Q and A: Krasznahorkai László

       In the winter issue of The Hungarian Quarterly Dömötör Ági speaks with Krasznahorkai László, in The Bible Got Bad PR.
       Among the choice quotes:

It's a terrible cliché, but it's true: crisis is the default state of history

       And:

I'm personally involved in the apocalypse ...

       And then there's:

Do you ever look up on the internet what readers have to say about your work ? There are online reading groups where your books are discussed; other sites make comments on your interviews.

If you mean Hungarian sites, I don't know too many of those. Recently one blogger suggested that I should be hanged. I immediately put on my space suit, started the engine and went to the moon for a while.

       And:

You mean it's not just the authority of literature that's finished but literature as such ?

The so-called high literature will disappear. I don't trust such partial hopes that there will always be islands where literature will be important and survive. I would love to be able to say such pathos-filled things, but I don't think they're true.

       But also:

I have another suggestion: we will return to a post-post-postmodern kind of sacrality. The spoken word will once again have a sacred force, which the written word will serve to record.

       His Satantango is due out from New Directions soon; see their publicity page, or pre-order your copy at at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk