anticlimax.

[zubird]

my roommate has taken all the posters down off her wall, and put her things in boxes. her stereo, our coffeemaker. (she's left me the lamp, which isn't particularly magnanimous of her, since it's currently being held up by strings and pieces of cardboard.) uhh. i am not the sort of person who's inclined towards pithy summations, so i'll just say

Comments

[staterejectsbus]

you don't know me, but you posted just before i did in foundphotos, and you had a turtle icon, or it looks like a turtle, so i clicked, and then you mentioned Kundera. and i agree about ranking people. it's absurd. but, that being said: where is Hrabal on this no-doubt unbiased List? (i can only read the English. and have only read Kundera and Hrabal in English, and in limited amounts, too, i admit. but where's Hrabal listed? because, as much as i dig Kundera, i feel closer to Hrabal. what little i've been able to find and read.)

that is my question. but you're right. fuck the ranking. but at the same time..

i can't tell what kind of person i am. nor can i tell if i find things light or heavy..

sorry.

[zubird]

hrabal beat kundera by a lot -- he's number 51. just keep in mind this is a television show being voted on by people in the czech republic. if kundera hadn't been on the list at all, i wouldn't have been surprised, because he has sort of spurned the czechs lately, he doesn't allow his czech books to be published in czech, he won't let his french books be translated into czech... in short, he's become something of an asshole. hrabal is a vastly more lovable character (not to mention he stayed in the czech republic, writing in czech). so he even beat aneta.

[staterejectsbus]

if i were Kundera i might be an asshole, too, though.. that whole "The Joke" thing--it seems like he's got a lot of reasons to be bitter. at the himself-in-his-country, and his country in general. i dunno. i knew nothing about any of the stuff, but i took this class, mostly on a whim, partially because i had a vague fascination. (i saw the movie of "Closely Watched Trains" a few years before, and it stuck in my brain.) the teacher was Czech, which added an interesting element. and there was much discussion about Kundera's attitude towards his homeland. (& whether or not he was somehow dumbing down his novels for an international audience. i don't know about that, since i can't read Czech, but.) but i guess i never had any problem with his apparent attitude. i mean, many of us have at least antipathy towards where we come from

[zubird]

oh, i'm not sure i'd call kundera responsible -- i love him, mind, but i get the distinct idea he's an arrogant jackass. have you read any of his newer books, the french ones? specifically his newest one, ignorance. whenever he mentions the czechs, he just drips with bitterness. not to mention that he hasn't let any of his french novels be translated into czech, simply out of bitchiness and spite. here is a review of ignorance and a criticism of his relationship with the czechs [among other things]; it's very vicious but also very true. also, what's more, kundera is a big fat misogynist. and i don't say that to dismiss him, i offer it up as evidence that he's a jackass. i mean, as a female quasi-misogynist myself, i get some sort of masochistic, vicarious pleasure about the tortures and humiliations he puts his female characters through

[staterejectsbus]

it seems like it'd be hard to be a writer/artist type without overtones of being an arrogant jackass. i agree, i get that feeling from Kundera too; maybe that's one of the reasons i like him. and his misanthropy, since, on the right/wrong day, i'm that way too. (in fact, i remember, we were talking about Unbearable Lightness of Being in that class i took--i hate to keep bringing it up, but, sadly, it's where most of my information comes from--and the teacher said how she hated the almost end, where he went on about the dog's death; i disagreed, and rambled about another favorite misanthropic writer of mine (a dead Frenchman, wierdly) as an example, and said that it seems like, to a certain type of person, of which i am certainly sometimes a member, it's easier to feel sympathy for non-humans, and what they mean to us, than humans, and what they mean. this opinion didn't seem to carry much weight, with her or the class. possibly with good reason. i have no idea

[zubird]

i'm surprised you haven't seen the misogyny in kundera. it isn't as if he doesn't occasionally create female characters that are appealing or at least less reprehensible than his male ones (it's true that his male characters are usually worse people); it's simply that he hardly ever allows them any dignity. helena in the joke is the most flagrant example of this, of course, but it's also true for tereza in unbearable lightness (you can tell that he finds her usage of her weakness as a weapon somewhat disgusting, and i agree with him), for laura in immortality, for that girl...what was her name...olga, i think, in the farewell party, with the executed father and the breasts like twin plums (who is portrayed sympathetically in the beginning but in the end, when she seduces the dissident who was a sort of father figure to her -- i'm sorry, it's been a long time since i read the book -- she comes out disgusting and ridiculous). the most sympathetic women in kundera's novels, i'm thinking of agnes and specifically sabina, are essentially

[zubird]

ok, after mulling that unnecessarily provocative statement about american literature in my head for a few hours, i've decided that i don't really believe it and i was just being an asshole. (i make a habit of saying unnecessarily strong things like that, things i don't even think, just to say them.) umm... i suppose i didn't mean that there are no influential american writers. i may not like them very much (hemingway? bleh), but yes, ok, there are. it's just that they don't really play the role of pillar of the nation that they do in certain other countries. whether it's a direct conclusion from there that the czechs are a more cultured nation than we are, well, i doubt i'm the one who's to say.

[staterejectsbus]

no, your point's well taken; we have artists, but they don't mean much to us. and statements that're too large for their words are good; i make them all the time. especially, like, in a room full of new people, i'll say Overly Large things that are semi-opposite of the people in said room. i don't know why i do this.

Hemingway... i am fairly neutral towards. i haven't read too much. in fact, i'm looking at my bookshelf, and most of the books that really mean something to me aren't of American origin. but, movies, photography, music, that's a little different..

[staterejectsbus]

hmm.. agency. yeah, i see what you mean. but--i find agency to be fairly loathsome in most cases, so i found myself sympathizing far more with Tereza than Ludvik. i mean, yeah, Helena at the end of Joke, yeah.. but i guess, and this is probably a limitation of my vocabulary and point of view, but, i tend to see something like that not so much as a judgment Kundera's making on women, but a judgment he's making on Helena. and, moreso, it seems that judgment of any kind tends towards the smallminded, though much fiction deals with making somebody look sad and somebody else look strong, and that's a reflection of the flawed nature of life. or something. i have no idea. (i dunno. i'm thinking about this friend of mine. loves his mom, relates to her more than his dad, but simultaneously holds a generic, knee-jerk bitterness towards the female gender that i find puzzling and somewhat disconcerting. but, at the same time, it's not puzzling, because it stems from a few emotionally trying experiences and, mostly, many unquenched desires. is he