The Artist’s Business

Quote of the Week

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

… In conversation with my literary colleagues I always insist that it is not the artist’s business to solve problems that require a specialist’s knowledge. It is a bad thing if a writer tackles a subject he does not understand. We have specialists for dealing  with special questions: it is their business to judge of the commune, of the future of capitalism, of the evils of drunkenness, of boots, of the diseases of women.

An artist must only judge of what he understands, his field is just as limited as that of any other specialist I repeat this and insist on it always. That in his sphere there are no questions, but only answers, can only be maintained by those who have never written and have had no experience of thinking in images. An artist observes, selects, guesses, combines and this in itself presupposes a problem: unless he had set himself a problem from the very first there would be nothing to conjecture and nothing to select. To put it briefly, I will end by using the language of psychiatry: if one denies that creative work involves problems and purposes, one must admit that an artist creates without premeditation or intention, in a state of aberration; therefore, if an author boasted to me of having written a novel without a preconceived design, under a sudden inspiration, I should call him mad.

You are right in demanding that an artist should take an intelligent attitude to his work, but you confuse two things: solving a problem and stating a problem correctly. It is only the second that is obligatory for the artist. In “Anna Karenin” and “Evgeny Onyegin” not a single problem is solved, but they satisfy you completely because all the problems are correctly stated in them. It is the business of the judge to put the right questions, but the answers must be given by the jury according to their own lights.

(Anton Chekhov: Letters.
To A. S. Suvorin, Moscow, October 27, 1888)

La importancia de libros (The Importance of Books)

La cita del día / Quote of the Day

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616)

Pues yo soy con el Quijote en eso. 🙂

Well, I’m with Don Quixote on this one. 🙂

De allí a dos días se levantó don Quijote, y lo primero que hizo fue ir a ver sus libros…

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Two days later Don Quixote got up, and the first thing he did was to go and look at his books…

(Miguel de Cervantes: El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha / Don Quixote)

Mi biblioteca (My Library)

La cita del día / Quote of the Day

Juan Eslava Galán (1948-)

En mi biblioteca se resume toda mi vida. Hay libros que no he leído nunca y quizá ya no lea; pero hay otros muy manoseados y anotados. Todos me traen recuerdos de lo que fui y de lo que fueron en el momento en que los leí, de las circunstancias en que llegaron a mis manos, en un viaje, en una librería de viejo, olvidados en el banco de un parque, regalados…

(Juan Eslava Galán: De bibliotecas y libros, Zenda 7 junio 2017)

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My whole life is summed up in my library. There are books which I have never read and perhaps never will now; others are well-thumbed and annotated. They all remind me of who I was and what they were in the moment when I read them, of the circumstances in which I acquired them: during a trip, in an old bookshop, forgotten on a bench in a park, given as presents…

(Juan Eslava Galán: Of Libraries and Books, Zenda 7 June 2017)

The Greek Language (La lengua griega)

Quote of the Day / La cita del día

Odysseas Elytis (1911-1996)

I was given the Greek language;
a poor house on Homer’s beaches.
My only care my language on Homer’s beaches.
Seabream there and perch
windbeaten verbs
green sea-currents amid the azure currents
which I felt light up in my viscera
sponges, medusae
with the first words of the Sirens
pink shells with their first black shivers.
My only care my language with the first black shivers.

(Odysseas Elytis: Psalm II)

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La lengua me la dieron griega;
la casa pobre en las arenas de Homero.
Unica cuita me lengua en las arenas de Homero.
Allí sargos y percas
verbos sacudidos por el viento
corrientes verdes entre las azules
cuanto vi que se iba encendiendo en mis entrañas
esponjas, medusas
con las primeras palabras de las Sirenas
conchas rosadas con los primeros estremecimientos negros
Unica cuita me lengua con los primeros estremecimientos negros.

(Odysseas Elytis: Salmo II)

Travel Notes (Notas de viaje)

Quote of the Week / La cita de la semana

Anonymus, the unnamed notary of King Béla III and author of the Gesta Hungarorum, c. 1200 (Statue in Ópusztaszer)

For I never passed one single day while I was on my travels without writing some notes, not even when I was at sea, in storms, or in the Holy Land; and in the desert I have frequently written as I sat on an ass or a camel; or at night, while the others were asleep, I would sit and put into writing what I had seen.

(Felix Fabri: The Wanderings of Felix Fabri)

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Porque nunca pasé ni un solo día de viaje sin escribir algunas notas, ni siquiera cuando estaba en el mar, en las tormentas, o en la Tierra Santa; y en el desierto he escrito frecuentemente sentado sobre un asno o un camello; o por la noche, mientras los demás dormían, me sentaba y ponía por escrito lo que había visto.

(Félix Fabri: Peregrinaciones)

Note regarding the author picture: 
No image survives of the good friar Felix Fabri (1441-1502), therefore he is represented above by a statue of an unnamed monk: the notary of King Béla III, author of Gesta Hungarorum, the history of the Hungarians, circa 1200.
The statue can be found in Ópusztaszer, Hungary.

