Word: malheur
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...THEORY of evolving fictions is the basis for Stevens' poetry, and it is most explicitly dealt with in The Necessary Angel, his collection of essays. His basic contention is that "the world is ugly/and the people are sad"; we are "natives of poverty, children of malheur." In order to escape this bleak universe, we create fictions which satisfy our most basic impulses for happiness and sensual contentment. These fictions unite us with our world, make us feel our universe to be a knowable place rather than an apocalyptic misery machine...