Betrayed Will

Author: Milan Kundera
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-02-01
Features: In my opinion, great works can only be born from the history of the art they belong to and participate in it. Only in history can one grasp what is new, what is repetitive, what is invention, and what is imitation. In other words, only in history can a work exist as a value that people can discern and cherish. For art, I believe there is nothing more terrible than falling outside its history, for it would then fall into a chaotic void where no aesthetic value can be discovered anymore. For me, becoming a novelist is not just practicing a certain "literary genre"; it is also an attitude, an intelligence, a stance; a stance that excludes any identification with a particular politics, religion, ideology, ethical morality, or collective position; a conscious, stubborn, and furious differentiation, not as escape or passivity, but as resistance, rebellion, and challenge.