Matt Roth [to JM] You said,
affirming Gavriel Shapiro's point, that genuine art doesn't resort to cruelty. I
have to admit that I'm not sure what this means in practical terms. Your
statement seems to imply that genuine art could resort to cruelty, but doesn't.
But what is cruelty in art? Cruelty at what level? Certainly all satire has an
element of cruelty in it, insomuch as corrective laughter, even when
well-placed, corrects by shaming and/or embarrassing the butt of the joke. So
the point may be both true and cruel. If, on the other hand, we're talking about
an author's relationship to his characters, I don't see how an author can be
either cruel or kind. Was it cruel to give Humbert Humbert that nasty habit? Was
it kind of VN to show us Pnin's tender side? Perhaps I'm missing something. Can
you give an example of another author you would consider cruel?
JM: A pertinent point, thanks for
raising it, Matt.
I've been finding it especially difficult
to fully express my thoughts, perhaps in English it's becoming even more
complicated. In the present case you mention, my intention had been to indicate
a cartoonist's "cruelty" and offer a contrasting view (Shapiro's), but not
to endorse either one or the other (because this would entail my entering into
the slippery ground of subjectivie appraisals*).
I agree with you that "art", like "truth",
in themselves are neither cruel nor kind. But an author my be cruel or a reader
my feel cruelly treated by an author. Truth often hurts while it
"heals" and art, perhaps, may engender a similar effect.
Nabokov describes himself as taking pity on Krug and thereby rendering him
insane; he also takes pity on Cincinnatus, even on Shade and Kinbote. But,
before coming to this, he makes them (and the reader) suffer a lot (he treats
them cruelly ...by his adherence to truth, by his observation of the "real
world", by a putative sadistic pleasure? Who's to know?).
Personally, I consider Nabokov a cruel author
and a cruel critic. Are Jonathan Swift, Joris-Karl
Huysmans, Machado de Assis, Lautrèamont cruel, are
they truthful artists? ( I'm not referring to sadistic authors,
such as...Sade). As a reader, am I a
masochist or a sadist instead of being a lover of "great art"? Why is Nabokov my
favourite writer?
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* - Today someone said to me "gosto não se
discute, só se lamenta" and the additional commentary to "de gustibus non est
disputandum" was new to me ( ie: one cannot discuss a matter of taste, but
one can lament a person's taste..."