Tag: literature

The sharpest dividing line between inferior and superior artists separates those who make art for fun and those who convey through art a judgment about life. The great artist does not just recreate existence: he bluntly exposes a judgment, he strips himself bare in prose or verse. He chooses the theme, builds an arc visualizing its effect, subjects the whole to a feeling or impression, impregnating the creation with a state of soul, a feeling coming from his judgment. This is why there is artificial art, weak art, which neither moves nor convinces. There are protocol artists, who play around and limit themselves to copying models, who make art out of vanity, who follow trends, who, unable to make a sincere personal judgment, make art thinking about pleasing.

I wrote, as if by force, a play and nineteen other Casos—there are now forty-nine, and it is only a short hop from that to a thousand. The thing is: it is funny, when I write verses, I miss the fluidity of prose. But, except for these Notes, prose only comes out reluctantly. I put myself into creating narratives and I already start thinking about when I will finish them, when I will be free of the obligation that I psychologically contracted. Two volumes of Casos, in sequence, and I would give up everything. I get tired mainly of the method, the structuring of the narrative, and then the execution. The style calls for concision, logic, chaining, and the mind seems to work tied together. The theme arises spontaneously and becomes an order. Verses… these, at least, I like to have done when I have forgotten how I judged them in the end…

To live in a quiet place, near a sea or any free and non-aggressive beauty, free from financial worries—we already do literature….—and non-voluntary obligations. Food, security, and a roof over head. That is already a lot. It is already idealizing the impossible. Let’s take away the quiet place and the sea: pure luxury. But to have the rest is also an impossibility. Reason means that, from this rest, take away anything and peace becomes unfeasible. Very well! That’s right! So, have food and a roof over head,—at the cost of a lot of work,—and be happy!