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A review by marcnash21stc
Seiobo There Below by László Krasznahorkai
3.0
A meditation on sacred art, from the Venus de Milo, Acropolis, Alhambra, the making of a Noh mask, restoration of an ancient wooden Buddha etc etc. But the sublime remains out of reach for the reader because of the style. Paragraphs that run for pages, sentences that run on for lines, there is simply no space for a reader to break off and contemplate the sublime. So the book fails. The other surprising thing, or maybe not so surprising since most of the art here is pre-21st century reflecting its gender-biased production, is that there is not one single central female character. And that only adds to the monolithic nature of this read.
The book is not without merit, there are some patches of involving writing, some wonderfully detailed research and interesting ideas (a particularly interesting notion about great art not requiring names or titles despite our obsession to name things and to give them a story and history, rather than just letting them communicate to us however they will through their sublimity.But ultimately, for me these snippets were not worth the overall slog.
The book is not without merit, there are some patches of involving writing, some wonderfully detailed research and interesting ideas (a particularly interesting notion about great art not requiring names or titles despite our obsession to name things and to give them a story and history, rather than just letting them communicate to us however they will through their sublimity.But ultimately, for me these snippets were not worth the overall slog.