Nota sobre la ilustración del autor:
No sobrevive ninguna imagen del buen fraile Félix Fabri (1441-1502), por lo que está representado aquí arriba por una estatua de un monje sin nombre: el notario del rey Béla III, autor de Gesta Hungarorum, la historia de los húngaros, hacia 1200.
La estatua está en Ópusztaszer, Hungría.

 

Pueblo Contaminado de Ficciones (People Contaminated by Fiction)

Quote of the Week

Mario Vargas Llosa (1936-)

Un pueblo contaminado de ficciones es más difícil de esclavizar que un pueblo aliterario o inculto. La literatura es enormemente útil porque es una fuente de insatisfacción permanente; crea ciudadanos descontentos, inconformes. Nos hace a veces más infelices, pero también nos hace mucho más libres.

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A people contaminated by fiction is more difficult to enslave than an illiterate or uneducated people. Literature is enormously useful because it’s a source of permanent dissatisfaction; it creates discontented, non-conformist citizens. At times it makes us unhappier, but it also makes us much freer. 

Mario Vargas Llosa
(El País, 17/09/2015)

 

The Cynicism of Life

Quote of the Day:

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

And, finally, no literature can outdo real life in its cynicism, a wineglassful won’t make a man drunk when he has already emptied a barrel.

(Anton Chekhov: Letter to Madame M. V. Kiselyov, Moscow, January 14, 1887)

Not Enough Talent

Quote of the Week

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

I do not care enough for money to succeed in medicine, and for literature I have not enough passion and therefore not enough talent.

(Anton Chekhov: Letter to A. S. Suvorin, 4 May 1889)

Fraudulent Pages

Quote of the Week:

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944)

Dutertre and I sat looking out of the window. Here too was a branch swaying in the breeze. I could hear the cackle of the hens. Our Intelligence Room had been set up in a schoolhouse; the major’s office was in a farmhouse.

It would be easy to write a couple of fraudulent pages out of the contrast between this shining spring day, the ripening fruit, the chicks filling plumply out in the barnyard, the rising wheat — death at our elbow. I shall not write that couple of pages because I see no reason why the peace of a spring day should constitute a contradiction of the idea of death. Why should the sweetness of life be a matter for irony.

(Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Flight to Arras)

The Business of Literature

Quote of the Week:

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

The business of literature is not to answer questions, but to state them fairly.

Anton Chekhov

Demonios escondidos por todas partes (Demons lurking everywhere)

La cita de la semana hoy viene de un ensayo que Mario Vargas Llosa escribió sobre Henry Miller.

Today’s Quote of the Week is from an essay that Mario Vargas Llosa wrote about Henry Miller.

La cita de la semana / Quote of the Week:

Mario Vargas Llosa (1936-)

Esta es una de las más importantes funciones de la literatura: recordar a los hombres que, por más firme que parezca el suelo que pisan y por más radiante que luzca la ciudad que habitan, hay demonios escondidos por todas partes que pueden, en cualquier momento, provocar un cataclismo.

(Mario Vargas Llosa:
Trópico de cáncer: Henry Miller El nihilista feliz)

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This is one of the most important functions of literature: to remind men and women that however firm the ground that they walk on appears to be, and however brightly the city that they live in shines, there are demons lurking everywhere that, at any moment, can cause a violent upheaval.

(Mario Vargas Llosa:
Tropic of Cancer: The Happy Nihilist)

 

La verdad de las mentiras (The Truth of the Lies)

Estaba hojeando – figurativamente, porque de hecho se trataba de un libro electrónico – un libro de ensayos de Mario Vargas Llosa anoche, cuando me topé con la siguiente:

I have been leafing through – figuratively speaking, because it was actually an e-book – a book of essays by Mario Vargas Llosa last night, when I came across the following:

Aristotle Compares Authors (Aristóteles compara autores)

Quote of the Week / La cita de la semana:

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

Sophocles is an imitator of the same kind as Homer- for both imitate higher types of character; from another point of view, of the same kind as Aristophanes- for both imitate persons acting and doing.

(Aristotle: Poetics)

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Como imitador, Sófocles, por una parte, se asemeja a Homero, pues ambos representan a hombres superiores, y por otra, a Aristófanes, desde que todos exhiben que actúan y realizan algo.

(Aristóteles: La Poética)

 

You might also like / Quizás también te gusta:
⇒ Aristotle on Homer
⇒ Aristotle on the Unity of Action / Aristóteles sobre la unidad de acción
⇒ Aristotle on Comedy & Tragedy / Aristóteles sobre la comedia y la tragedia

Image credit:
Tilemahox Efthimiadis via Flickr [CC BY-SA 2.0]

Si un libro los aburre (If a Book Bores You)

La cita de la semana / Quote of the Week:

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)

Si un libro los aburre, déjenlo, no lo lean porque es famoso, no lean un libro porque es moderno, no lean un libro porque es antiguo. Si un libro es tedioso para ustedes, déjenlo… ese libro no ha sido escrito para ustedes. 

