The Art of the Novel | 
even before Flaubert, people knew stupidity existed, but they understood it somewhat differently: it was considered a simple absence of knowledge, a defect correctable by education. In Flauberts novels, stupidity is an inseparable dimension of human existence..But the most scandalous thing about Flauberts vision of Stupidity..it does not give way to science, technology, modernity, progress; on the contrary, it progresses right along with progress!
No peace is possible between the novelist and the agélaste [those who do not laugh]. Never having heard God's laughter, the agélastes are convinced that the truth is obvious, that all men necessarily think the same thing, and that they themselves are exactly what they think they are. But it is precisely in losing the certainty of truth and the unanimous agreement of others that man becomes an individual.
Every true novelist listens for that suprapersonal wisdom, which explains why great novels are always a little more intelligent than their authors. Novelists who are more intelligent than their books should go into another line of work.
...Descartes‘ famous formulation: man as ‘master and proprietor of nature.‘ Having brought off miracles in science and technology, this ‘master and proprietor‘ is suddenly realizing that he owns nothing and is master neither of nature...nor of History...nor of himself...But if God is gone and man is no longer master, then who is master? The planet is moving through the void without any master. There it is, the unbearable lightness of being.
The novel is a meditation on existence as seen through the medium of imaginary characters.
We are born one time only, we can never start a new life equipped with the experience we've gained from the previous one. We leave childhood without knowing what youth is, we marry without knowing what it is to be married, and even when we enter old age, we don't know what it is we're heading for: the old are innocent children innocent of their old age. In that sense, man's world is the planet of inexperience.
