Discovering Milan Kundera (1929-2023) in 1985 and giving “The Joke” to my father for Christmas. #111Words #MilanKundera #TheUnbearableLightnessOfBeing #TheJoke #MichaelHenryHeim #MyFather #AlbertCamus #Fiction #Translation #CzechLiterature #FrenchLiterature https://andrewjshields.blogspot.com/2023/07/discovering-milan-kundera-1929-2023-in.html

"Kitsch is the absolute denial of shit, in both the literal and the figurative senses of the word; kitsch excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence." (Milan Kundera, 1929-2023, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, tr. MIchael Henry Heim) #MilanKundera #MichaelHenryHeim #TheUnbearableLightnessOfBeing #Fiction

"Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession. The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass! The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass! It is the second tear that makes kitsch kitsch." (Milan Kundera, 1929-2023, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, tr. MIchael Henry Heim) #MilanKundera #MichaelHenryHeim #TheUnbearableLightnessOfBeing #Fiction

"People are always shouting they want to create a better future. It's not true. The future is an apathetic void of no interest to anyone. The past is full of life, eager to irritate us, provoke and insult us, tempt us to destroy or repaint it. The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past.” (Milan Kundera, 1929-2023, “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting”, tr. MIchael Henry Heim) #MilanKundera #MichaelHenryHeim #TheBookOfLaughterAndForgetting #Fiction