Someone is peeling Kundera's onion for him.
October 14, 2008 4:02 AM Subscribe
The czech magazine Respekt, known for its investigative reporting, has published a story claiming prize winning author and anti-communist dissident Milan Kundera denounced a young exile who was back in Prague to the communist secret police.
“Today at around 1600 hours a student, Milan Kundera, born 1.4.1929 in Brno, resident at the student hall of residence on George VI Avenue in Prague VII, presented himself at this department and reported that a student, Iva Militká, resident at that residence, had told a student by the name of Dlask, also of that residence, that she had met a certain acquaintance of hers, Miroslav Dvořáček, at Klárov in Prague the same day. The said Dvořáček apparently left 1 case in her care, saying he would come to fetch it in the afternoon. (…) Dvořáček had apparently deserted from military service and since the spring of the previous year had possibly been in Germany, where he had gone illegally” a police report says.
Dvořáček was "given a sentence of 22 years’ hard labour, a fine of 10,000 crown, forfeiture of all his property and loss of civic rights for ten years". He spent 14 years in labor camps and lives now in Sweden.
Milan Kundera denies and is talking about the assassination of an author.
“Today at around 1600 hours a student, Milan Kundera, born 1.4.1929 in Brno, resident at the student hall of residence on George VI Avenue in Prague VII, presented himself at this department and reported that a student, Iva Militká, resident at that residence, had told a student by the name of Dlask, also of that residence, that she had met a certain acquaintance of hers, Miroslav Dvořáček, at Klárov in Prague the same day. The said Dvořáček apparently left 1 case in her care, saying he would come to fetch it in the afternoon. (…) Dvořáček had apparently deserted from military service and since the spring of the previous year had possibly been in Germany, where he had gone illegally” a police report says.
Dvořáček was "given a sentence of 22 years’ hard labour, a fine of 10,000 crown, forfeiture of all his property and loss of civic rights for ten years". He spent 14 years in labor camps and lives now in Sweden.
Milan Kundera denies and is talking about the assassination of an author.
the unbearable lightness of being a hypocrite.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:22 AM on October 14, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:22 AM on October 14, 2008 [1 favorite]
Unfortunately, this being East Germany,
Jessamyn patriotically volunteered to be sent on a labor
beautification course of the countryside north-west of Dresden.
And never seen again.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:42 AM on October 14, 2008
Jessamyn patriotically volunteered to be sent on a labor
beautification course of the countryside north-west of Dresden.
And never seen again.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:42 AM on October 14, 2008
You know what communists never do? They never falsify evidence to discredit a political opponent. Nope. Never.
this very plausible theory explains exactly why the communists didn't discredit the guy whilst they were in power, but left a seed for later, so that after their regime had crumbled some fifteen to twenty years earlier, they could have a great post-emptive victory against their enemy.
as opposed to, say, trumping up a charge & shooting him in the head all those years ago.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:46 AM on October 14, 2008 [3 favorites]
this very plausible theory explains exactly why the communists didn't discredit the guy whilst they were in power, but left a seed for later, so that after their regime had crumbled some fifteen to twenty years earlier, they could have a great post-emptive victory against their enemy.
as opposed to, say, trumping up a charge & shooting him in the head all those years ago.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:46 AM on October 14, 2008 [3 favorites]
Milan Kundera touched me in my swimsuit area.
and I liked it
posted by Meatbomb at 5:34 AM on October 14, 2008
and I liked it
posted by Meatbomb at 5:34 AM on October 14, 2008
First they came for Kundera....
...and I was all like, "Thank Christ, now I don't have to keep pretending I've read that damned book."
And then they came for Okri, Seth, Heller, Atwood and McEwan...
...and I was all like, "Sweet. Now to curl up with an Iain M Banks while all my art-school friends are outside getting pistol whipped by the secret police."
posted by Jofus at 5:40 AM on October 14, 2008 [6 favorites]
...and I was all like, "Thank Christ, now I don't have to keep pretending I've read that damned book."
And then they came for Okri, Seth, Heller, Atwood and McEwan...
...and I was all like, "Sweet. Now to curl up with an Iain M Banks while all my art-school friends are outside getting pistol whipped by the secret police."
posted by Jofus at 5:40 AM on October 14, 2008 [6 favorites]
Hradilek contacted Dvoracek, who is now living in Sweden. He refused to comment on Hradilek's findings. He has since suffered a stroke and continues to believe that Militka betrayed him.
So the guy who he supposedly turned in doesn't think it was him, and the woman's husband is the only one who's claiming that he told Kundera, who in turn told the police?
Sounds kosher.
posted by jnaps at 5:52 AM on October 14, 2008
So the guy who he supposedly turned in doesn't think it was him, and the woman's husband is the only one who's claiming that he told Kundera, who in turn told the police?
