"The Calendar's New Clothes," The New York Times (30 December 1999)
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Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions.
— Joyce Carol Oates
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions." in the context of ""The Calendar's New Clothes," The New York Times (30 December 1999)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Joyce Carol Oates" (Quotes)
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
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About Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American author who has published 58 novels, plays and novellas, as well as volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014 and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. She is a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley where she teaches short fiction.
About Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American author who has published 58 novels, plays and novellas, as well as volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014 and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. She is a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley where she teaches short fiction.
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