[The story Det eviga leendet is Lagerkvist's] first successful attempt at utilizing the architectonic principles of cubism. Instead of the parallel, static reflections found in his earlier works, we now find a "simultaneous dichotomy" of aspect, a process of "cubist dialectics" which is necessary for the total synthesis of perspective….
[Cubist perspective, according to Braque,] purposely perpetrates an ambiguity through the juxtaposition of two opposing aspects. (p. 38)
