Ion Soare PARADOXISM AND POSTMODERNISM IN FLORENTIN SMARANDACHE’S WORK American Research Press Rehoboth 2001 2 This book can be ordered in microfilm format from: Bell and Howell Co. (University of Microfilm International) 300 N. Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346, USA Tel.: 1-800-521-0600 http://www.umi.com/bod/ (Books on Demand) Copyright 2001 by American Research Press and the Author Rehoboth, Box 141 NM 87322, USA More literary books to download from this Digital Library: http://www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/eBooksLiterature.htm Frontcover painting by Florentin Smarandache, from his cycle intituled: Kachina, the Great Spirit! http://www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/a/outer-art.htm ISBN: 1-931233-32-2 Standard Address Number 297-5092 Printed in the United States of America 3 Ion Soare PARADOXISM AND POSTMODERNISM IN FLORENTIN SMARANDACHE’S WORK “Through paradoxical extension, the interior of a phenomenon conquers its exterior. In other words, it belongs to itself also what does not belong to it.” F. SMARANDACHE 4 FLORENTIN SMARANDACHE or/and THE FIRST SOURCE OF PARADOXISM (instead of INTRODUCTION) As if it wanted to be in accordance with the paradoxism and even to confirm it, the way the mathematician writer Florentin Smarandache is received is ... paradoxical. Tens of books, studies and articles have already been written about both, scientist and smarandachism - the name given to the movement by Ion Rotaru and Titu Popescu. However the paradoxist number 1 in the world is less known in his native country. At the same time some researchers ( Jacques Sarthou, Dan Tarchila, Doru Motoc and even... Ion Rotaru) declared him a man of genius (or close by!), while others ignored him or they haven’t yet heard about him. Without being disturbed by any of the two contradictory tendencies, the Oltenian- Romanian settled in New Mexico creates further on important works in the two large fields- literatures and mathematics (but also in other art and scientific fields). I have attentively read the entire literary work of the writer (sporadically read, on “pieces” or “modules”, it could be wrongly understood!), as well as - as much as I could understand- some of his mathematical, philosophical, enigmatical etc. creations. I recognize that almost all the lecture time I have had the revelation of renewal and, moreover, a kind of a prolonged shock: the Romanian- American “neovanguard” is the creator of a new practical and theoretical system, well fixed in its main joints and not at all below (in some cases, on the contrary!) than other artistic currents of last centuries. If I have been the only “receiver” with this kind of reactions, I could have suspected myself of subjectivism or exaltation in front of the unwonted - real, anyway- of the new literary movement. But same reactions have had before me a series of some foreign and Romanian writers as J.Levenard, A.Skemer, Teresinka Pereira, Khalid Rais, Claude Le Roy, Constantin M. Popa, Titu Popescu, Florin Vasiliu, Gheorghe Tomozei etc. Why then Florentin Smarandache does not enjoy a recognition on the measure of his gift and originality? Perhaps because of these human (re)sentiments we have talked about above? Or according to the new axiomatic principles (pro)claimed by postmodernists, the homologation and the consideration of the exceptional human mind’s values are not considered compulsory anymore, everyone having- virtually- the chance to be “caliph for one day”? Every one of these hypothesis, or both at the same time, or only parts of them, could be plausible. However, we think that the cause has to be searched for elsewhere. The postmodernism appears as a movement as large as the whole artistic and literary world’s sphere, as the postmodernity itself. However, many times has been avoided the fact that there is a dialectical relation between postmodernity and the level of civilization and culture of a country; and this relation remains identically available if the first term of relation would be replaced by postmodernism. When he has found out the possibility to transfer in literature the paradoxes from mathematics and daily life, Smarandache could have exclaimed as the antique wise: “Evrika!”. At the same time he surpassed the danger of artifice or of the “import” of ideas. Subsequently his original system acquires generality and internationally. It is so much clear the omission by some exegetes of this essential feature of paradoxism, the analysis being moved towards some collateral aspects regarding the artistic and speech means used. There is an unintentional practice, of course, but it leads to exaggerated assertions regarding the movement affinities with the avant-gardes from the first half of the XX-th century. 