Quote by: Northrop Frye

Authority is essential to society, but what we called in "transcendental" authority, with an executive ruler on top, depends on the ruler's understanding of equity. If he hasn't enough of such understanding, authority becomes a repressive legalism. Legalism of this sort really descends from what is called in the Bible the knowledge of good and evil. This was forbidden knowledge, because, as we'll see, it's not a genuine knowledge at all: it can't even tell us anything about good and evil. This kind of knowledge came into the world along with the discovery of self-conscious sex, when Adam and Eve knew that they were naked, and the thing that repressive legalism ever since has been most anxious to repress is the sexual impulse.


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Author Bio


  • NameNorthrop Frye
  • DescriptionCanadian literary critic and literary theorist
  • BornJuly 14, 1912
  • DiedJanuary 23, 1991
  • CountryCanada
  • ProfessionWriter; Philosopher; Educationist; Cleric
  • AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship; Molson Prize; Companion Of The Order Of Canada