The Unbearable Lightness of Being

irishrosem · Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 9:57 am Post subject: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

At the outset, The Unbearable Lightness of Being has infuriated me—why does he keep explaining his metaphors? So I’m glad annaissabella has it among her top five favorites; it gives me hope it will be worth the read. Though now that I’m thinking on it, I really enjoyed the transfer from Tomas’s POV to Tereza’s. I appreciated the contrast of Tomas looking out the window, passive, unable to decide whether to pursue something with Tereza or not—referencing the six happenstances that dropped her into his life. While Tereza, with determination, takes action “to leave home and change her fate,” pursuing Tomas. I have yet to learn whether that pursuit will turn out to be good for her.

(As a side note, not related to the book. I recently saw the Del Toro produced El Orfanato, and the freaky character in that movie is named Tomas also. *Shiver*)

MadArchitect · Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:08 pm Post subject:

Rose, Kundera will complexify those metaphors later on in the novel. I would go so far as to say that he makes them so transparent so early on in part to facilitate the reader's willingness to see them modified further in. And then there's the playfulness of it. The sort of metaphors he's working with are tropes of the modern European novel, and by pointing them out he's playing on the reader's familiarity with those tropes. More than that, he's commenting on our willingness to see our own lives in terms of those tropes. Tomas rationalizes his behavior in part by thinking of those six felicities, by giving them, perhaps, more substance than they really deserve. There's a psychological aspect to the transparency of Kundera's metaphors. The characters themselves are conscious of most of them, and that consciousness plays into their understanding of events.

irishrosem · Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:26 am Post subject:

So what you’re saying is I need to stick with it to the bitter end? I didn’t have a chance to get to anymore of it today, hopefully I’ll have some time tonight or tomorrow. I anticipate the complexification you speak of.


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