This is an offhand and vague sketch of one of the most powerful writers of last century, made by Rustem T. who was a friend of this little known author. In fact, I didn't know about this sketch until recently. Last week I bought 'The exhaustive work of Rustem' and came across this one.

Istvan Tamas (2051 - 2112), had really been instrumental in forming a new literary genre, when everything seemed to have been achieved in our literature.

Born in the town of Tatabanya in Northern Hungary, Tamas witnessed in his youth, the Europe that was rapidly casting off shells and changing shapes, both politically and culturally.

But, almost ironically, Tamas as a novelist, shied away from this celebration of change and focused rather on constancy, as if in an attempt to defy the fleeting nature of his times. He neither resembles the old moralistic genre nor shares the current enthusiasm for mechanization of art in a form of word game. ( In fact, he was one of the last authors who denied the now established fact that formation precedes meaning)

His own places and times, also really don't appear in his writing, except in a very obscure manner. Probably, 'The Fragrance of a Lost River' is the only exception, where he is conjuring his past, his memories of a small industrial town and his nonchalant observations on growing mediocrity, in a dreamlike fashion.

May be, that is why he didn't attract much recognition of the critics.

This nonchalance about the present and resigned devotion to the eternity, brought me close to the works of this master philosopher.

I was in my sophomore years when I first got hold of 'Experience of reading a book'. For the readers who haven't been acquainted with the wizardry of this great master, let me mention this much :

This is a letter from a reader to the author of a successful novel. In this letter, the reader relates her reading experience of the book. She mentions every bit of detail of the surrounding. The books she had read just before, the books she is reading alongside this novel, the books she is planning to read. She even writes down the lyrics of the song playing in the background.[These details I thought, are very important because no two events occur independently anymore]. Sometimes the novel itself takes a backseat and the exotic world of the reader is unraveled through the pages of the never-ending letter.

I was totally taken aback by the hidden circularity of the book. This was the time when I have started to equate infinity to circularity. So this is what I thought about the book :

The letter is never-ending because there are innumerably many things a reader has to share with the author. Suppose the letter was finite. Then upon reading those finitely many symbols, I as another reader would've other thoughts to share. I'd write another letter, in which the earlier letter would be embedded. Thus an infinite sequence of embedded letters would only establish a true relationship between author and reader.

'No piece of writing is complete in itself',

Tamas wrote in 'In search of silent literature' whch is a collection of articles on future of modern-literature. He also went on to declare that,

'Every literary creation is bound by its circumstances and should be placed before these circumstances while reading'

Throughout his whole career, Tamas has written a number of novels, short stories, articles. He almost always dwelt with complex and esoteric topics like dreams, reality, causation and time. He has also written quite a few critical essays on the art of reading. Although he never favored the idea of independent formation of symbols, he at a later stage of his career, strongly emphasized on the interpretation of symbols. In that regard, he can be noted as the precursor of many of the successful present day authors.

His ideological battle with the critics and authors of his time, deeply motivated him to write the most convoluted novel of all time : A duel with a columnist. I admit that I managed to understand only 10% of this novel. But the fact that remains is that he lost the duel and his genre is more or less obsolete at present.

I can't give you the full list of works by him (because, nobody really bothered to develop such a thing). But I can tell you the names of the books that I have in my collection :

1. Experience of reading a book : 2078

2. Fragrance of a lost river, a memoir : 2095

3. A duel with a columnist, 2087

4. A few broken pieces of glass : 2093

5. In search of silent literature : 2095

Tamas retired from his literary career in 2095 due to his increasing neural disorder. I'll try to provide some more information on this unknown or little known genius of words in some of the later posts. Also if you have any information about him, feel free to share with me.

Bye for now!