And Here's S. Underscore Runyon On The Nobel
There are numerous things to be liked here. The general aesthetic that I am liking here is that Kertesz appears to be completely re-evaluating the way in which we see certain emotionally-charged events. A conversation about The Holocaust is now remarkably predictable and full of false sentiment and a formulaic system of responses which are designed to show your partner how culturally enlightened and sensitive you are. Kertesz pushes this aside with the impatience of someone who can see the common sense of a situation and cannot fathom the stupidity of others. While the citation is a bit lame and misleading (it suggested to me that this was another award for a Universal Ideal), it does have one useful word: Arbitrariness. Sentiment, love, 'rights', 'truth' - are arbitrary. In a world in which the current mode of thinking seems to complex self-analysis emphasising on cynicism and irony, Kertesz is quite refreshing. Like a certain Thelemic Magician we all know, Kertesz understands how one can say "I hurt your feelings? Your feelings don't matter!" without resorting to the sorts of sentimental reactions from this. I stress that this is along the lines of the aesthetic I got from the ideas written in the press release by the Permanent Secretary of the Nobel Society. Mostly I'm trying to say what Engdahl has already said in this release:
"The refusal to compromise in Kertész’s stance can be perceived clearly in his style, which is reminiscent of a thickset hawthorn hedge, dense and thorny for unsuspecting visitors. But he relieves his readers of the burden of compulsory emotions and inspires a singular freedom of thought."
If that's so, then the Nobel may have come full circle: this sounds like the antithesis of Maeterlinck and Prudhomme and his ilk. I'll reserve ultimate judgment until after I read Kertesz's books.
"The refusal to compromise in Kertész’s stance can be perceived clearly in his style, which is reminiscent of a thickset hawthorn hedge, dense and thorny for unsuspecting visitors. But he relieves his readers of the burden of compulsory emotions and inspires a singular freedom of thought."
If that's so, then the Nobel may have come full circle: this sounds like the antithesis of Maeterlinck and Prudhomme and his ilk. I'll reserve ultimate judgment until after I read Kertesz's books.