Quotation
The violent illiteracies of the graffiti, the clenched silence of the adolescent, the nonsense cries from the stage-happening, are resolutely strategic. The insurgent and the freak-out have broken off discourse with a cultural system which they despise as a cruel, antiquated fraud. They will not bandy words with it. Accept, even momentarily, the conventions of literate linguistic exchange, and you are caught in the net of the old values, of the grammars that can condescend or enslave.
Steiner, George
This quote is filed under Popular Culture · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation · Tell us if you know any facts or errors in this quote · Help your friends discover QB
These people bookmarked this quote:
- Nobody has bookmarked this quote yet.
Search the web for Steiner, George
More on the author
- Find photos of this author
- Consult wikipedia for the author
- Search BBC TV and radio for shows referencing this author
This quote around the web
Powered by Google Blogs
Search the web for Steiner, George
- Find photos of this author
- Consult wikipedia for the author
- Search BBC TV and radio for shows referencing this author

The violent illiteracies of the graffiti, the clenched silence of the adolescent, the nonsense cries from the stage-happening, are resolutely strategic. The insurgent and the freak-out have broken off discourse with a cultural system which they despise as a cruel, antiquated fraud. They will not bandy words with it. Accept, even momentarily, the conventions of literate linguistic exchange, and you are caught in the net of the old values, of the grammars that can condescend or enslave.