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speranta 's review for:
Laughable Loves
by Milan Kundera
This collection of short stories circled Kundera's main topics in his work: the absurdity of human existence and the validity of constructed identities in different contexts. I liked how the philosophical monologues can leave the reader with good questions to ponder on for days.
Quotes I liked:
"This is the way life goes: Man imagines that he is playing his role in a particular play, and does not suspect that in the meantime they have changed the scenery without his noticing, and he unknowingly finds himself in the middle of a rather different production."
"And suddenly it seemed to him that in fact, all the people he had met in this town were only ink lines spreading on a blotter; beings with interchangeable attitudes; beings without firm substance. But what was worse, what was far worse, it struck him next, was that he himself was only a shadow of all these shadow characters. For he had been exhausting his own brain only to adjust to them and imitate them and yet even if he imitated them with an internal laugh, even if he made an effort to mock them secretly, and so to justify the reason to adapt, it didn't alter the case. For even malicious imitation remains imitation. Even a shadow that mocks remains a shadow."
Quotes I liked:
"This is the way life goes: Man imagines that he is playing his role in a particular play, and does not suspect that in the meantime they have changed the scenery without his noticing, and he unknowingly finds himself in the middle of a rather different production."
"And suddenly it seemed to him that in fact, all the people he had met in this town were only ink lines spreading on a blotter; beings with interchangeable attitudes; beings without firm substance. But what was worse, what was far worse, it struck him next, was that he himself was only a shadow of all these shadow characters. For he had been exhausting his own brain only to adjust to them and imitate them and yet even if he imitated them with an internal laugh, even if he made an effort to mock them secretly, and so to justify the reason to adapt, it didn't alter the case. For even malicious imitation remains imitation. Even a shadow that mocks remains a shadow."