A WONDERFUL QUOTE FROM AHARON APPELFELD

Hi Susie,

Just a wee one to send you this, below. I just finished reading Aharon Appelfeld’s wonderful little book of reflections of writing in the cafés of Jerusalem, A Table for One. The final two paragraphs of the collection are these:

         “These reflections have been a kind of confession about specific places and people; in other words, a religious attitude to life. When I say ‘religious’ I mean seriousness and a sense of obligation to art. I believe art is about creation – and not about the ego, or making an impression, or exuding a sense of superiority toward others. But it is all about calling forth feelings that connect with other people.

         Art that does not extend love, devotion, identification – cannot be meaningful art. By saying this, I don’t imply a sentimental, sanctimonious, or overly emotional relationship to life. Art that has religious reverence carries with it harshness and discipline; the anarchic and the arbitrarily subjective are sometimes the enemy that destroys art from within. When I say a religious attitude, I mean the belief that inside every person, landscape, and still life, there is hidden a noble beauty.”

From A Table for One by Aharon Appelfeld

Sweet.
Much love,
Yoram.

Thank you, Yoram, for this beautiful quote. I love the definition of religious, shorn of its moralness and dogma and finding its meaning in art. Thank you everybody, really, for laying these golden mice at the doorstep of the Stuff Page.

Much love to you all, Susie x