Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Gombrowism

Roberto Bolano...I'm a fan of Bolano. Have you read him? Anyway, Bolano was a self-proclaimed Ferdydurkist. Meaning, he was an admirer of the novel Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz. I can't say that I'm a Ferdydurkist (wasn't that fond of the novel), but I will say that I'm a Gombrowiczist. Let's just call it Gombrowism. I'm a Gombrowist. Because of passages like this from his Diary (pg 39):

To me, art almost always speaks more forcefully when it appears in an imperfect, accidental, and fragmentary way, somehow just signaling its presence, allowing one to feel it through the ineptitude of the interpretation. I prefer the Chopin that reaches me in the street from an open window to the Chopin served in great style from the concert stage.
 And such.