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The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 9:57 am
by irishrosem
At the outset, The Unbearable Lightness of Being has infuriated me

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:08 pm
by MadArchitect
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.

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:26 am
by irishrosem
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.