Arnon Grunberg

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An acquaintance alerted me to the book “A Mathematician’s Apology” by G.H. Hardy.
The first sentences enchanted me: “It’s a melancholy experience for a professional mathematician to find himself writing about mathematics. The function of a mathematician is to do something, to prove new theorems, to add to mathematics, and not to talk about what he or other mathematicians have done.”

Although serious criticism is important (and very rare) in literature Hardy’s words apply to literature as well. We expect the author to be a charming talker, a salesman as glib as a fraudulent pastor, but the program should be: less talking, more writing.

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