Encounter - Milan Kundera

Two fidelities shaped us: fidelity to the revolution of modern art in the twentieth century and fidelity to the novel. Two fidelities not at all convergent. For the avant-garde (the ideologized version of modern art) has always relegated the novel to a position outside modernism, considering the form to be old hat, irrevocably conventional. When, later on, in the 1950s and 1960s, the latter-day avant-gardes began to create and proclaim their own modernism for the novel, they did it in a purely negative way: a novel with no characters, no plot, no story, if possible no punctuation: a novel that came close to be called the anti-novel.

A curious thing: the people who created modern poetry did not claim to be making anti-poetry. On the contrary, from Baudelaire on, poetic modernism was seeking a radical way to get at the essence of poetry, its most profound specificity.

This book of short essays and excerpts on art and artists displays Kundera's vast knowledge and deep insights into his subject. He is perceptive and challenging with his thoughts. Often academic and intellectual, it frequently moves into intimate insights. The book wanders and might be expected with pieces written over a long period of time. Kundera, however, is such a great intellect and superb writer, that the book is a pleasure to read and is guaranteed to spur the reader's thoughts on writers, artists, and great pieces of our cultural history.