David Nokes

David Nokes (March 11, 1948 - November 19, 2009) was a scholar of 18th century English literature, who also wrote biographies, screenplays, book reviews and a novel.

Quotes

The Nightingale Papers (2011)

• 'Not that there was anything particularly wrong with Marxism as a concept,' McWhinnie grinned. 'It just didn’t work in practice. Much the same as you could say about Christianity; all right as a concept. I trust I don’t offend you,’ he tugged at his jacket-cuffs.
  'Not in the slightest.’
  McWhinnie looked disappointed.

• For him scholarship had been a refuge: he valued literature not as a reflection of reality, but as an escape route from it. … [In literature] nature was methodised, the poet was always a prince, and the scholar found himself elevated to an all-powerful magus reducing the randomness of events to a dream of traditional order.

• He had long ago abandoned the idea that there was any point in reading books. Perfectly useless—that was their essential charm. He’d given up reading new books altogether. Someone, he couldn’t remember who, had recommended he read a novel by some Jewish chap. Turned out to be all about wanking. ‘Whacking-off’ he called it. Summed up modern literature perfectly.