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Article: Permission is hereby granted, to all
- Article from:
- The Topeka Capital-Journal
- Article date:
- September 14, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2000 The Topeka Capital-Journal. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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I was talking to a woman who was recommending an author she
particularly liked. "She gives you permission," she said.
What she meant was that reading this writer's work made her feel
as if the things she liked, or liked to do, were OK. As if she
weren't alone in her tastes or her oddities. She said she is going to
go back to using the cheap dishes she really likes, instead of the
china she feels she "should" like, because now, she has "permission."
We could debate for days why any intelligent grown-up would feel
the need for permission to follow his or her own inclinations, but
that would miss the point. The point is, we all do feel that need (it
has to do with cultural, that is, non-verbal, ...