The Unbearable Lightness of Being

[Edward theurj Berge]

Milan Kundera's book, mentioned in the QM thread, deserves its own thread. Here's the exchange from that thread to kick off this one.

Nicole:

 

Theurj, Tom, your words above reminded me of the book The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera - have you read it? It feels like it relates though tangentially to this discussion.

When we want to give expression to a dramatic situation in our lives, we tend to use metaphors of heaviness. We say that something has become a great burden to us. We either bear the burden or fail and go down with it, we struggle with it, win or lose. And Sabina-what had come over her? Nothing. She had left a man because she felt like leaving him. Had he persecuted her? Had he tried to take revenge on her? No. Her drama was a drama not of heaviness but of lightness. What fell to her lot was not the burden but the unbearable lightness of being. (part 3. chapter 10. paragraph 2)

theurj:

 

For me that means someone who is always above it all, always aloof to life's drama, never upset, never hysterical, always calm and equanimous. Such a one, like some pure spiritual plane (perhaps even light itself), is unbearable indeed.

 

Nicole:

 

That is why we share. Thank you for sharing it!

 

theurj:

 

Of course my meaning is not necessarily Kundera's. Here's another take, which is consistent with this one.

 

Nicole:

 

Oh Wikipedia and Sparksnotes, what would we do without them? :)

 

Link.

 

This is perhaps the fourth time I've read this novel, but the first time that I have understood it more in the fullness of a story set as a dialectical tool to deal with Nietzsche's themes of eternal recurrence and love of fate. I recommend this mode of reading the novel to anyone who's had the chance to read Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The position of Nietzsche which is attacked in this novel seems best expounded there and in the often quoted passage from The Gay Science at section 341:

The Greatest Burden. What if a demon crept after thee into thy loneliest loneliness some day or night, and said to thee: "This life, as thou livest it at present, and hast lived it, thou must live it once more, and also innumerable times; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and every sigh, and all the unspeakably small and great in thy life must come to thee again, and all in the same series and sequence-and similarly this spider and this moonlight among the trees, and similarly this moment, and I myself. The eternal sand-glass of existence will ever be turned once more, and thou with it, thou speck of dust!"- Wouldst thou not throw thyself down and gnash thy teeth, and curse the demon that so spake? Or hast thou once experienced a tremendous moment in which thou wouldst answer him: "Thou art a God, and never did I hear anything so divine! "If that thought acquired power over thee as thou art, it would transform thee, and perhaps crush thee; the question with regard to all and everything: "Dost thou want this once more, and also for innumerable times?" would lie as the heaviest burden upon thy activity! Or, how wouldst thou have to become favorably inclined to thyself and to life, so as to long for nothing more ardently than for this last eternal sanctioning and sealing?

 

 

 

 

[Edward theurj Berge]

We see some similar themes—like eternal recurrence and existential nihilism—playing out in the radical a/theism thread between Hagglund, Caputo and Meillassoux.

[Edward theurj Berge]

Caputo, for example, sees each event as singular in the way that Kundera might. And both question that there is any ultimate meaning or grand metanarrative. And yet for Caputo relative, contextual and “weighty” meaning is indeed of the greatest significance and provides the impetus for commitment and ethics. Whereas for Kundera it seems when one is released from the burden of ultimate meaning then one is also free of relative meaning, free to engage "lightly" without any such commitments at all?

[Edward theurj Berge]

For some inexplicable unreason my cognitive unconscious  associated this with a conversation from Pulp Fiction, where Jules says:

"I'll just walk the earth. You know, walk the earth, meet people... get into adventures. Like Caine from Kung Fu."

 

[Nicole]

Thanks for starting a fresh thread, I think this could be a great discussion. I am looking forward to getting into this after we get back from Tai Chi. I haven't seen Pulp Fiction, so why don't you tell me what you think the connection is with this book?

theurj said:

For some inexplicable unreason my cognitive unconscious  associated this with a conversation from Pulp Fiction, where Jules says:

"I'll just walk the earth. You know, walk the earth, meet people... get into adventures. Like Caine from Kung Fu."

 

[Edward theurj Berge]

Kung Fu's Caine for me is an example of the romanticized, disengaged and wondering monk, who is unattached to anyone or thing, excerpt perhaps his own unattachment. Jules expresses this cultural notion of "freedom" when he envisions his ideal life. This is an example of that unbearable lightness I first spoke of above, of the notion of a pure spirit free from all earthly commitments. And perhaps Kundera, in his distaste for ultimate meaning, goes too far in being free of any meaning?  Just wondering.

[Edward theurj Berge]

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

[Nicole]

Perhaps. It is indeed an extreme view. But is it a rebellion against ultimate meaning, or a wild attempt against the eternal recurrence (which is a horrifying thought to me) and being hopelessly trapped by fate?

theurj said:

Kung Fu's Caine for me is an example of the romanticized, disengaged and wondering monk, who is unattached to anyone or thing, excerpt perhaps his own unattachment. Jules expresses this cultural notion of "freedom" when he envisions his ideal life. This is an example of that unbearable lightness I first spoke of above, of the notion of a pure spirit free from all earthly commitments. And perhaps Kundera, in his distaste for ultimate meaning, goes too far in being free of any meaning?  Just wondering.

[e]

Light or heavy all belief in a personal ontology is unbearable.

 

A friend was recently diagnosed with Wegener's and is close to renal failure. The most challenging thing he faces (outside of the physical pain) is the drastic change in the image he has of himself as a fit strong person.

 

[Nicole]

Devastating, e.

[e]

It's what belief in a personal ontology necessitates.

[Nicole]

It's certainly what that particular belief in that form of a personal ontology necessitates. But not all personal ontologies need be so, e.