Unbearable

In a bibliophile's life, there are always books that people would rave about which you would wonder why. And one of those books for me is Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It's a book heavy on philosophical themes, a historic period in the then Czechoslovakia, the impact of repressive political regimes on art, and the significance of sex in its 4 major characters. I found it hard to digest. And believe me, I digested a lot of things in my life, edible or otherwise.

TULoB has been a book I've always wanted to read, and luckily for me, it was chosen as the book of the month by the book club for August. So, up it went to the top of my humongous, robust, virile, eye-popping to-be-read pile. (Now if I can only say that to certain parts of my anatomy, no? Life would be awesome. But alas...) I read it in a span of a week, and what a week it was. I felt I was high on drugs the whole time, but not in a good way. In fact, it was almost akin to having taken a date rape drug. You had no idea you already took it, but you know that all's not well and sooner or later you're gonna get fucked.

The novel opens with a study in contrast of lightness and weight. Lightness apparently has something to do with living for the moment and not putting too much importance on things. Apparently it's based on a philosophical idea of Paremenides. (And it was at this point that my eyes glazed over.) Weight, on the other hand, stems from the idea of Nietzsche, which has something to do with eternal return, which Kundera doesn't really believe in, which has something to do with people putting way too much weight on sex, their political ideologies, their husbands and wives and mistresses, which has something to do with me believing that it's all just crappy nonsense. The last time I've heard of something like the eternal return, I was probably watching an episode of Dr. Who.

The concept of lightness and being does lead us to Kundera's 4 main characters, two of which are "light" and 2 "heavy." The heavy characters are Teresa and Franz, characters so heavy that they'd probably sink into the ocean if I threw them overboard a ship. Teresa, the photographer, who marries one of the light characters, Tomas, the doctor and philanderer who ends up cleaning windows by the novel's end. Teresa is someone that I hoped to understand but I couldn't. All this coming and going from one country to another. All the issues she feels with marrying a man who cheats. Lady, you knew from the start what you're getting into when you married that perennially horny Tomas. He'd fuck a tree if you draped a dress over it. Get over it.

I did like one of the light characters though—Sabina. She's an artist coping with the insane standards of the country's socialist regime. Sabina is one who knows how to survive; she literally packs up all her bags and moves to the US when she can no longer stand the artistic ideals of her country. During that time, all art forms should be realistic and any other forms which are otherwise are deemed unpatriotic. Sabina is the only character in the novel who has an epiphany. When a drop of red paint unintentionally falls on a painting she's working on, she stumbles on the wonderful concept of accidental beauty. Yes, like Sabina, I believe that art should be organic and truly express the artist's feelings.

While I didn't like The Unbearable Lightness of Being, I did enjoy the discussion nonetheless. A lot of members consider Kundera's most famous novel as their favorite, and it was interesting to note their opinions and thoughts. I thought, on the other hand, that the novel was just too much work. It's the kind of novel that you deconstruct to fully appreciate and understand. It did make me curious about the Prague Spring and how it affected the lives of artists during the Soviet occupation of this eastern European country. But other than that, I found The Unbearable Lightness of Being, well, simply unbearable in its entirety. Too preachy, the language too flowery, the milieu too European, the characters lacking conflict that I could relate with. It's the kind of book that I'd give to frenemies.

Anyway, here are some pics that R. (best photographer ever) took during the discussion. You can click on them to enlarge.

I have no recollection of what I'm telling here.
Yes, that happens when I talk about books I have no strong feelings on.

Gege, the moderator for this month, gave each member a bowler hat.
The bowler hat figures prominently in the story.
It somehow symbolizes erotic playfulness. Whatever.

And each one of us received this loot.
It had a notebook and a bookmark.
Because one cannot have too many bookmarks.

R. made gorgeous illustrations of the members who attended.
Here's mine.
Yes, I was wearing hot pink shorts that time.

Read this book if:

1. You're a sucker for Kundera.
2. You want to know whether you're a light or a heavy person.
3. You fall for flowery language.

This!

I don't have an ebook reader. This means that I always leave the house with a bag to place the 2 or 3 books that I'm currently reading. You know that one thing that you can't leave your house without? For most people, that would be their phone or their makeup or some other prosaic thing; for me, it has always been books.

I am always in fear that I would be caught dead in a traffic jam and I have no reading material whatsoever. Ditto with being in a long queue in a bank. The thought that I don't have a book with me during a lull period makes my hair stand on end. If I find myself in the hospital waiting room with absolutely nothing to read, I'd turn to the nearest person and say, "Just kill me."

When I found out that a good friend from the book club makes tote bags specifically for books, I just knew I had to get one! Even the text at the side is so book-ish. And it's true, isn't it? When you see someone reading in the train, you always assume that their IQ must be way out there. And if they're holding a Russian doorstop, really, you wanna do the dirty deed with them right then and there.

Designed by Ajie

So now I have a bag with all that extra space where I can carry my copy of Anna Karenina, Gravity's Rainbow, Infinite Jest, and Atlas Shrugged, which incidentally are books that remain unread in my shelf for the longest time. Because we know books, just as long as you're carrying them whether read or unread, do make people look smarter.