Perhaps the greatest incentive to literary fruitfulness is to live silently, avoiding as much as possible throwing words to the wind that would be much better used on paper. In the wind, only the trivial and of little importance. There are countless advantages to this attitude, which contributes to both life and work, making very clear what belongs to one and the other, separating and defining them, reinforcing how they should be viewed. Above all, it avoids the mistake of taking them for what they are not, distorting them. To live in silence, in short, is to know the right time and the right way to say what has to be said.
Tag: literature
The Artist Should Never Rely…
The artist should never rely on the apparent quality of what he creates, because this is a parameter that is definitely not for him or for his peers to judge. At worst, he must put up with it. To make art is to direct effort toward the realization of a mental image in an artistic form; to do so, in short, is to bring an idea to life. Insofar as it seems right to him, and convinces and moves him, the job is to represent it with sincerity and power, to represent it in a way that lives up to the vividness of the mental representation. As for the result, all that matters to the artist is the degree to which he was able to express what he intended to express, in other words, whether or not he was faithful to the idea—which ultimately represents whether or not he was faithful to himself.
The Possibility of Closing a Book
The possibility of closing a book, like skipping chapters, moving forward or backward, should never leave our minds while we read, since reading, in order to be worthwhile, must be motivated and sustained by our interest. Unless an inescapable duty speaks louder, which therefore underpins the need to read from the first to the last line, when a sudden lack of interest manifests itself during reading, action must be taken to avoid wasting time and even incomprehension. By always remembering that reading is a choice, we can enjoy it much more.
What the Latest Artificial Intelligence Does
What the latest artificial intelligence does is impressive. What we envision it can do, or rather, what we surely know it will do in a short time, is even more so. For this reason, many suspect that literature is under threat, or that authors will somehow be “overtaken” by the machine and become irrelevant. This is certainly untrue. Advance as much as it can, improve as much as it can, but artificial intelligence will never get rid of the adjective that is attached to it. For this reason there will always be a limit to what it can do, there will always be the impossibility of it expressing something that manifests an individual, real and unique experience, something that serves as the embodiment of a consciousness that evolves and registers itself in time through letters. And may this intelligence improve! May it reach levels of spectacular accuracy! Then it will be clearer than ever what is artifice in art and what is substance.