Like any art form writing is an attempt at authenticity, to reach the awareness that is beyond and independent from the ego.  It is not an easy thing to do, until it becomes an easy thing to do.  There are many forms of ego encountered along the way.  The Universe has need of authenticity, just like we need plankton in the ocean here on Earth, and so it sprouts forth evolutionary attempts at it, with success on different scales, simple humble garden variety type efforts like yours and mine.

The authenticity comes to be more important than the art of the form.  Kundera might well be concerned about literature strangling itself off through its impossible proliferation, everyone a writer now, no longer any way to navigate in all the clutter.  But he might well applaud the efforts within to save humanity and the world from killing itself off through egotistical acts, to find the simple plain consciousness within.

The act of literature, to celebrate a place that still has a relationship with nature, let's say, or to portray a relationship that is real, not a convention of societal roles and psychological complexes. or even a simple moment of authenticity, is, as it always was, more important than, or rather the ultimate source of, its form and its inherent quality to thence be debated by people who must bother over the less important features of a manifestation.


As I go to my job, of course I too have danger of falling into inauthenticity and ego.  I can fall into a role, or feel its imagined consequences, putting on the role of a Chekhovian lackey, or being stuck in my role as 'wine guy,' or 'server,' or 'bartender.'  Perhaps inevitable, to some extent, less and less I hope.  And this is a battle we all face in all aspects of our lives, so I think it bears mentioning.  For the good of the world, I am beyond that, more than simply that, or at least striving to be.  I will defend a restaurant as being a place that allows some relationships that are real and authentic as much as those not.

Egos are defeated, short circuited, put aside, often by non-engagement, by simple noticing and awareness, more than direct confrontation, it seems.  If you don't engage your own, you stand a chance to diffuse the workings of another.