Old Questions: part 2 Flashcards
11 novels in the red notebook
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
Published? Settings in order? Key event?
- Prague. Zurich. Prague. Countryside. 1969. Invasion of Czechoslovakia
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
Quartet of characters?
Tomas / Tereza. Sabine / Franz
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
Tomas key characteristics and motive?
Adulterer seeking tiny, unique part of a woman
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
S’s inheritance from grandfather?
bowler hat
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
Oedipus shows we are not ______ by virtue of ______ ?
innocent by virtue of ignorance
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
Why do F and S end?
Franz leaves wife, Sabina needs exhilaration of betrayal and freedom
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
What is ‘grand march’?
Utopian collective action towards ‘greater good’ that eliminates dissent and smooths ‘rough edges’. Kitsch by default.
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
T’s view of her body?
Disgust. It has failed her with Tomas.
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
Why does T love Tomas at first sight?
Beethoven. Sophocles book. She is waitressing.
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
Key Beethoven phrase and meaning?
Es muss sein. It must be. Tomas.
Beethoven’s last completed work before his death was the Opus 135 String Quartet whose last movement is entitled: “Der schwer gefasste Entschluss” meaning “The Resolution hard to take” or “The Difficult Decision.” Three ominous notes open the movement and were marked: “Muss es sein?” (“Must it be?”…A very definite fear and anxiety is expressed by this motif which is then replaced by an upbeat reply designated: “Es muss sein! Es muss sein!” (“It must be! It must be!”)… Many believe that what Beethoven was trying to convey was the feeling of being before the Great Eternal, the Awesome specter of God … We are uncertain and cowered by it, but when we see the Truth we embrace and rush towards it…. Personally I think that Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out, is mute. Only chance can speak to us…This is an important line. What happens by fate = what happens by necessity = what is repeated = that which belongs to the realm of eternal return. What happens by chance = the fortuitous = what happens only once. And what happens only once, by chance, can have meaning, too…
It’s a complicate lightness/weight dichotomy….because it argues that what happens only once can have meaning…
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
F’s fate?
Goes to Cambodia to protest. Killed in Bangkok.
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
Unusual style element?
High authorial presence. Nonchronological.
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
Nietzsche’s (opening) philosophical insight?
Our lives endlessly return and repeat. How does this affect their meaning?
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
Parminedes question? Answer?
Which is better? Heaviness or lightness? (lightness is ‘positive’?)
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera
The ‘two tears’of kitsch?
‘How nice to see children running in the grass’
‘How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running in the grass.’
Tyranny.
