"A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short" - Schopenhauer.
Saturday 24 July 2010
Kafka Again
The recent non-story about Kafka's papers which involved (apart from repeated wince-making use of the word 'Kafkaesque') various talking heads telling TV interviewers that they had nothing to say – but they were going to say it – about what the disputed trunks of hitherto unopened papers might contain had one interesting contribution from John Banville which I recommend for its view of what is best in Kafka and its encouraging re-iteration of the fact that the greatness of Kafka's art lies in his lack of a 'message'. To see his contribution click here.
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I came across an audio interview with the Russian writer Victor Pelevin, who is possessed of a very unusual imagination, & the American interviewer kept trying to bring to force things along the path of his pieces' 'meaning', & Pelevin as a social spokesman for contemporary Russia & that kind of thing. This was clearly irritating Pelevin who though clearly not wishing to be rude finally brusquely responded that maybe his pieces didn't mean anything. Meaning wasn't what he was thinking baout in the writing of them. Meaning can look after itself.
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