James's earlier work had often substituted a character's impression of an event for the event itself. These pages do more - they change our very sense of what counts as an event in fiction. Sitting still counts; thinking, doing nothing, not moving. Emotions count, and the activity of perception as well.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "James's earlier work had often substituted a character's impression of an event for the event itself. These pages do more - they change our very sense of what counts as an event in fiction. Sitting still counts; thinking, doing nothing, not moving. Emotions count, and the activity of perception as well." in the context of "Michael Gorra, on chapter 42 of The Portrait of a Lady, in Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece (2012)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.