"I mean the fashion arose, in the best cases (the worst aren't worth mentioning), from the natural need all writers have to invent their own tradition, from a certain urge to be provocative, from the problematic certainty that literature is one thing and life another and that it was therefore possible to be a good writer at the same time as being a bad person (or a person who supports and foments terrible causes)..."
-Javier Cercas, Soldiers of Salamis
I should note also today's realization that Spanish-language writers, no less than English-language writers, tend to have strong narrators who postmodernly shuffle their novels along. Our Spanish-language brethren realize, however, that in a successful novel, the narrator should be the least interesting character, not the most.* Though he should have great insight about the world around him, he himself must remain somewhat opaque.
*This is the greatness of Gatsby, no? And the downfall of too many Sad White Man books.
No comments:
Post a Comment