Essential question. :) Did somebody actually quantified the use of the word 'nose' in your work? Did they also compare it with other words? Was it subjective as usual? Hmm, people are weird.

@Arnon

I have never really considered you as a novelist who is always, or a lot interested in evil, more as one who is describing human behavior in a very realistic way and not describing it as people would like it to be or often wish to picture it to be.

Would you agree that not only novelists are interested in this theme, the entire world is? It would explain the success of Harry Potter. Skilled is the novelist who knows how to transform this theme into a story. Perhaps a story about an Austrian engineer who locks his daughter up in a basement for 24 years and has sex with her, even children. Or the story of a man who slaughters the apple of his eye with a chain saw... (this obviously intended as being a compliment).

Evil, like sex, unhappiness, the use of drugs, arms trading and (in earlier times?) racial and gender emanicapation etc. has its social boundaries. and thus triggers the imagination and may for that reason be a logical theme for a novelist. It is much more uncommon (and challenging?) for an exciting novel to have an everyday central theme (like gardening, shopping, growing up happily or having a very avarage nose.)

That should have been "emancipation" and "average". Sorry.

I am interested in your books simply because they tell me about all those everyday central themes like sex, drugs, abuse, gardening, shopping, paranoia, compassion, loneliness, happiness, sickness, dead, etcetera. For example Tirza is a masterpiece in that case (especially the brilliant dialogues between the man and the woman) or The Jewish Messiah (the grandiose expectations of a boy), not to mention The Asylum Seeker.
And OK, I agree you have a well formed nose too.

Jan, of course you are absolutely right about the masterpieces. And I should have mentioned everyday topics like comforting the Jews, having your testicle cut off, travelling to Namibia in search of chopped up daughters and sleeping in the wardrobe because your place in the marital bed is taken up by an asylum seeker.

Lorelei

The question was related to the repetition of certain words, among them the word “nose” – the emphasis is on repetition.

Ron
I see those descriptions only as the hyperbolic images of real feelings and desires (at least of my inner dreams and feelings)
For a long time I hated literature, I learned at school. I thought literature was only about a (wo)man walking melancholically down the stairs of his of her bedroom, having tea in the garden and contemplating about the bees and the flowers.
Arnon and others I learned to know by him (Coetzee, Dostojewski, etc) are writing the books I dreamed about and never dared to speak about. Sometimes when I read, I laugh and I think, I would have go just a little bit further. Ah, It is all about personal experiences and drama ant talent or the lack of it.
Books have not changed my life, they only gave me the words to make me aware of feelings, dreams and desires deep inside.
Roughly I can say I had a book like The Jewish Messiah already in my mind (not exactly the same but nevertheless), so imagine my surprise and my joy when I read that book!
(I lack some talent to write those long novels, but that is not so important)

Jan, I recognize a lot of what you are saying: I too abhorred literature while at school for much the same reasons. Until a friend of mine who studied literature (how could somebody who was so much fun choose a boring study like that?) told me to read Celine's Voyage au bout de la nuit. I didn't laugh my socks off, but I was for ever won over for literature. The books of Arnon and a few others tend to have that same effect on me as Celine had at the time (and still has every time I reread some of his books).

Like most readers I fantasize about writing a book myself occasionally, but I'm afraid I lack the talent and fantasy to be more than mediocre. And there's enough of that in the bookshops already, shamefully lying on the same tables as Grunberg, Ishiguro, Mitchell and those other giants.

@Ron, perhaps if you'd read any of those other books and open your mind to something different than youi already know, you may actually discover a gem. That's when suddenly you find Murakami on those piles (this is how he started) and you could pat yourself on the shoulder for having been 'one of the first' to discover the gem.
Or perhaps even you jump even more out of the box and stop finding excuses (you too Jan) to defend why you're not doing what apparently you would like to be doing most. It's not about whether your talented enough, it's about what you feel you should be doing which is impossible to ignore because if you were to ingore that feeling, you'd be even unhappier than if you listened to it (and risk ending up unhappy anyway, but slightly less so).

Noa, what's your point exactly? I've read enough bad books to know that they don't make me happy.
Please don't accuse me of not having an open mind to new books or new writers, that's something completely different from my opinion that too many mediocre books are being published.
As to writing: I think everybody who has the urge to write should be free to do so. Publishers should not publish everything that is being written.
As to my personal ambitions: please allow me to decide what makes me happy myself: It would not increase my happiness if I would feel that people had better do anything else than read my book.

Noa,
It is not an excuse Noa, I think it is about knowing our limitations. I like to write my stuff and I take a real pleasure in it, but every time when I write I have to fight with the words and the sentences , in short my limited linguistic capacities. (Lack of time, laziness and other preoccupations, not to mention).
(http://fraterbernardus.blogspot.com/ is the best I can do and it does not require paper).
We cannot all become masters, and there is no need for it too. But I will continue reading and writing as long as I am able too.
So indeed book and writers have changed my life. Thanks to the Jewish Messiah I read and write more than ever and feel good about it, although the kingdom of heaven has not yet come for me, for you and all of us.
As a good friend said, Keep on truckin’.

@Ron, alright - point taken. You've read a lot of mediocre books. So have I, luckily the opinion of what makes for a good or bad novel is still subjective, which is why personally I'm happy publishers publish what they publish, however hard this makes it for first-time authors. Still, I'd hate to see a publisher decide what is good or not good for me. to read
Ron, and I'm truly sorry I touched a sore spot, it's just that I feel you could be living the dreams you're dreaming., that's all and I know it's easier said than doen (in fact doing it is harder). I'm sure you know there are alot of 'grand' authors out there who haven't bene recognized as such, does this mean they should stop writing? Thomas Verborgt to name one of them (alright, so recently he has started getting at least a little bit of the respect he deserves).
@Jan - good to hear you're doing what you enjoy. We emailed personally before, and I then told you how wonderful your use of language is in your emails (when you write in your own language). I am still looking forward to reading your novel or stories or simply words about the clockworks behind the institution you work for. Feel free to email me whatever you're willing to share. I am not in a position to judge talent, but I wouldn't mind passing your words on to people who are - only if that's what you'd want and if the time is right for you.

