One more note on brevity

 I’ve been thinking about length in literature — and especially about the virtue of brevity. Before leaving the topic, one last note:

Milan Kundera once observed that it takes 15 minutes to see that Henri Matisse was a great painter. But it takes weeks to form a judgment of Joseph Conrad. “The different arts reach our brains in different ways.” 

Painting is more immediate than the novel. But there also are variations within literature. The short story is more immediate than the novel. The essay is more immediate than the treatise.

I keep thinking there is a literature of short items that would make a good college course.

• Source: Milan Kundera, “Blacklists,” in Encounter, trans. By Linda Asher; New York: Harper, 2010.