5 The existence and the struggle of contraries are stronger than ever in postmodernity. The paradoxism will find here a larger and more fertile field, keeping at a large degree its individuality, fact that encourages its ascent and expansion in a prolific and partly disappointed artistic world. Starting from these observations we tried to demonstrate in this work that the paradoxism is not in subordinate relation with the postmodernism but also it tends- from equal positions- to cover it.; at the same time, the postmodernism shows obvious tendencies to seize the “smarandachism”, in a reciprocity that reminds of the vessels communicating principle. In a separate chapter we proved- based on examples from Florentin Smarandache’s creations- that his writings could be “claimed” by postmodernism. But we also emphasized the features that distinguish the two movements. We insisted on the features which show paradoxism’s originality and, moreover, on the advantages that ensured its longevity. As a result of this society, the writer Smarandache is full of contradictions himself. His childish trust in people becomes, not just once, an unfair suspicion. Optimist, he builds with meticulousness and gift his pedestal, as a little pharaoh his pyramid, but often he falls into dark pessimistic moods, acutely living his supposed literary end (a mood detectable in many smarandachian creations). Atavistic roots pull him towards his native place from Balcesti- Valcea, while the States ...and the whole world are not enough for his flight. Modest nature, as all genuine human values, he is seized sometimes with an unmeasured vanity what makes him feeling the equal of every state leader, of every genius and even of the ... Creator himself! (see the poem Audience to God from the volume I am against myself). Prolific and prolix artist in many creations, he often succeeds to polish little gems in poetry, prose and theatre. Frankly and simply in expression, he becomes, not only once, picturesquely through a deliberate expressiveness, without avoiding (arghezian) the “hard” words, the “mould flowers” of spoken language etc. A genuine Fernando Pessoa of Romanians, the founder of paradoxism represents, in fact, through his contradictory personality, the first source of the paradoxism. I. SOARE The basic thesis of the paradoxism: Every thing/ phenomenon/ idea has a meaning and 6 a non-meaning in a contradictory harmony. The essence of the paradoxism: a) The NonSense has a Sense: (and reciprocally) b) The Sense has a NonSense. The motto of the paradoxism: All is possible, the impossible too! The symbol of the paradoxism: A spiral - optic illusion or vicious circle. The subsequent development of the paradoxism: To generalize the literature in scientific spaces ( Lobacevski, Riemann, Banach etc.), n-dimensional and infinite-dimensional spaces too. Paradoxism’s delimitation from other avant-gardes: ♦ paradoxism has a significance while dadaism, lettrism, the absurd movement do not; ♦ paradoxism especially reveals the contradictions, the antinomies, the anti- theses, antagonism, nonconformism, the paradoxes in other words of anything ( in literature, art, science), while futurism, cubism, abstractism and all other avant-gardes do not. Fl. Sm. 7 Paradoxology and Paradoxism At the beginning of 1980’s, a well-known playwright and man of theatre, the Frenchman Jacques Sarthou from Theatre de l’Ile de France, receiving from Florentin Smarandache the “Manifeste non-conformiste pour un nouveau movement litter ire, le Paradoxisme”, was so enthusiastic at the reading of the new movement’s programme, that claimed the author “le plus grand poete du xx-eme siecle”. “Bravo pour votre genie et votre courage!” ended the Frenchman his letter of answer towards the new founder, with a fair play and frankness that reduced, partly at least, the injustices perpetrated against the Romanians in the previous decades by his fellows countryman and by foreigners regarding the (un)knowledgement of some Romanian priorities. Approximately a decade later, the Romanian Ion Rotaru (well-meaning and friend with the paradoxist from Arizona, otherwise!), was near to eliminate the new literary movement, considering it ”a lamentable ariergardism”1) and its adherents ” some polite people, that’s all! ”2). Another Romanian writer, the lamented poet Gheorghe Tomozei, estimated the paradoxist programme formed by Smarandache as a” prodigy... a folly in a new edition and, eventually, a whim programme without programmes that, thank God, he does not follow”3). It should retain that Labis’s exegete expressed here his distrust only in the paradoxist movement and not in the poetic gift of its founder, whom he really appreciated: ”Florentin Smarandache is the name that I write and utter perhaps with the deepest emotion in my mind; after Nichita