Why novel matters summary

Some take only a subject. They are intransitive verbs. Look at these examples from the text in this unit 1a The grass withers. Notice that an intransitive verb can be followed by prepositional phrases that have an adverbial function, as in 1b. Such phrases that follow an intransitive verb are called its complements. The most common copulas in English are, become and seem. The copula be occurred very often in the text in this unit. Its complement may be a noun phrase or an adjective phrase.

Can you say what the category of the complement is, in the examples above? Identify the intransitive verbs and the copulas in the examples below, from the text in this unit.

Say what the category of the complement is. You can work in pairs or groups and discuss the reasons for your analysis. Email address. Forgot Password? Back to Login Submit. Mobile No. Why The Novel Matters. What is the simple truth that eludes the philosopher or the scientist? Why does the author consider the novel superior to philosophy, science or even poetry? Identify them and… Given below are a few roots from Latin. Make a list of the words that can be derived from… Grammar: Some Verb Classes A sentence consists of a noun phrase and a verb phrase.

The… Task Identify the intransitive verbs and the copulas in the examples below, from the text in… Identify other sentences from the text with intransitive verbs and copulas. Stop And Think-pg Question 1.

What are the things that mark animate things from the inanimate? Answer: The animate things have life in them, they move, feel the touch of things, breath, reproduce and continue to grow. Question 2. Answer: The simple truth that paradise is not anywhere beyond life. How does Lawrence reconcile inconsistency of behaviour with integrity? Answer: Lawrence says that there is no absolute and nothing is absolutely right. Understanding The Text Question 1.

How does the novel reflect the wholeness of a human being? Answer: The novel reflects the wholeness of a human being by affecting the entire man-alive and not just mere instincts. Answer: The novel is the one bright book of life. Question 3. Question 4. Answer: Lawrence says that the people who overlook the importance of the body are themselves limited to the body. Talking About The Text Question 1. Answer: It is a fact that the backbone of any given novel.

And for myself, I can absolutely see life nowhere but in the living. Life with a capital L is only man alive. Even a cabbage in the rain is cabbage alive. All things that are alive are amazing. And all things that are dead are subsidiary to the living. Better a live dog than a dead lion. But better a live lion than a live dog. C'est la vie! It seems impossible to get a saint, or a philosopher, or a scientist, to stick to this simple truth.

They are all, in a sense, renegades. The saint wishes to offer himself up as spiritual food for the multitude. Even Francis of Assisi turns himself into a sort of angelcake, of which anyone may take a slice.

But an angel-cake is rather less than man alive. And poor St Francis might well apologize to his body, when he is dying: 'Oh, pardon me, my body, the wrong I did you through the years! The philosopher, on the other hand, because he can think, decides that nothing but thoughts matter. It is as if a rabbit, because he can make little pills, should decide that nothing but little pills matter.

As for the scientist, he has absolutely no use for me so long as I am man alive. To the scientist, I am dead. He puts under the microscope a bit of dead me, and calls it me. He takes me to pieces, and says first one piece, and then another piece, is me. My heart, my liver, my stomach have all been scientifically me, according to the scientist; and nowadays I am either a brain, or nerves, or glands, or something more up-to-date in the tissue line.

Now I absolutely flatly deny that I am a soul, or a body, or a mind, or an intelligence, or a brain, or a nervous system, or a bunch of glands, or any of the rest of these bits of me. The whole is greater than the part.

And therefore, I, who am man alive, am greater than my soul, or spirit, or body, or mind, or consciousness, or anything else that is merely a part of me. I am a man, and alive. I am man alive, and as long as I can, I intend to go on being man alive. For this reason I am a novelist.

And being a novelist, I consider myself superior to the saint, the scientist, the philosopher, and the poet, who are all great masters of different bits of man alive, but never get the whole hog.

The novel is the one bright book of life. Books are not life. They are only tremulations on the ether. But the novel as a tremulation can make the whole man alive tremble. Which is more than poetry, philosophy, science, or any other book-tremulation can do.

