... observe this event, when we take the place of spectators, it leaves us often with nothing to say. Kurt Vonnegut, contemporary novelist, tells of a meeting which occurred between two novelists, Nelson Algren and Jose’ Donoso. Vonnegut introduced them as they were coming up a stairway and, in the process, told Algren that Donoso was from Chile. Algren shook Donoso’s hand, but couldn’t think of anything to say to the Chilean novelist. Finally, after a long, uncomfortable silence between the two strangers ...
