[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$fYzFeIUSvAAFuq2XAu6d7dvFr_TA0LcvERwh-DQycn9k":3,"$fj3bsU3Z1RxCGaEx8N3CmeTKgMpiYxMLpD0jxCgus3Y4":12},{"author":4,"tags":11},{"author_id":5,"author_name":6,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"bio":9,"short_bio":9,"slug":10,"image_url":9},103908,"Amitava Kumar","A",102,null,"amitava-kumar",[],{"quotes":13,"pagination":77},[14,23,29,35,41,47,53,59,65,71],{"id":15,"quote_text":16,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":19,"source":20,"quote_tag":21,"commentary":22},3542668,"I'm generalizing wildly, but academic books find safety in explanations that reduce the chaos of social life.",7,false,{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],"**The Backstory**\n\nThis quote is likely from Amitava Kumar's book \"Immigrant Moths\" (2016), where he critiques the conventions of academic writing and its relationship with social reality. Kumar, a Professor of English at Vassar College, has always been interested in exploring the intersections of politics, culture, and literature. As someone who migrated to the United States as a young man, his work often grapples with issues of identity, displacement, and belonging.\n\n**The Hidden Insight**\n\nKumar's statement is not just a critique of academic writing; it's also an acknowledgment of the human desire for control and order in a chaotic world. By saying that academic books find \"safety\" in explanations that reduce complexity, Kumar highlights the tension between the need for clarity and the inherent messiness of social life.\n\n**How to Use This**\n\nTo apply this insight, try to resist the urge to oversimplify complex issues or impose artificial structures on messy social phenomena. Instead, strive for nuanced understanding by acknowledging the contradictions and paradoxes that inevitably arise when dealing with real-world problems.",{"id":24,"quote_text":25,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":26,"source":27,"quote_tag":28,"commentary":9},3542666,"Bad writing as a conscious goal is liberating for students: They are freed to be creative in a new and different way.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":30,"quote_text":31,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":32,"source":33,"quote_tag":34,"commentary":9},3542664,"We take literature too seriously.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":36,"quote_text":37,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":38,"source":39,"quote_tag":40,"commentary":9},3542663,"With non-fiction, there is the struggle to be accurate. With fiction, it is a bit different: the desire to let imagination take you to new places.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":42,"quote_text":43,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":44,"source":45,"quote_tag":46,"commentary":9},3542660,"I identify in some measure with each of my characters.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":48,"quote_text":49,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":50,"source":51,"quote_tag":52,"commentary":9},3542657,"You ask a politician a question, like, why they ran in an election, and you'll hear, I assume, something about wanting to contribute to the community or bring about social justice. I had no such high goals.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":54,"quote_text":55,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":56,"source":57,"quote_tag":58,"commentary":9},3542652,"In the U.S., the FBI or the people I met from the Department of Justice might be ignorant about Islam or about the East more generally, but I felt they were less willing to make blanket judgments about Muslims. This caution was less evident with some of the authorities I met in India.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":60,"quote_text":61,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":62,"source":63,"quote_tag":64,"commentary":9},3542650,"Long ago, when I was in higher secondary school in Delhi, I read an essay by George Orwell in which he said there was a voice in his head that put into words everything he was seeing. I realised I did that, too, or maybe I started doing it in imitation.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":66,"quote_text":67,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":68,"source":69,"quote_tag":70,"commentary":9},3542647,"Much of what we regard as truth in the war on terror is actually rather suspect.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":72,"quote_text":73,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":74,"source":75,"quote_tag":76,"commentary":9},3542642,"My favourite writer is John Maxwell Coetzee.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"currentPage":78,"totalPages":79,"totalItems":8,"itemsPerPage":80},1,11,10]