Ron

If Freud had it right, then spelling errors are never accidental, but symptoms of subconscious fears or desires. I thought it striking you misspelled "emancipation" as "emanicapation"--it pretty much sounds like the "decapitation of a man", or castration, effectively, by women's lib.
But perhaps this interpretation reveals more about my hang-ups than yours.

Not sure about "avarage" for "average"... Are you enraged by a certain Ava, or did you for some reason want to obscure Eva?

@ Ron and Jan

I want to bet, that before he started out, Arnon too thought himself not to have fantasy to write a novel. Look how well he has done.

@Noa
Thank you, you are welcome too. But all I can offer now is this blog of mine and the short stories. It is free and you are welcome to read it (and not only you). Feel free.
By the way, there is a lot of silence on ours blogs these days. Summertime blues.
My goodness, does I not sound like a diplomat?

@ Jan, could you give me the address of your blog? (ron.lander@hotmail.com).
@ Noa, I agree about Thomas Verbogt. Another one of those authors not getting the recognition he deserves is Jan van Mersbergen.
And yes, there may be some fear of failure too as an explanation why I don't write, but of course that's by far not the most important reason.....

A repetition in Literature is called a motive. So Nose must be a motive, if it isn't it's not written too well, one dares to say. I don't.

@Ron, actually Jan van Mersbergen is getting squite some respect, at least he does in the circle of "new and unknown (but published) authors" in Holland. For a speed-lesson in what new authors could be worth watching, I recommend this book of short stories coming out pretty soon -
http://www.fastenyourseatbelt.nl/
You'll find Jan van Mersbergen has written one, as has this other incredibly talented female writer you all know by now ;)

PS Oh and Ron, Verbogt is a fantastic teacher in writing, so I've been told (his playwriting classes are supposedly mindblowing) ... ...

Noa/Ron

Of recent Dutch novels I liked Hemelval by Arjan Visser.

Yes, agreed david (and mind you what a great publisher he has ;))

Noa

De wandelaar by Adriaan van DIs was from the same publisher, but that book was terrible.

well, as said before, luckily the opinion as to what makes for a good book is still subjective. I pointed out the publisher because this is one of the few publishers in Holland that does not excessively launch new writers (max 3 a year) and hence could be one of the publishers Ron at least may appreciate.

Noa

I thought you mentioned this publisher because you are being published by them. Which I don't mind at all, don't get me wrong here.
Most big publishing houses suck. I think that a publishing house must have its own shop, like Bas Lubberhuizen in Amsterdam.

Noa, you are right. And although De wandelaar may not be a masterpiece it's certainly not the worst dutch book I read the last year (that was Tussen Apoera en Oreala: I had the weird sensation of not being able to put away a book that was in fact too bad to continue reading, but I just had to keep going in amazement. I also kept wondering in how far the author was to blame and in how far his editor and his then time publisher. But the same publisher did a good job on De Joodse Messias.)

David, thanks for the tip. I haven't read anything by Arjan Visser yet, but I guess I'll follow Noa's advice and finally start trying something new...

@ Ron

I am just wondering if you sometimes give an author a second chance after you've read a bad piece of work. I can understand that one is not eager to read another book by that same writer and that one 'writes off' a writer, so to speak, but it might be a bit ruthless, certainly for debutants.

I think few writers have the gift of making every piece a masterpiece from the start - or keep the same level 'til the end.

@ Pablo. Nice question. Not often, no. But sometimes: I didn't like the first Grunberg novel I read very much (Figuranten). Rereading it this summer I readjusted my opinion somewhat, but it will never be one of my favourites. It was not until my third Gurnberg, De Asielzoeker, that I couldn't close my mouth while reading, couldn't think of anything else than the book I was reading, was shocked, humoured and electrified. But if I would have thought Figuranten really really bad, I don't think I would have tried a second Grunberg, no.
And the fact that I didn't recognize Grunbergs talent at first sight probably tells a lot about the value of my personal views in this matter.

@Ron - what then interests me is why did you keep reading Arnon's work? What motivated you to do so? This is honest interest by the way.

@david, of course that played a role in my mentioning of the publisher too (I'm aware of my weaknesses, unfortunately so. It's when I drink caiperinhas that I become in danger of exposing them.)

Noa

Isn't the publisher the natural enemy of the writer, even your own publisher?

@David, the whole world is my natural enemy, so yes, my own publisher is too.

Ron
I follow. Second chances are all about potential and room for development.
Or curiosity, maybe.

PS Ron & David - Celine Linssen, Esther Gerritsen, Marieke van der Pol, Bianca Boer. And despite me having wanted to mention only female authors woth keeping an eye on, I do have to add: Peter Delpeut.

Noa

Thank you. I saw the picture of Bianca Boer on the back cover and I decided not to buy the book.
Call me superficial, but I must have a good feeling when I see a picture of an author.

@David, if you meet her face to face you'll have a very good feeling. She has this remarkable shimmering quality, moreover: she's hysterically funny. You know how the saying goes "never judge a book by its cover."
Please do pick up het book of short stories, especially the first one you will not regret reading. But wait... read mine first ;)

Noa

Ok, you convinced me.