#HNSFT

I have a weird hobby called 'Hungarian-name spotting in foreign texts' or shortly just #HNSFT. It is nothing interesting and mostly it is just waste of time. (I like killing time. It just seems fair as time does the same with everyone. Cruel. And me: fair.) Yet today it has led to an unexpected discovery in literature. There is a Canadian short-story writer with the name Zsuzsi Gartner, whose thoughts on arts are quite interesting.

Her new book is entitled 'Better living through plastic explosives' and in it there is a nice short story about a letter which is written by a school teacher and it is addressed to a mum whose daughter does not meet the expectations in art.

 "The point of art is...in not meeting expectations," she writes.
Like the character in her story, Gartner contends that art should actually subvert expectations. "Should art make people comfortable and make them relate to it? Or should it surprise them? I believe in entertaining when I write, but I also believe in not coddling."

(full article on CBC books, here)

I am getting more and more fascinated about a writer who's name was only spotted accidentally  by playing #HNSFT. Who said wasting time is a waste of time?