The digressions [ in Homer] are not meant to keep the reader in suspense ... An episode that will increase suspense by retarding the action must be so constructed that it will not fill the present entirely, will not put the crisis, whose resolution is being awaited, entirely out of the reader's mind, and thereby destroy the mood of suspense; the crisis and the suspense must continue, must remain vibrant in the background. But Homer-and to this we shall have to return later-knows no background. What he narrates is for the time being the only present, and fills both the stage and the reader's mind completely. (Erich Auerbach)

The digressions [ in Homer] are not meant to keep the reader in suspense ... An episode that will increase suspense by retarding the action must be so constructed that it will not fill the present entirely, will not put the crisis, whose resolution is being awaited, entirely out of the reader's mind, and thereby destroy the mood of suspense; the crisis and the suspense must continue, must remain vibrant in the background. But Homer-and to this we shall have to return later-knows no background. What he narrates is for the time being the only present, and fills both the stage and the reader's mind completely.

Erich Auerbach

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action background continue crisis episode fill homer increase mean mind mood present reader remain resolution retarding return stage suspense time vibrant

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