Once, a few years ago, I was told that there was a piece of music whose weight was so tremendous, so dark and so dramatic that it seemed to contain something infernal. It was Prokofiev. I recognized the music immediately and smiled. Then, to make it clear that there was nothing exaggeratedly tremendous, dark or dramatic about it, I played a track from the Réquiem. At the first note, astonishment and certainty, opened up by an overwhelming contrast. The same feeling was repeated last night when, after four years, I returned to my favorite novelist, to the author to whom I have devoted the most hours and from whom I cannot separate myself. On the same day, I finished a work by Thomas Bernhard, a work in which the same technique is used exhaustively to express psychological tension, affliction, restlessness, despair, and who knows what else. So, Dostoyevsky. No need to say anything more.
Tolstoy and Dostoevsky’s Superiority
Tolstoy and Dostoevsky’s superiority over other novelists is not technique and has nothing to do with technique, which shows that, in literature, it does not take precedence over artistic motivation, which is the essence of a work. What we notice in the novels of both writers is that, when we read them, we feel entirely absorbed by the narrative and an infinity of ideas move through our mind, but never those related to the artifices of narration, which go unnoticed unless we set out to analyze them exclusively. They are both superior because their motivations are superior.
What Makes the Germanic Genius So Curious…
What makes the Germanic genius so curious is its extreme perfectionism, present from the highest to the lowest manifestations of the spirit. This causes, above all, a contrast of enormous dimensions between individuals of different inclinations, so that it is surprising to note that in Germanic countries, as in others, there are neighbors on the doorstep and there is social interaction. Perhaps misanthropy has never been practiced with such devotion elsewhere, and perhaps there is no people with a greater number of notable misanthropes — not to mention geniuses…
It Is Always Automatic to Opt for the Least Effort
It is always automatic to opt for the least effort, even though this is often the worst decision. Therefore, wisdom is to consider when instinct has already decided, and to proceed against it again and again. Over time, the brain loses its impetus and, although instinct lives on in it, it seems to get used to the reality that the easier option is almost always the certainty of later frustration.