"The novel is the best way to explore the complex depths of human nature"
About this Quote
Kadare’s claim isn’t a cozy tribute to fiction; it’s a power grab on behalf of the form that made him, and one forged under pressure. Coming out of communist Albania, where public language was policed and reality was required to wear the state’s expression, Kadare learned that the most dangerous truths often have to travel disguised. The novel, with its room for ambiguity, misdirection, and layered motives, becomes less an art object than a smuggling route.
“Best way” is doing provocative work here. It implicitly downgrades cleaner genres of certainty: the manifesto that flattens people into positions, the official history that pretends coherence, the newspaper headline that demands a single takeaway. Kadare’s subtext is that human nature is not just “complex” in the abstract; it is strategically inconsistent. People cooperate and betray, love and comply, tell themselves stories to survive. A novel can hold those contradictions without rushing to resolve them.
The sentence also doubles as an argument about power. Human nature is where politics ultimately lands: who fears, who conforms, who improvises. By insisting the novel is the premier tool for exploring inner life, Kadare quietly defends the novelist as a kind of parallel authority - someone who can diagnose a society when public speech is compromised. His work often uses myth, fable, and historical allegory not to escape reality but to corner it. In that light, the line reads as both aesthetic credo and survival tactic: when the surface is forced to lie, depth is where honesty relocates.
“Best way” is doing provocative work here. It implicitly downgrades cleaner genres of certainty: the manifesto that flattens people into positions, the official history that pretends coherence, the newspaper headline that demands a single takeaway. Kadare’s subtext is that human nature is not just “complex” in the abstract; it is strategically inconsistent. People cooperate and betray, love and comply, tell themselves stories to survive. A novel can hold those contradictions without rushing to resolve them.
The sentence also doubles as an argument about power. Human nature is where politics ultimately lands: who fears, who conforms, who improvises. By insisting the novel is the premier tool for exploring inner life, Kadare quietly defends the novelist as a kind of parallel authority - someone who can diagnose a society when public speech is compromised. His work often uses myth, fable, and historical allegory not to escape reality but to corner it. In that light, the line reads as both aesthetic credo and survival tactic: when the surface is forced to lie, depth is where honesty relocates.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|
More Quotes by Ismail
Add to List
