I am reading ‘The Dinner’ by Herman Koch. I am actually reading it
since last evening in two parts. The first part yesterday was an initial
half-set wit-driven delightful prose which exploded today into utter
disintegration of sanity and triggered the voices in my head to full volume.
It led me to wonder whether just like people - do countries have a
certain spirituality or morality within them which has not been identified yet?
This far reaching thought admittedly has stemmed up purely from the variety of
books I read written by authors with different nationalities. For example –
America has so many bestial crimes like keeping women prisoner for years and
feeding on their mental, physical and emotional flesh like a rabid maggot,
school shootings, serial killings and so on. All this is delightfully supported
by writers who take a morbid, perverse and secret satisfaction in writing even
murkier stories based on their flights of imagination. America as a country
with very little history can be categorized as focusing more on economic growth
at a cost of spirituality and maturity just like a baby or a teenager focuses
on immediate needs first. Europe and UK especially the Dutch and the Nordics
whose fiction take the cake for books on crimes led by depression, loneliness
and escape can be categorized as countries with a history which has led to a
completely rule driven, disciplined way of everyday life leading to a
claustrophobia of a different kind. Asia supported by a long history, rich
culture and natural heritage has writers whose books now feature a flippant
attempt to ape the West and give an indication of the vacuum that is slowly
building up amongst the boomers.
I am only talking about fiction writers above. To me, writers from
different countries give a very strong indication of the health of that
particular region. I wonder if anyone else feels the same and sees the signals.
BTW, the book is deliciously dark and provocative as the plot
thickens. You are forced to think what you would do in a similar situation
yourself but more so on drawing parallel to the society you live in. Anyone who
is a parent needs to worry now about the big responsibility of nurturing your
child against the nature that surrounds them.
Current music: The Chase - (Alan Reeves & Phil Steele & Philip Brigham)