Sounds kosher.
posted by jnaps at 5:52 AM on October 14, 2008
On October 14th, 1988 a young boy named Mathew Haughey came to my office and denounced Jessamyn West as a traitor
mathowie: "you give me back my Mr Men pencil case or I'll dob on you!"
jessamyn: "oh yeah? who you gonna tell?" *kicks mathowie in the shins*
mathowie: *pulls jessamyn's pigtails*
cortex: *intervening* "finders keepers, losers weepers!"
mathowie: "you're in so much trouble!" *heads off to principal's office*
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:10 AM on October 14, 2008
mathowie: "you give me back my Mr Men pencil case or I'll dob on you!"
jessamyn: "oh yeah? who you gonna tell?" *kicks mathowie in the shins*
mathowie: *pulls jessamyn's pigtails*
cortex: *intervening* "finders keepers, losers weepers!"
mathowie: "you're in so much trouble!" *heads off to principal's office*
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:10 AM on October 14, 2008
Actually, it's worse than that. Dlask, the husband, died in the 90s. The woman claims she told Dlask, and the parents blamed the husband, but nobody, except the police blotter, has ever said anything about Kundera in connection with these events.
All we have is the police blotter but its a piece of compelling evidence and hard to explain away. Why would the entry be incorrect? Absent any context whatsoever, its still a strange document.
But the context is that it was Dlask that was the close friend of Kundera. So it makes sense in a way that police couldn't contrive if they were just sticking a random name in there.
posted by vacapinta at 6:34 AM on October 14, 2008
All we have is the police blotter but its a piece of compelling evidence and hard to explain away. Why would the entry be incorrect? Absent any context whatsoever, its still a strange document.
But the context is that it was Dlask that was the close friend of Kundera. So it makes sense in a way that police couldn't contrive if they were just sticking a random name in there.
posted by vacapinta at 6:34 AM on October 14, 2008
And how in the world did Iva Militká and her husband not get punished if Kundera is the one who told the authorities? Wouldn't they be in trouble for harboring Dvořáček?
posted by jnaps at 7:07 AM on October 14, 2008
posted by jnaps at 7:07 AM on October 14, 2008
Even assuming that the blotter is legit, I can count at least three other parties that are more guilty than Kundera: the police, for arresting him, the husband, for betraying his wife's trust, and the regime that made travel illegal and punished it with labor camps. But all that really matters is that only one of the parties involved is a famous author, so he must be the real evil doer.
Flagged as blame-shifting.
Good points otherwise.
posted by ghost of a past number at 7:18 AM on October 14, 2008
Flagged as blame-shifting.
Good points otherwise.
posted by ghost of a past number at 7:18 AM on October 14, 2008
So what does this have to do with Palin?
posted by cjorgensen at 7:28 AM on October 14, 2008
posted by cjorgensen at 7:28 AM on October 14, 2008
I should start out by saying that I'm a teenie-bopper for Milan Kundera. I think there's a reasonable chance he did this. I think the man is brilliant, but he's never stuck me as honest or noble. There's very little morality in his books. His characters simply try to find a semblance of comfort and meaning in their difficult, often absurd lives. He often looks at arguments and contentious relationships from several sides. He's a relativist and a romantic. anotherpanacea quotes Havel:poetic, but not revolutionary. He may have been an activist at one point, but the political tone of his novels in fairly cynical. Politics are the spectacularly arbitrary stage against which human dramas are set.
That is, Kundera isn't interested in the morality of what his characters do, so much as the individual and her actions as a meeting place between large social and ideological forces and intimate psychological and emotional forces. In his novels, he often introduces several explanations for a turn of events, and then picks the reading what is most aesthetically pleasing, that fits best within the metaphorical framework of the narrative. And his male protagonists are almost always scoundrels of some type, even the more heroic ones.
It would not surprise me that the man has skeletons in his closet. His books are full of their meat.
posted by es_de_bah at 3:13 PM on October 14, 2008
That is, Kundera isn't interested in the morality of what his characters do, so much as the individual and her actions as a meeting place between large social and ideological forces and intimate psychological and emotional forces. In his novels, he often introduces several explanations for a turn of events, and then picks the reading what is most aesthetically pleasing, that fits best within the metaphorical framework of the narrative. And his male protagonists are almost always scoundrels of some type, even the more heroic ones.
It would not surprise me that the man has skeletons in his closet. His books are full of their meat.
posted by es_de_bah at 3:13 PM on October 14, 2008
the unbearable lightness of being a hypocrite
There's no compelling evidence in these articles that Kundera in fact informed on Dvořáček. Kundera himself denies it. Yes, communist regimes often trumped up charges to shoot their opponents in the head. They also held secret files on their victims that held to the same standards of truth.
