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**Gaxiciverfere** · 03-01-2009, 01:46 PM

What with all the hullabaloo surrounding the book, I thought it'd be interesting to compare what some critics are saying (those who question, essentially, Littell's artistic aims in writing this novel in the first place) to the issue that J. M. Coetzee's heroine raises in Elizabeth Costello, Chapter 6: The Problem of Evil.

The whole affair seems uncannily reminiscent of that particular situation. Ultimately, Coetzee (or at the very least, his heroine) seems to conclude that some things, some evils, just shouldn't be written about. They stretch our limits of sanity and don't add anything of value to that vague human enterprise we call Art.

I wonder what Coetzee would (or will) say upon reading this particular book.

03-01-2009, 01:46 PM	#19
Gaxiciverfere Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 479 Senior Member	What with all the hullabaloo surrounding the book, I thought it'd be interesting to compare what some critics are saying (those who question, essentially, Littell's artistic aims in writing this novel in the first place) to the issue that J. M. Coetzee's heroine raises in Elizabeth Costello, Chapter 6: The Problem of Evil. The whole affair seems uncannily reminiscent of that particular situation. Ultimately, Coetzee (or at the very least, his heroine) seems to conclude that some things, some evils, just shouldn't be written about. They stretch our limits of sanity and don't add anything of value to that vague human enterprise we call Art. I wonder what Coetzee would (or will) say upon reading this particular book.
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