"It was a great escape for me and it was a way to take a break from what was going on in my own world, to go into another world"
About this Quote
Hoffman frames escapism not as denial, but as a survival skill with good literary manners. The repetition of "world" is doing quiet work: her own world is a place of pressure, maybe grief, maybe chaos, while "another world" offers structure, coherence, and a different set of rules. The phrasing stays plainspoken - "a great escape", "a way to take a break" - because the point isnt to romanticize reading or storytelling. Its to normalize it. Fantasy here isnt fireworks; its oxygen.
The intent feels practical and slightly protective. Hoffman is an author whose novels often braid the everyday with the uncanny, and this line explains the engine behind that blend: the imagination as a side door out of confinement. Notice how she never says she solved anything. She says she paused it. That distinction matters. "Take a break" implies the real world remains, waiting for you, but you return better braced - less raw, more able to reenter.
Subtextually, the quote argues against the culture-war sneer at escapist art, the idea that "serious" people should sit with discomfort at all times. Hoffman suggests the opposite: that stepping away can be an ethical act, a way to keep yourself intact enough to keep going. In an era that treats attention like a battleground and personal crises as content, her line lands as a small defense of private interior life - the right to disappear into narrative, briefly, and come back with your edges unbroken.
The intent feels practical and slightly protective. Hoffman is an author whose novels often braid the everyday with the uncanny, and this line explains the engine behind that blend: the imagination as a side door out of confinement. Notice how she never says she solved anything. She says she paused it. That distinction matters. "Take a break" implies the real world remains, waiting for you, but you return better braced - less raw, more able to reenter.
Subtextually, the quote argues against the culture-war sneer at escapist art, the idea that "serious" people should sit with discomfort at all times. Hoffman suggests the opposite: that stepping away can be an ethical act, a way to keep yourself intact enough to keep going. In an era that treats attention like a battleground and personal crises as content, her line lands as a small defense of private interior life - the right to disappear into narrative, briefly, and come back with your edges unbroken.
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| Topic | Book |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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