But even supposing that the current charges are true and that Kundera informed on a defector 17 years before the publication of his first novel, at the age of 22 and still a member of the communist party: in what way does having once engaged in an activity that one later comes to understand as most totally reprehensible constitute hypocrisy? Is one committed to forever declaring the goodness of everything he has done?
Oh, and Kundera left Czechoslovakia for Paris in 1975, 25 years after supposedly informing. So we're to believe that the man goes back to his homeland rarely and only then incognito lest someone recognize him as the man who did this terrible thing 25 years before even leaving the country? Huh?
One thing Kundera is not guilty of is writing such trite and insipid commentary as, duh, "the unbearable lightness of being a hypocrite"
posted by farmdoggie at 7:46 PM on October 14, 2008
There's no compelling evidence in these articles that Kundera in fact informed on Dvořáček. Kundera himself denies it. Yes, communist regimes often trumped up charges to shoot their opponents in the head. They also held secret files on their victims that held to the same standards of truth.
But even supposing that the current charges are true and that Kundera informed on a defector 17 years before the publication of his first novel, at the age of 22 and still a member of the communist party: in what way does having once engaged in an activity that one later comes to understand as most totally reprehensible constitute hypocrisy? Is one committed to forever declaring the goodness of everything he has done?
Oh, and Kundera left Czechoslovakia for Paris in 1975, 25 years after supposedly informing. So we're to believe that the man goes back to his homeland rarely and only then incognito lest someone recognize him as the man who did this terrible thing 25 years before even leaving the country? Huh?
One thing Kundera is not guilty of is writing such trite and insipid commentary as, duh, "the unbearable lightness of being a hypocrite"
posted by farmdoggie at 7:46 PM on October 14, 2008
Funny, I was just thinking about this thread too. El Pais had a nice little story on the events too:
"En aquellos momentos, si un comunista escuchaba la historia de un agente debía informar. Es como si ahora alguien supiera de un terrorista islámico y no dijera nada". Lo explica en su estudio Ivan Klima, gran escritor checo, contemporáneo de Milan Kundera. Dice que la Checoslovaquia de los primeros cincuenta fue un estado "terrorista" hasta la muerte de Stalin, en 1953. "Si no informabas, te podían caer cinco años, o te podían ahorcar", dice revolviendo ese pelo que a sus 77 años aún se corta a lo Ringo Starr.
Klima fue un comunista convencido, como Kundera. Un impulsor de la Primavera de Praga, como Kundera. Cuenta que en aquellos días se encontró una situación similar. La información le llegó, también, por medio de una chica. Le habló de un antiguo oficial de las SS en territorio checo. Pero decidió no informar. "Lo que está claro es que en aquella época mantenerse firme requería ser muy valiente".
on the other hand:
El historiador Zdenek Pesat, que era profesor de la universidad en aquel entonces, declaró la semana pasada que Dlask informó a la policía, además de informar al partido. Lo cual no impide que Kundera también lo hiciera, dice Militka. La semana pasada, Pesat yacía en la cama en delicado estado, con oxígeno, según contó a EL PAÍS su hija en Praga. No se le podía entrevistar.
which in my mind changes things a bit even though it shouldn't. Dlask was an informer so all this would have still happened then without Kundera?
posted by vacapinta at 11:44 AM on October 26, 2008
"En aquellos momentos, si un comunista escuchaba la historia de un agente debía informar. Es como si ahora alguien supiera de un terrorista islámico y no dijera nada". Lo explica en su estudio Ivan Klima, gran escritor checo, contemporáneo de Milan Kundera. Dice que la Checoslovaquia de los primeros cincuenta fue un estado "terrorista" hasta la muerte de Stalin, en 1953. "Si no informabas, te podían caer cinco años, o te podían ahorcar", dice revolviendo ese pelo que a sus 77 años aún se corta a lo Ringo Starr.
Klima fue un comunista convencido, como Kundera. Un impulsor de la Primavera de Praga, como Kundera. Cuenta que en aquellos días se encontró una situación similar. La información le llegó, también, por medio de una chica. Le habló de un antiguo oficial de las SS en territorio checo. Pero decidió no informar. "Lo que está claro es que en aquella época mantenerse firme requería ser muy valiente".
on the other hand:
El historiador Zdenek Pesat, que era profesor de la universidad en aquel entonces, declaró la semana pasada que Dlask informó a la policía, además de informar al partido. Lo cual no impide que Kundera también lo hiciera, dice Militka. La semana pasada, Pesat yacía en la cama en delicado estado, con oxígeno, según contó a EL PAÍS su hija en Praga. No se le podía entrevistar.
which in my mind changes things a bit even though it shouldn't. Dlask was an informer so all this would have still happened then without Kundera?
posted by vacapinta at 11:44 AM on October 26, 2008
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posted by freebird at 4:11 AM on October 14, 2008 [1 favorite]