There’s a story in the NY Times today about accusations that the writer Milan Kundera collaborated with the Czechoslovak secret police in the early 50s and ousted a western intelligence agent. These accusations are oddly similar to his first novel, “The Joke” and the story is definitely worth checking out.
Living in Prague, I was always struck but how many Czechs disliked two of their most well-known countrymen, Kundera and the dissident/playwright-turned-President, Vaclav Havel. Havel was disliked because, at least in my mind, he symbolized the reality of post-communist life after the utopic dreams stirred up by the Velvet Revolution (which go back to Prague Spring in 1968). But Kundera was generally disdained by his fellow Czechs because he found success abroad and is now a French citizen. The Czechs are some of the most gloomy, brooding people around and they can hold a grudge like no other nationality. Kundera’s recent book “Ignorance” talks about the return of a Czech exile from France and the frosty reaction she receives from her friends after several decades away. These friends don’t really want to hear about her life abroad, finding her life a threat to their conception of themselves and how they have lived. I think anyone who has spent time abroad, or at least far from their home, can relate to these sentiments.
I probably wouldn’t posted just based on reading this story, but I spent last night with a friend of mine who just moved back from Prague after a dozen years there, and a friend who just moved back from Paris after seven years there. I actually talked with the post-France friend about “Ignorance” last night and recommended it to her as we talked about adjusting to life back in the US, which includes the weird experience of slowly beginning to blend into the crowd after having spending years of constantly standing out in any room just because you were foreign. Aside from the questions of identity that go into where we are from and how it defines us, the story about Kundera–and so much of his writing–have to do with reckoning with the past. There are so many parallels to that, both personal and on a larger level (national/global, related to conflicts or the recent horrors of the past).
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/world/europe/18kundera.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Kundera&st=cse&oref=slogin
In the News
czech republic, politics, writing
The next Junta meeting will be held Monday, November 3rd. The topics will be linked: the economic crisis, and the election. You will notice the date of the meeting is the eve of Election Day.
For reasons described by Jeremy below, he may be in bad shape that day. Too bad. We simply must have this meeting prior to the election, but to do it before he leaves for China is too soon. Part of the meeting will be about election predictions, and a lot can change in a couple of weeks.
The location will be somewhere around the NYU Medical Center/Baruch College neighborhood, to accommodate Jeremy’s jet lag. The exact place is still to be determined. The start time will be 7 o’clock. Further information will be sent around. If you have not been to a meeting before, please email me to get on the distribution list. Also, you should read the Junta Manifesto as a primer before attending a meeting.
Meetings
democracy, politics, usa
Rindy is agitating for Junta #3 to take place on November 3rd. His reasoning is sound–the eve of the election–but I’ve been resisting because I’ll have come back from China the night before. But he promised to organize everything and have it somewhere near my apartment, and with the understanding that I may start drooling from jet-lag and scotch within the hour. But I expect a heady atmosphere will prompt me up: Will Obama continue to build on his growing lead in the next couple of weeks? Will the economy continue to unravel or will the coordinated international steps of the last few days calm markets? I was going to spend a few extra days in China after I got finished on Friday the 31st, but I’m coming back Sunday night because I want to be here for the election. It will be the first US presidential election since I got back to the States almost two years ago, the last time I was even here for one was Clinton/Dole. I spent a number of subsequent years in Prague, and much time conspiring with Alex Zaitchik, writing in the same magazines and forming pre-Junta like talk sessions in sketchy Czech bars (late-night Herna bars and Klub Jaguar) talking politics and books. AZ is back in NY after continued vagabond days going from India writing for the eXile, to editing the legendary Moscow newspaper (incredibly, after a decade now gone…), to Greenland and Mexico City, and…. I can’t remember, many places. He’s back and he’s got some of the same feelings about being around for a historic election, so I’m hoping he’ll be able to make it. I’ll try to stay awake.
Check out Alex’s on the financial crisis:
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/102676/not_my_financial_crisis_–_i%27ve_got_literally_nothing_to_lose/
Here’s Alex’s dispatch on the Franken/Coleman race in Minnesota
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080804/zaitchik
Meetings
democracy, financial crisis, politics, usa
