Twentieth-century literature discovered that, in order to win over the common man, it is infinitely easier to descend to his level rather than elevate him. It is a remarkable discovery. When one says the greatest conceivable banality in the most prosaic way imaginable, something impressive, almost magical, happens and brings the common man to his knees. Finally, with his eyes sparkling, he experiences the sensation of understanding what he is reading! It is an infallible formula, and to it is added the pleasure of curiosity in seeing the spectacle of artists who, as if inside a sanctuary, behave as if they were at a fair. It is undoubtedly a kind of literature that can exert an unparalleled fascination on the ordinary man.
Tag: literature
Brazilian Modernism
Brazilian Modernism did literature a great service by proving once and for all how dull, uninteresting and tedious the futile is, and how impossible it is to change it, even for creative minds. It is ordinary poetry, intended for ordinary people, but poetry that does not uplift them, stimulate them or make them think. False intellectuals, it is true, find infinite innovations in it and are delighted—but they end up, at the end of as many verses as they can read, exactly as they were before reading them. As for those who are accustomed to great art, it is impossible for them to endure more than a few pages of these frivolities that only distract from the one blatant truth: the mind that conceived them had nothing interesting to say.
In Literature, It Is Just as Useful to Vary the Style
In literature, it is just as useful to vary the style as it is in life to vary the thoughts. The risk of not doing so is to become addicted and diminished, narrowing horizons and dooming the next expression to be a replica of the previous one. To a certain extent, varying the style is also thinking differently, and the writer who gets used to doing this will be getting used to stimulating the brain so that it does not settle for what it has already conceived.
The Writer Is Mistaken in Assuming…
The writer is mistaken in assuming that he will transform his art by living the same mediocre life indefinitely. It is good to have no more than a corner to write in and, temporarily, that is enough. It is also good to stick to and get used to what is strictly necessary in order, above all, to distinguish it. But for there to be a transformation in art, and for it to be true, it must also take place in life, because therein lie the circumstances that will motivate his work, unless he betrays himself. It is therefore necessary to make an effort to modify and shape the whole of reality, as far as his strength allows; and if this does not produce satisfactory results, it will be from his conscious struggle that the best of his motivation will emerge.