Aug. 23, 2011 at 9:21am
botw
Book of the Week: Ignorance Milan Kundera is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.  He just gets it. Ignorance is the story of a Czech ex-pat living in Paris and a Czech ex-pat living in Copenhagen (hollah!), and how their lives have overlapped and underlapped (why isn’t this a word?) and mirrored each other. This is a book about memory and longing and loneliness and the power of nostalgia. It’s about the ignorance of youth. Good stuff, especially coming back from a year abroad (not like my time abroad was anything compared to 20 years of emmigration to avoid Soviet rule in Czechoslovakia). The story does not end satisfactorily but, for the first time, I’ve realized that’s not really important. The characters here, while likeable, are not important. What is important is the points which their lives, actions, and thoughts bring up. I know that this is kind of what LITERATURE is all about, but I guess I’m only coming to that realization now. Neuroscience majors ftw. “After such a long time, her body, her face were finally being seen and appreciated, and because they were pleasing, a man invited her to share life with him.”

Book of the Week: Ignorance

Milan Kundera is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.  He just gets it. Ignorance is the story of a Czech ex-pat living in Paris and a Czech ex-pat living in Copenhagen (hollah!), and how their lives have overlapped and underlapped (why isn’t this a word?) and mirrored each other. This is a book about memory and longing and loneliness and the power of nostalgia. It’s about the ignorance of youth. Good stuff, especially coming back from a year abroad (not like my time abroad was anything compared to 20 years of emmigration to avoid Soviet rule in Czechoslovakia).

The story does not end satisfactorily but, for the first time, I’ve realized that’s not really important. The characters here, while likeable, are not important. What is important is the points which their lives, actions, and thoughts bring up. I know that this is kind of what LITERATURE is all about, but I guess I’m only coming to that realization now. Neuroscience majors ftw.

“After such a long time, her body, her face were finally being seen and appreciated, and because they were pleasing, a man invited her to share life with him.”