The Unbearable Lightness of Being

[godhelpme2]

Have you read this book? It seems the meaning of "lightness"in this book are various. Can anyone tell me some inner meanings of this word which i think may be related quite closely to humanity.:idea:

[omegaxx]

Hm, I don't really feel like summarizing Kundera here as he is awfully wordy.

A couple of points off the top of my head are:

1) the non-reproducibility of life - we only live our lives once, so we never know if our lives may have been better had we taken a different route;
2) the randomness of life / the absence of fate - such as the six chance occurrences that brought about the fateful encounter between Tomas and Teresa;
3) the fragility and flightiness of life in the face of historical events that seem also whimsical - I am thinking more along the lines of "The Joke" and the question, "What if history plays jokes?"
4) the pressing need to find meaning in everything, because meaning has been drained from the modern life. Thus the number 6 becomes a vessel of meanings to Teresa, a fact that simply testified to the emptiness of that vessel.

[godhelpme2]

What about the death of the dog? What's the implication?
Love between humans is not so true compared with love between man and animals because humans have responsibilities towards each other while in animal's world there's no such band. Do you think it is right?

[Kafka]

I'm re-re-re-reading the chapter called "A short dictionary of misunderstood words - the old church in Amsterdam" over and over again and I can't grasp the meaning of it at all, particularly the following passage:


But there was something that bound the bankers to the beggars: a hatred of beauty.

...

From that time on she had known that beauty is a world betrayed. The only way we can encounter it is if its persecutors have overlooked it somewhere. Beauty hides behind the scenes of the May Day parade. If we want to find it, we must demolish the scenery.

I have always thought that everyone is obsessed with beauty. Furthermore, how does beauty betray the world? Is it because beauty is man-made and defies nature? Thanks.

[Rores28]

There's a lot going on in this book, but for me the main stab is the dichotomy between treating life very seriously (heavy) and treating it frivolously (light). The problem is that both have their respective negatives. If you take life very seriously than negative events will affect you more deeply and you will more acutely feel pain. However, your joys will be commensurately endowed with poignancy. Likewise taking like less seriously leads to less hurt but also less beauty.

[Emil Miller]

I read this book in French and subsequently in German to see it there were a discernible difference, but the overriding message of the book is that simply to be, or exist, is not an option. We must all experience life, with all its difficulties and diversions beyond the point of mere existence. It's from this perspective that Kundera tells his story but it is such a long time since I last read it that I don't remember what the story is.

[mal4mac]

I have always thought that everyone is obsessed with beauty. Furthermore, how does beauty betray the world? Is it because beauty is man-made and defies nature? Thanks.

Bankers are obsessed with the size of their next bonus. Beggars are obsessed with finding enough to eat. Neither activity has anything to do with beauty.

I think 'beauty is a world betrayed' means 'beauty is a world that has been betrayed' not 'beauty betrays the world'. Its persecuters include the TV programming planners who put on rubbish like "Britain's Got Talent", but overlook that they could get even more ratings if they replaced BBC Radio 3 with "More BGT".

BBC Radio 3 hides behind the scenes of the May Day parade that is BGT. If you want to find it, demolish the TV and put on the radio. (But May Day parades have a big, jazzy, circus aspect to them, that you can't resist approaching, ... can you? ... and then you are trapped in the May Day parade... forever...)

In stressing that 'beauty is a world' Kundera implies that it is something that could be all encompassing in our lives, if only we could get away from the blare of May Day trumpets, and the flashy dancing girls, and the clever programmers,...

The film of TULoB is on TV this week - but is that more May Day parade, or part of the beautiful world?