(Jorge Luis Borges: Borges profesor – curso de literatura inglesa en la Universidad de Buenos Aires)

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If a book bores you, leave it, don’t read it because it’s famous, don’t read a book because it’s modern, don’t read a book because it’s ancient. If a book is tedious to you, don’t read it… that book was not written for you.

(Jorge Luis Borges:Profesor Borges – A Course on English Literature)

Muchísimas gracias, profesor. 🙂

Thank you, Professor. 🙂

The Library

Quote of the Week:

Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862

The Library is a wilderness of books.

(Henry David Thoreau: Journal, 16 March 1852)

Aristotle on Comedy & Tragedy (Aristóteles sobre la comedia y la tragedia)

Quote of the Week / La cita de la semana:

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

But when Tragedy and Comedy came to light, the two classes of poets still followed their natural bent: the lampooners became writers of Comedy, and the Epic poets were succeeded by Tragedians, since the drama was a larger and higher form of art.

(Aristotle: Poetics)

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Pero tan pronto como la tragedia y la comedia aparecieron en el ambiente, aquellos naturalmente atraídos por cierta línea de poesía se convirtieron en autores de comedias en lugar de yambos, y los otros inclinados por su índole a una línea distinta, en creadores de tragedias en lugar de epopeyas, porque estos nuevos modos del arte resultaban más majestuosos y de mayor estima que los antiguos.

(Aristóteles: La Poética)

 

You might also like:
⇒ Aristotle on Homer
⇒ Aristotle on the Unity of Action / Aristóteles sobre la unidad de acción

Image credit:
Tilemahox Efthimiadis via Flickr [CC BY-SA 2.0]

Motivo para escribir (A Reason to Write)

La cita de la semana / The Quote of the Week:

Octavio Paz (1914-1998)

Yo no escribo para matar el tiempo
ni para revivirlo
escribo para que me viva y me reviva

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I do not write to kill time
nor to revive it
I write that I may live and be revived

(Octavio Paz: El mismo tiempo / Same time)

 

Image credit: Photo by John Leffmann via Wikipedia [CC BY 3.0]

Aristotle on the Unity of Action (Aristóteles sobre la unidad de acción)

A slightly longer quote this week, from the Poetics of Aristotle. He talks about the meaning of unity of action, or plot – one of the three unities (aka classical unities) in literature. The other two unities are the unity of place and the unity of time. The three unities were described by Aristotle in his Poetics; they were later followed by such neo-classical authors as Molière and Racine. A play that observes the three unities will have a single action occurring in a single place in the course of a single day.

Una cita un poco más larga este semana, de La Poética de Aristóteles. Nos habla sobre el significado de la unidad de acción, es decir trama – una de las tres unidades (también conocido como unidades clásicas) en literatura. Las otras dos son la unidad de tiempo y la unidad de lugar. Las tres unidades fueron descritas por Aristóteles en La Poética; luego fueron observadas por tal autores neoclásicos como Molière y Racine. Una obra que observa las tres unidades tendrá una acción sola, ocurriendo en un lugar único durante un día sólo.

The Iliad (La Ilíada)

Quote of the Week / La cita de la semana:

Simone Weil (1909-1943)

…le plus beau, le plus pur des miroirs.

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…the most beautiful, the purest of mirrors.

…el más bonito, el más puro de espejos.

(Simone Weil: L’Iliade ou le poème de la force)

Aristotle on Homer

Quote of the Week:

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

Homer, for example, makes men better than they are; Cleophon as they are; Hegemon the Thasian, the inventor of parodies, and Nicochares, the author of the Deiliad, worse than they are.

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As, in the serious style, Homer is pre-eminent among poets, for he alone combined dramatic form with excellence of imitation so he too first laid down the main lines of comedy, by dramatizing the ludicrous instead of writing personal satire. His Margites bears the same relation to comedy that the Iliad and Odyssey do to tragedy.

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So in this respect, too, compared with all other poets Homer may seem, as we have already said, divinely inspired, in that even with the Trojan war, which has a beginning and an end, he did not endeavour to dramatise it as a whole, since it would have been either too long to be taken in all at once or, if he had moderated the length, he would have complicated it by the variety of incident. As it is, he takes one part of the story only and uses many incidents from other parts, such as the Catalogue of Ships and other incidents with which he diversifies his poetry.

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In composing the Odyssey he did not include all the adventures of Odysseus- such as his wound on Parnassus, or his feigned madness at the mustering of the host- incidents between which there was no necessary or probable connection: but he made theOdyssey, and likewise the Iliad, to centre round an action that in our sense of the word is one.

(Aristotle: Poetics)

 

You might also like:
⇒ The Poetics of Aristotle

Image credit: 
Tilemahox Efthimiadis via Flickr [CC BY-SA 2.0]