Lars Iyer's Blog, page 66

To my surprise [Kafka] spoke to me not only in my mother ...

To my surprise [Kafka] spoke to me not only in my mother tongue but also in another language that I knew intimately, the language of the absurd. I knew what he was talking about. It wasn't a secret language for me and I didn't need any explications. I had come from the camps and the forests, from a world that embodied the absurd, and nothing in that world was foreign to me. 

My real world was far beyond the power of imagination, and my task as an artist was not to develop my imagination but to restrain it, and even then it seemed impossible to me, because everything was so unbelievable that one seemed oneself to be fictional.

... the Jewish experience in the Second World War was not 'historical'. We came into contact with archaic mythical forces, a kind of dark subconscious the meaning of which we did not know, nor do we know it today.

To write things as they happened means to enslave oneself to memory, which is only a minor element in the creative process. To my mind, to create means to order, to sort out, and choose the words and the pace that fit the work. The materials are indeed materials from one's life, but ultimately the creation is an independent creature.

When I wrote Tzili I was about forty years old. At that time I was interested in the possibilities of naiveness in art. Can there be a naieve modern art? It seemed to me that without the naivete still found among children and old people and, to some extent, in ourselves, the work of art would be flawed. I tried to correct that flaw.

It took me years to draw close to the Jew within me. I had to get rid of many prejudices within me and to meet many Jews in order to find myself in them. Anti-semitism directed at oneself was an original Jewish creation. I don't know of any other nation so flooded with self-criticism. Even after the Holocaust, Jews did not seem blameless in their own eyes. On the contrary, harsh comments were made by prominent Jews against the victims, for not protecting themselves and fighting back. The ability of Jews to internalize any critical and condemnatory remark and castigate themselves is one of the marvels of human nature.

Appelfeld, interviewed by Philip Roth

Life is painful and disappointing. It is useless, therefo...

Life is painful and disappointing. It is useless, therefore, to write new realistic novels. We generally know where we stand in relation to reality and don’t care to know any more. Humanity, such as it is, inspires only an attenuated curiosity in us. All those prodigiously refined ‘notations’, ‘situations’, anecdotes . . . All they do, once the book has been set aside, is reinforce the slight revulsion that is already adequately nourished by any one of our ‘real life’ days.

Houellebecq, from his book on Lovecraft

Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, just like Austria, have never b...

Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, just like Austria, have never been part of Eastern Europe. From the very beginning they have taken part in the great adventure of Western civilization, with its Gothic, its Renaissance, its Reformation - a movement that has its cradle precisely in this region. It was there, in Central Europe, that modern culture found its greatest impulses: psychoanalysis, dodecaphony, Bartok's music, Kafka's and Musil's new aesthetics of the novel. The postwar annexation of Central Europe (or at least its major part) by Russian civilization caused Western culture to lose its vital centre of gravity. It is the most significant event in the history of the West in our century, and we cannot dismiss the possibility that the end of Central Europe marked the beginning of the end for Europe as a whole.

... France: for centuries it was the centre of the world and nowadays it is suffering from the lack of great historical events. This is why it revels in radical ideological postures. It is the lyrical, neurotic expectation of some great deed of its own, which is not coming, however, and will never come.

I learned the value of humour during the time of Stalinist terror. I was twenty then. I could always recognize a person who was not a Stalinist, a person hom I needn't fear, by the way he smiled. A sense of humour was a trustworthy sign of recognition. Ever since, I have been terrified by a world that is losing its sense of humour.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer to everything.

Kundera, interviewed by Philip Roth

Verso pick Dogma as one of their books of the year.Rich...

Verso pick Dogma as one of their books of the year.

Richard of The Existence Machine names Dogma as one of his books of the year.

Steve Himmer and Lee Rourke both list Dogma as one of their books of the year on Twitter.

Al reviews Spurious at Amazon UK.

Richard of The Existence Machine names Dogma as one of hi...

Richard of The Existence Machine names Dogma as one of his books of the year.

Al reviews Spurious at Amazon UK.

I find myself unable to formulate just how I think the me...

I find myself unable to formulate just how I think the messianic future will be. But that is no proof against it. When the time comes, the details will fall into place.

Rosenzweig, in a letter

[In writing his autobiographical narrative] Paul opens up...

[In writing his autobiographical narrative] Paul opens up a new world of inwardness, a world he himself explores and describes with passionate detail, and which will always have room for fresh explorers, such as Augustine, Pascal and Rousseau. Yet the cost of this is high. Giving up this world of confusion, uncertainty and limited horizons for the apparent surer world of the spirit, he condemns himself to the sustaining of his vision by nothing other than the sheer power of his imagination and the constant reiteration of the drama of his conversion.

Josipovici, The Book of God

I'm sure you all remember the silly old saying 'The pen i...

I'm sure you all remember the silly old saying 'The pen is mightier than the sword'. Perhaps when swords were the weapons in current use, there was some point in this proverb. Anyway, in our time, the least of our problems is swords.

But the power and influence of the creative arts is not to be belittled. I only say that the art and literature of sentiment and emotion, however beautiful in itself, however striking in its depiction of actuality, has to go. It cheats us into a sense of involvement with life and society, but in reality it is a segregated activity. In its place I adovate for the arts of satire and of ridicule. And I see no other living art form for the future.

Ridicule is the only honourable weapon we have left.

[...]

We have come to a moment in history when we are surrounded on all sides and oppressed by the absurd. And I think that even the simplest, the least sophisticated and uneducated mind is aware of thise fact. I should think there is hardly an illiterate peasant in the world who doesn't know it. The art of ridicule is an art that everyone can share in some degree, given the world that we have.

Muriel Spark, from her essay 'The Desegregation of Art' (1970)

Magma - the Italian version of Spurious - reviewed by And...

Magma - the Italian version of Spurious - reviewed by Andrea Consinni at Lankelot.

Marianna Abbate reviews Magma for Chronica Libri.

The Exodus London book launch will be at the Betsey Trotw...

The Exodus London book launch will be at the Betsey Trotwood, on the 24th January. More details as the event approaches.

It looks likely that there will be an Oxford event at Blackwells on the 23rd January, but this is still to be confirmed.

There will be a Newcastle event, too, once again at Blackwells. Details to follow.

I will be doing various events in New York from the 11th-13th February, and in Boston after that. Details to follow.