Theos-Talk Archives (February 2002 Message tt00160)

Milan Kundera, in a 1980 interview with Philip Roth:
__________________

"The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. 
The wisdom
of the novel comes from having a question for everything. When Don 
Quixote went
out into the world, that world turned into a mystery before his eyes. 
This is
the legacy of the first European novel to the entire subsequent 
history of the
novel. The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a 
question.
There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on 
sacrosanct
certainties the novel is dead. The totalitarian world whether founded 
on Marx,
Islam or anything else, is a world of answers rather than questions. 
In any
case, it seems to me that all over the world people nowadays prefer 
to judge
rather than to understand, to answer rather than to ask, so that 
voice of the
novel can hardly be heard over the foolishness of human certainties."
--- End forwarded message ---