Annie Dillard, An American Childhood
The interior life is often stupid. Its egoism blinds it and deafens it; its imagination spins out ignorant tales, fascinated. It fancies that the western wind blows on the Self, and leaves fall at the feet of the Self for a reason, and people are watching. A mind risks real ignorance for the sometimes paltry prize of an imagination enriched. The trick of reason is to get the imagination to seize the actual world�if only from time to time.
2 replies on “The Stupidity of Egolatry”
Aha, you found a snippet of Dillard I can get behind. Anyone who is on to the self-centeredness of fiction has at least a remnant of a useful mind.
I figured you would like this little bit from Miss Dillard. I think you might also enjoy her descriptions of life in Pittsburgh: her family was quite a cast of characters.