The novel is the book of life. In this sense, the Bible is a great confused novel. You may say, it is about God. But it is really about man alive. Man alive, not mere bits. I do hope you begin to get my idea, why the novel is supremely important, as a tremulation on the ether.

Plato makes the perfect ideal being tremble in me. But that's only a bit of me. Perfection is only a bit, in the strange make-up of man alive. The Sermon on the Mount makes the selfless spirit of me quiver. But that, too, is only a bit of me. But even the old Adam is only a bit of me. I very much like all these bits of me to be set trembling with life and the wisdom of life.

But I do ask that the whole of me shall tremble in its wholeness, some time or other. But as far as it can happen from a communication, it can only happen when a whole novel communicates itself to me.

The Bible--but all the Bible--and Homer, and Shakespeare: these are the supreme old novels. These are all things to all men. Which means that in their wholeness they affect the whole man alive, which is the man himself, beyond any part of him. They set the whole tree trembling with a new access of life, they do not just stimulate growth in one direction.

I don't want to grow in any one direction any more. And, if I can help it, I don't want to stimulate anybody else into some particular direction. In an attempt to illustrate the importance of the novel Lawrence explains the importance of life and the living man. He says that the whole living man, the man alive, is more important than his thoughts, ideas, his mind, or his stomach or liver or kidney or any other parts of his body.

Lawrence says that this is what scientists and philosophers fail to understand. According to Lawrence a novel shows life and its characters are nothing but man alive. The novelist understands the importance of life and the man alive. Therefore the novelist is better than the scientist or the philosopher. He calls it a funny superstition that people think of themselves as a body with a soul in it. The hand has a life of its own. It has knowledge and can think and act for itself.

The hand is as much a part of the living man as the mind. The pen held by the hand however is not alive. A man alive extends only to his fingertips.

Lawrence says that whatever in a man is alive constitutes the man alive. The hand, skin, freckles, blood and bones are very much alive and part of the man alive. The living body therefore must not be compared to inanimate objects like tin cans or clay vessels. Lawrence in this essay tries to explain why the novelist is better than the philosopher or the scientist and in order to do so he explains the importance of the man alive.

According to Lawrence the novelist possesses an intricate understanding of the man alive more fully than a parson, a philosopher, or a scientist. The parson speaks about souls in heaven and the afterlife.

But for the novelist heaven is in the palm of his hand and the tip of his nose which are alive. The novelist is not concerned about life after death. He is wholly concerned about life at present and with the man alive.

The philosopher speaks about infinite knowledge possessed by the pure spirit. But for the novelist there is no knowledge beyond what the living body can perceive. For philosophers nothing but thoughts is important. They are not alive. They are like radio signals floating in the air which are meaningless until they reach the receiver — a radio device that decodes the signals into a meaningful message.

But the thoughts nevertheless are not alive. It is only because the man alive receives them that they become alive. Only a man alive can be stimulated by thoughts. Thus the living body is more important than the message conveyed by thoughts. According to Lawrence nothing is more important than life. Living things are more valuable than dead objects. A living dog is better than a dead lion but a living lion is better than a living dog.

Lawrence says that scientists and philosophers find it difficult to accept the value of the living. For the philosopher nothing but thoughts matter. For the scientist a living man is of no use. He only wants a dead man whom he dissects and observes under the microscope.

For a scientist a man is a heart, a liver, a kidney, a gland or a tissue. But for the novelist the only thing that matters is a whole living man. Lawrence refuses to believe that he is a body or a soul or a brain or a nervous system.

He considers himself to be a complete whole made up of all these parts, a whole that is greater and more significant than the individual parts. And for this reason he is a novelist and he considers himself superior to the saint, the scientist or the philosopher.

Having established the importance of the man alive and the novelist Lawrence proceeds to explain the significance of the novel. Lawrence calls the novel a book of life. They are meaningful only when a man alive receives them. But he says that the tremulations of a novel are more powerful than any other book and it can make a whole man alive tremble.

This means that the novel has the capacity to influence a man more effectively than any other book.