While answering all these incredibly probing questions that have been launched at me on the “Space-Time Tour,” I’ve also been catching up on my reading. My “tbr” pile is huge, of course. But I love the way it’s filled with books written by people I now can call friends — Caroline Smailes, DJ Kirkby, Tim Atkinson, Christopher King, Andrew McGuiness, Erik Ryman, Katy Evans-Bush, Fiona Robyn. And that list will grow, I know, over the next few months. But for various reasons — mostly having to do with Number 2 Son hounding me that I had promised over a year ago to discuss this book with him — I set aside the work of my friends and read one of my “fill in the blanks” books, ie a book that I’ve been meaning to read for years but never got around to. This time it was Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
There is so much to say about this novel. It is certainly a milestone of sorts in the corpus of modern European literature. It is a “novel” of the mind in that is more about concepts than characters and is peopled with characters whose lives serve to explore Kundera’s ideas of the nature of existence, the political definition of “kitsch”, the role of the individiual within an historical context. And it is brilliantly self-referential. It talks about the novel as an existing entity outside of itself, and as a novelist, I found this fascinating. For example, he digresses from his story to explain:
As I have pointed out before, characters are not born like people, of woman; they are born of a situation, a sentence, a metaphor containing in a nutshell a basic human possibility that the author thinks no one else has discovered or said something essential about.
Reading that caused me to drop the book into my lap and just stare off in amazement. Yes, I have stumbled upon my characters in such a way and yes, in my most solitary moments I have even dared to think that I have had the need, if not the ability, to say something essential about a human possibility. But I must be honest. After picking the book back up to carry on with my reading, one more idea stopped me in my tracks, namely: ah, but could such a thing ever get published now? If a writer without a pre-existing huge reputation dared not only to write such a conceptual novel but also to send it off to an agent or publisher, would anyone in today’s climate pay any attention? Would anyone in the industry dare to publish it? I can hear my own publisher screaming into the computer screen, “Yes, yes I would!” But the original 1984 edition of this work was published not by a small daring literary press, but by one of “the biggies.” And if those publishers today would cast it aside, as they may well be doing time and time again with other new “off-piste” work, then what does that say about the future of literature? I don’t know…..just a thought…..any comments?
While my head is in the clouds, I thought I’d also let you know what next week’s tour stops will be. Join me on Monday, 6 April for some discussion about Russia and structure over at The Crafty Gardener. Then on Wednesday, 8 April, Elizabeth Baines will be hosting me for some down and dirty discussions about technique and writing what you know (or not).
Until then, have a great weekend everyone!
This book has been on my tbr pile for about six months. A good friend and writer highly recommended I read it. After reading your post I am reminded of her comments and enthused by your opinion. I can see it will make its way back to the top of my tbr pile. Thanks! Kat 🙂
I love the title of the book and that N2S wants to discuss it with you! My N2S disucsses rugby! *sigh* however I did go into N3S’s bedroom late last night to find he had beenr eading for hours by torchlight and had read 100 pages further on in ‘The Faraway Tree’ collection. He is only six! So perhaps I also will be able to enjoy literary disucssions with one of my sons someday…
This book has been in by TBR list for decades – ever since I started reading all those modern classics.
You pose an interesting question about the fate of literature going into the future. So many of the books that are today considered “literary”, ie booker winners for example, have a considerably more commercial bias to them than the work of Kundera and others like him. Perhaps though, the shift in publishing, which has to come, and the rise of self publishing and POD will still allow for the more “off-piste” stuff to find a way onto the public stage. I hope so.
KatW: Glad to be of service 🙂
DJ: It’s a great moment, when you can have a conversation with your own kid. And it happens sooner than you realize. Just to see a kid read anything is wonderful, I think.
AbVan: I hope you’re right about the future of publishing. Certainly changes are afoot. I guess it’s up to people like us to keep pushing, eh?