There is something overtly invasive about biographies that seem to suggest that the very interest in them is reprehensible. What is sought in them is the same intimacy that, in life, common sense commands to respect. But human curiosity is invincible, and biographies are indispensable. Although a work is independent of the biography, the author cannot detach himself from it. And it is they that show us the reality that supports the artistic act, a multifaceted reality, more or less grateful, more or less unusual, but which always motivates expression. They are also responsible for revealing a dimension that is often essential to the correct understanding of a work, and there is no doubt that, because of the much they have clarified and contributed, one ends up at peace with the guilt of that feeling of invasion.
Category: Notes
A Great Writer Does Not Write…
A great writer does not write for his generation and must accept it. It will be more difficult to do so the more he loses the sense of his own greatness or, rather, the greatness of his own mission. Literary activity, the desire to be part of literature, must be seen primarily as a recognition of the value and power of letters. To manifest in this way, and not in any other, implies meditation and choice. Why literature? Reflection will soon point out the obvious: the writer is someone transformed by it, and he writes because the objects of his admiration have done so.
Anyone Whose Dream Is the Establishment…
Anyone whose dream is the establishment of an ideological totalitarianism suffers first and foremost from historical ignorance. If a lack of haughtiness prevents him from looking a little beyond his immediate interest, a little judgment would recommend him not to challenge an unpredictable and uncontrollable reaction. But history will always make him pay, because it is infallible in pointing out totalitarianism as an aspiration restricted to scoundrels. The course of a lifetime is too short for the consequences that can befall it, and while historical ignorance may not sometimes compromise in the short term, a little patience shows that it always does.
The Average Person Would Only Become Aware…
The average person would only become aware of the importance of the values and conditions that have been bequeathed to him if he could feel, in the flesh, all that his ancestors have suffered. That is impossible. Few words, for example, are as dry as “freedom” when uttered in free countries. Its semantics hide the amount of blood that was shed to win it, and for free citizens to understand it, they would have to experience its absence. The same is true in many other cases, and from this we realize that when history and education are useless, it is ridiculous to talk about this so-called “progress”.