We are here to reread novels now, as if there were no other more important topics! Just look around…
The reference is relevant, because a few days ago I participated in the presentation of a fiction book, a common novel. And I allowed myself to give my opinion on what it means to read a literary narrative again, a few years after the first ocular and mental vision of it.
¾ Well, a lot, my good sir, I was answered, by measure of quality. Precisely, it is said that a work continues to seem good to us, or even better, when a lot of time has passed and we continue to think the same about it.
That’s life: one now takes in one’s hands “The Misadventures of Young Werther,” perhaps the most widely read of Goethe’s works, and it still seems like a textbook work. Of passion, of obsession of the soul, of a loving feeling superior to any eroticism: it is life itself, like a desperate love. For this reason and for his other works, the great German writer is a classic and will remain so forever. A work becomes classic because it remains excellent over many years, and not because it belongs to this or that famous author.
¾ That is, to truly become a masterpiece, a classic, it has to pass some time and continue at its peak. This is also what happens with “The Magic Mountain” by Thomas Mann, or with “The House of the Dead” by Dostoevsky. The first time the dialogues are tense and useful, formidable. And some time later, reading the same text again, the inevitable literary structural weaknesses emerge, in pieces that seemed almost perfect…
The aforementioned literary session lasted a little longer, but finally ended, of course without consensus:
¾ Well, well… There would be a lot to continue talking about…
¾ Well, we will continue with the topic, whenever you want…
Full stop, for now…