Ortega y Gasset, Antonio Machado, Pío Baroja… Spanish literature has given me some memorable reads. None, however, have provoked in me a feeling similar to what I experienced after coming into contact with Unamuno, who seemed like a family member to me. There are cases like this in literature: a line separates admiration, empathy, and appreciation from this unmistakable feeling of identification. And it is always special to see in an author a member of one’s own species, whose concerns are those intimately felt, whose expression vocalizes something that could be said by oneself. Rare, but when it occurs, it shows that there is no untransmittable individuality; there have always been and always will be others who, through literature, can understand.
Tag: literature
The Most Enjoyable Aspect of Writing…
The most enjoyable aspect of writing is the possibility of completely individualizing the process, allowing the subjective element to act as an enhancer. In most occupations, this is not possible, and the effectiveness of the process usually requires objective sequential execution, something that tends to be discouraging over time. But the writer can easily get used to making a cup of coffee or lighting a cigarette before work and effectively witness that, in doing so, ideas begin to flow. In his creative process, there is room for all his quirks, and this produces enormous satisfaction.
Sometimes It Is Difficult to Control…
Sometimes it is difficult to control the strong disinterest in literature and its devices, which arises after contact with the extraordinary in a real story. Come to mind all the criticism of Northrop Frye, systematizer of a wide variety of creative possibilities, divisions into genres, modes, particular uses of symbols, myths, etc., etc. All of this, in short, is quite interesting, but seems insignificant in the face of a simple real experience. The question arises: for what purpose do we read and study? And then we realize that literature, like any science, the more we study it from a strictly technical perspective, the more we leave aside what truly justifies a creation. It is very, very difficult not to want to send all these expedients to hell and retreat forever into silence and meditation.
As Can Be Seen in Individual Personalities…
As can be seen in individual personalities, it seems very appropriate to make a distinction in literature between authors whose spirit is inclined toward knowledge and authors whose spirit is inclined toward pleasure. Poetry, more than other genres, shows that these are very different types, in which the years bring about different transformations, so that, for the former, the work seems to be much more dependent on this evolution. Thus, the tendency is for the former to produce their best work at the end, with their early books taking on a somewhat preparatory character, of greater interest to the biographer than to the ordinary reader. For the latter, it is not uncommon for maturity to spoil that youthful verve on which their best compositions depend.