Sex and Toldi (or Modern Literature)

Dear bloggers!

Have you already visited the comments on István's post about Sex and the City?
If not then do it and enter a fairly interesting debate about what literature means in modern times. But before doing this please read Joe's second reflection in which he exhorts: do not take it too seriously. In the hang of an argument there shouldn't be any kind of personal attacks against your opposition. Especially if you don't realy know each other. Anyway I'm glad to read such mature thoughts from all of bloggers, but it is worth observing this case from different aspects.

Dear Szoszo! I think you have no point when you declare Sex and the City a literary work. In a conservative critical context it is not literature. But here we have a good chance to think of the altering contexts of different eras. Certainly Toldi had a totally different role in it's own time but it impossible to make an overall appretiation of it. How could we gain a slight impression of the social, political, cultural and everyday life featutes of historical ages without liveing in them?
What are real problems? What does "accept" mean? Acceptet by who? Why should an author use sex and money to reveal "real" problems? (Arany used the most beautiful Hungarian language I've ever red - can we compare it with the common phrases and clichés of Sex end the City? -not a bit.) Why am I asking questions? For I'd be a pednatic guy I wanted to announce the answer (which I don't know) of one of the most relevant cultural questions in a blog post. Confidence is misleading in this case...

In the field of modern Hungarian literature the regrettable situation is the folloving: On one hand primary, secondary and even university curricula don't consist the idea of literature as a living branch of art. Instead literature is alienated, and students are only tought how to read, evaluate, and speak about literary masterpieces. Let me put a simile in here. Imagine a music teacher who only speaks about a song, and don't wish to teach the student how to sing it. Terrible teacher. Music course is about singing. So why a literature course is not about writeing? It's just speaking about writers and scripts from a special historical view. Simply becous of tradition. And the consequence: children cope with literature as a sort of stodgy mass of texts full of ideology. Hence meny of us is apt to jumble a set of unclear and abstract words with a poem. And here come Para Kovács Imre, Garaczi László and the others in the picture. They are trendy comtemporary poets, novelists and playwriters, with a huge advantage: some of us will always read them for the reasons I have already written about- we do not know what literature is.

What do you think of it, Szoszo and others? Consider! Here you might say that I should have start questioning Isti since he seems to have an even more categorical way of thinking. But I guess I am aware of his fealings about Sex and the City. (I admit I share them in my way.) I assure all of my dear readers: despite the ironic voice, he would never despise anybody for his or her opinion.

But one thing is definitely true: ART IS A MATTER OF TASTE... BUT BE GOURMAND!