Relation to Society” (1949), Northrop Frye on Religion (2000), CW, 4.
Babel is action with confused words.
Entry, Notebook 44 (1986–91), 599, Northrop Frye’s Late Notebooks, 1982–1990: Architecture of the Spiritual World (2000), CW, 5.
Babies
The parents of a new baby are proud of its novelty; they may even speak of it as unique; but the source of their pride is the fact that it is a recognizable human being, and conforms to a prescribed convention.
“Nature and Homer” (1958), “The Educated Imagination” and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1933–1963 (2006), CW, 21.
Bach, J.S.
I’m probably just nutty, but the 1st movement of the 6th Brandenburg Suite has something sinister about it to me, as though a race of superhuman Robots, cultivated but ruthless, were marching along at a terrific speed to wipe us out.
Entry, Notebook 5 (1935–42), 17, Northrop Frye’s Fiction and Miscellaneous Writings (2007), CW, 25.
I think Bach is the great Protestant poet of the Pathos: not only two Passions, but even the B minor centres on the Kyrie and the Crucifixion.
Entry, Notebook 5 (1935–42), 22, Northrop Frye’s Fiction and Miscellaneous Writings (2007), CW, 25.
If we are listening to music, let us say, on the level of Bach or Mozart, the response keeps shifting from the personal to the impersonal. On the one hand we feel that this is Bach, that it couldn’t possibly be anyone else. On the other hand, there are moments when Bach disappears, and what we feel is: this is the voice of music itself; this is what music was created to say. At that level, we are not hearing the music so much as recognizing it.
“The Teacher’s Source of Authority” (1978), Northrop Frye’s Writings on Education (2001), CW, 7.
Back to Basics
I
