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Book 7, Ep. 7 | Sentimentality

Material Girls

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The Desire to Say Sentimental Novels Contribute to Political Change

LZ Granderson: The idea that sentimental novels contribute to political change has a lot to do with the desire that white women have to believe that we can change things by feeling strongly about them. LZ: James Baldwin's essay, everybody's protest novel, where he talks about the claims of sentimental novels to, you know, change things. "I really don't know like I don't have an answer to the question of what literature does," she says. 'It also has a pretty weird, gay subversive subtext because Louise my alcah was raging lesbian'

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