Status Updates From Le livre du rire et de l'oubli

“Yes, my God; the memory of revulsion is stronger than the memory of tenderness.”

“Tamina reflects on Hugo’s thinking; that love letters are insignificant and ordinary. It never occurs to anyone that she might have loved someone—and that it was important.”

This conversation with Hugo perfectly and tragically summarizes the prevailing attitude in Western readings of Eastern Bloc literature and the arts. If it is not political, it is unimportant; the matter of life is secondary.