convergences ...

“… the art of our era is one of convergences: the intersecting of times, spaces, and forms. This end of a century has also seen a return of times; we now discover what the ancients knew: history is an empty presence, a blank face. The poet and the novelist must restore the human features of this face. It is an undertaking that requires imagination, and moral courage as well. The literature we write doesn’t turn its back on history, though it rejects the simplifications of ideological art and its categorical affirmations and negations. It is not an art of certainties but one of exploration; it is not a poetry that shows the way but one that seeks it. It is an art and poetry sketching the sign that, from the beginning of time, humanity has seen in the sky: a question mark. The hands that trace this sign may be Latin American, but its meaning is universal.”

(Octavio Paz, “A Literature of Convergences.” Convergences: Essays on Art and Literature. Trans. Helen Lane. p. 226)