Arquivo de literature | Page 88 of 111

The Story That Kafka Did Not Write

A very banal guy keeps, for fifteen years, the same cell phone number. He has thus built up an extensive network of personal and professional contacts. He is, above all, dependent on this number. Suddenly, he receives between 100 and 150 daily calls during business hours from companies trying to sell him some kind of financial product. Between 100 and 150 calls from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.: doing the bakery math, the number is equivalent to approximately one call every five minutes. The guy, or better, the young misanthrope is forced to answer them all since there is the possibility of finding a possible customer among the unknown numbers. The number is also a work number. Every five minutes, the phone rings. The young man attends with rudeness, dismisses the invasive company very irritated for being called to listen about products that he has no interest, without having ever granted opening in order such calls were made. So his routine becomes hell. He cannot concentrate on anything, the phone does not stop ringing. He has to answer, he becomes rude in the first word, mistreats professional contacts by mistake. “Mr. Luciano Duarte, please…”, “Kindly Mr. Luciano…”, “At this number I can talk to Mr. Luciano…”. Oh, Kafka, brother, help that your character!

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E. T. A. Hoffmann in the 21st Century

I smile imagining the judge E. T. A. Hoffmann: a judge, in the words of Carpeaux, “of the most honorable and — in difficult times of political reaction — of the most independent ever Prussia had.” I smile at this judge in our esteemed century. I mean: the judge, who was also a very skilled narrator, would be easily destroyed by the stupid and envious hordes who, in these times, have fun ruining lives and careers. Very funny would be, for example, the plot of Die Elixiere des Tenfels, an excellently crafted novel, adapted to our days: an evangelical pastor possessed by the devil is led to murder and incest, succeeding not only in camouflaging his crimes but also in gaining positions in the social pyramid. I ask: is it or is it not fun to imagine what would happen to the reputation of this judge if he had the novel released today? Would he be able, for example, to be appointed to the Supreme Court? The honorable judge in this century would learn what is to be democratically lynched.

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The Great Art Demands the Great Themes

The accurate study of the artistic technique runs the great risk of clouding the motivation of the art in the author’s head. Beauty is fundamentally created from acute perception and not from abstract motivation. If aesthetics escapes the understanding of the weak rationalism, it is not a consequence that, freed from experience, represents anything. The expressive effect is supported by the technique, but it will never be powerful if based on frivolity: to be great, art demands the great themes.

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The Living Representation of Contrary Psychological Manifestations

The grandiose, in literature, involves the living representation of contrary psychological manifestations. Great authors, of course, narrow down and move away from opposing ideologies, depending on the point of view, because the great art involves the ability to grasp reality from various perspectives. A great author will never allow himself to be addicted, predictable, and therefore will never be fit into an ideological box without thousands of reservations.

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