Another by Pavese: “La letteratura è una difesa contro le offese della vita”—I add: not only a defense, but an answer. Perhaps because he did not see it and, at some point, thought that the defense was useless, Pavese resorted to suicide. Suicide only serves as an affirmation for the artist who, for a moment, completely loses hope in art. By killing himself, Pavese renounced his genius, the possibility of recording in literature the uniqueness of his experience; he finally assumed the uselessness of art, its inability to overcome life while filling it with meaning. In short, this is the judgment the poet bequeathed us.
Literature Is an Answer
