Claims extracted
17
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
6%
1 of 17 hedged
("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
60/100
NPR's corrections and
hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Entertainment
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Annie Dillard, who died this week at the age of 81, was often called a nature writer.
asserted
who → die → 81
And she wrote about weasels, squirrels, muskrats and snails, cedar trees and sycamores, mourning doves, moths, and, notably, a giant water bug that bites a small frog and…well, no need to go into that now.
asserted
that → write → that
But it was the nature - the mystery - of life that engaged her.
asserted
that → engage → her
Annie Dillard became the youngest woman ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, at the age of 28, for her book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
asserted
Dillard → become → Creek
She began the book remembering her old tomcat, who would jump through the bedroom window after prowling outside her home in rural Virginia.
asserted
who → begin → Virginia
"And some mornings," she wrote, "I'd wake in daylight to find my body covered with paw prints in blood; I looked as though I'd been painted with roses.
asserted
I → write → roses
I never knew," Annie Dillard continued.
asserted
Dillard → know → ?
"…We wake, if we ever wake at all, to mystery, rumors of death, beauty, violence...
asserted
we → wake → death
'Seem like we're just set down here,' a woman said to me recently, 'and don't nobody know why.'
asserted
nobody → seem → me
She described herself as "spiritually promiscuous," finding insights from across all religious feelings.
asserted
She → describe → feelings
Annie Dillard asked in her 1989 collection of essays, The Writing Life, "What do we ever know that is higher than that power which, from time to time, seizes our lives, and reveals us startlingly to ourselves as creatures set down here bewildered?"
asserted
which → ask → creatures
By the time she left us this week, Annie Dillard still seemed lovingly bewildered by the beauties and hazards that abound on earth.
asserted
that → leave → earth
But she looked for meaning with her words, and her writing opened understanding to others.
asserted
writing → look → others
"One of the things I know about writing is this," she said—she wrote—"Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.
asserted
what → know → it
"
And she wrote in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek these words about life that we might take with us today; and I mean right now, this morning.
uncertain
I → write → us
"Spend the afternoon," wrote Annie Dillard.
asserted
Dillard → spend → afternoon
"You can't take it with you."
asserted
You → take → you
The Aporia
