The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, an interesting mix of fiction and philosophy, is one of those books I have always meant to read. It is an intriguing title to begin with, and has a reputation as a modern classic.
The novel begins by pondering diametric opposites; good and evil, love and hate… then begins to questions lightness and weight. These are certainly opposites, but which has the negative and which the positive connotation? This leads Kundera to pose questions about our lives. Is it better to live weighted, a life that is held down by so many things – family, love, job, commitment – or is it better to be light and unencumbered by such things?
The characters in his novel – as I guess we all do – struggle with this very same question. Each are linked to each other. Tomas is a womaniser. He loves nothing more than the “discovery” of a new woman. But one day, a series of accidents bring a woman into his life who refuses to move out of it – Tereza. Tereza loves Tomas, but struggles to come to terms with his constant adultery. Tomas too questions whether or not he really needs to be “weighted” down by Tereza, a woman who he has come to love and grudgingly makes sacrifices for. In the end, when we know from other parts of the non-linear story they are near the tragic end of their lives, Kundera suggests they find peace and accept each other and their life together.
Sabine, a famous painter, is his mistress (one of them anyway). She too is pondering similar questions, particularly when her lover Franz leaves his wife for her. She cannot bear the thought of being tied to him, so she leaves him. While she goes on to live a long and on the surface full life, he is irrevocably changed by this. Even though Franz takes a younger lover, he spends the rest of his life living it as if he were living for Tereza. He does some risky things thinking that somehow she is watching him and he still has the power to impress her.
All this is set in the backdrop of the Russian invasion (in both a physical and mental sense) of Prague, and each of the characters is touched in powerful ways by this – by their distaste for what is happening around them. So sometimes our choices about life are not just our own. History touches them too.
I feel like I can understand what Kundera is trying to explore. How is the best way to live? Tomas is obsessed with the idea that you only live once, inspired by the German “einmal ist keinmal” (once is like never). So if you only have one life, how should you live it? I liked it… it develops slowly but is worthwhile.
The novel begins by pondering diametric opposites; good and evil, love and hate… then begins to questions lightness and weight. These are certainly opposites, but which has the negative and which the positive connotation? This leads Kundera to pose questions about our lives. Is it better to live weighted, a life that is held down by so many things – family, love, job, commitment – or is it better to be light and unencumbered by such things?
The characters in his novel – as I guess we all do – struggle with this very same question. Each are linked to each other. Tomas is a womaniser. He loves nothing more than the “discovery” of a new woman. But one day, a series of accidents bring a woman into his life who refuses to move out of it – Tereza. Tereza loves Tomas, but struggles to come to terms with his constant adultery. Tomas too questions whether or not he really needs to be “weighted” down by Tereza, a woman who he has come to love and grudgingly makes sacrifices for. In the end, when we know from other parts of the non-linear story they are near the tragic end of their lives, Kundera suggests they find peace and accept each other and their life together.
Sabine, a famous painter, is his mistress (one of them anyway). She too is pondering similar questions, particularly when her lover Franz leaves his wife for her. She cannot bear the thought of being tied to him, so she leaves him. While she goes on to live a long and on the surface full life, he is irrevocably changed by this. Even though Franz takes a younger lover, he spends the rest of his life living it as if he were living for Tereza. He does some risky things thinking that somehow she is watching him and he still has the power to impress her.
All this is set in the backdrop of the Russian invasion (in both a physical and mental sense) of Prague, and each of the characters is touched in powerful ways by this – by their distaste for what is happening around them. So sometimes our choices about life are not just our own. History touches them too.
I feel like I can understand what Kundera is trying to explore. How is the best way to live? Tomas is obsessed with the idea that you only live once, inspired by the German “einmal ist keinmal” (once is like never). So if you only have one life, how should you live it? I liked it… it develops slowly but is worthwhile.
posted by welloflostplots at
11:31 PM
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