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Show them the red tail of a comet, fill them with black terror, and they will all come running out of their houses and break their legs. But tell them one sensible proposition, and support it with seven reasons, and they will simply laugh in your face.

Bertolt Brecht

The alienation effect in German epic theater is achieved not only through the actors, but also through music (chorus and song) andsets (transparencies, film strips, etc.). Its main purpose is to place the staged events in their historical context.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Art Epic Film History Purpose Song
Young Alexander conquered India. He alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Was there not even a cook in his army? Philip of Spain wept as his fleet was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears? Frederick the Great triumphed in the Seven Years War. Who Triumphed with him?
BERTOLT BRECHT

Army War Years
When the leaders speak of peace, the common folk know war is coming.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Common Folk Leader War
We often do not know ourselves the grounds On which we act, though plain to others.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Ground Knows Others Ourselves
The finest plans have always been spoiled by the littleness of them that should carry them out. Even emperors can’t do it all by themselves.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Finest Spoil
It’s never too late for those whose time has come.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Come Late never Too
Even the most blockheaded bureaucrat, provided he loves peace, is a greater lover of the arts than any so-called art-lover who loves the arts of war.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Even Greater Love Lover Peace Provided War
Though the rich of this earth find no difficulty in creating misery, they can’t bear to see it.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Bears Creating Earth
What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?
BERTOLT BRECHT

Cheesy Funny Gone Good Morning
Writers can’t write as fast as governments make wars; because to write demands thinking.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Thinking War Writing
Fearful is the seductive power of goodness.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Fearful Goodness Seductive
Art and science work in quite different ways: agreed. But, bad as it may sound, I have to admit that I cannot get along as an artist without the use of one or two sciences. …
BERTOLT BRECHT

Art Science Views Work
Who fights may lose, but who does not fight has lost already.
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Already Fighting May
It is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theater. Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Desire Reality Understanding
There are a few things that’ll move people to pity, a few, but the trouble is, when they’ve been used several times, they no longer work.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Moving People Trouble
Unhappiness doesn’t grow on the chest like leprosy. Poverty won’t fall off the roof like a loose tile, no; poverty and unhappiness are man’s doing.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Fall Men Tiles

Show them the red tail of a comet, fill them with black terror, and they will all come running out of their houses and break their legs. But tell them one sensible proposition, and support it with seven reasons, and they will simply laugh in your face.

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Show them the red tail of a comet, fill them with black terror, and they will all come running out of their houses and break their legs. But tell them one sensible proposition, and support it with seven reasons, and they will simply laugh in your face.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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