The unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kundera

The unbearable lightness of being

By Milan Kundera

Paperback, 314 pages

Fiction & Philosophy

I had attempted to read this novel before and recalled that I got heady by the introductory chapter as it tackles Philosophy. I am glad that I read it through this time, and maybe it is because I was able to read it at the right period of my life.

On the personal level, I think if one has suffered/ is suffering from a midlife crisis, one can really understand the philosophical elucidations of the narrator (that is Kundera the author). We live our lives only once and since it is so, we have no other lives/ decisions to compare it from. This is opposed to the Nietze's philosophy of eternal return where eveything we experience recur in infinity, and thus if life does not recur, it mean nothing. 

Lightness then is the idea that life is devoid of inherent meaning or significance, and individuals are free to make choices without being burdened by moral or existential weight or heaviness.

If one is in midlife crisis, one can definitely surrender to this idea of lightness of being where there is Freedom from the pubic eye and personal bondage. For Sabina, the lightness of her being, her personal freedom she cherishes, becomes unbearable because she cannot truly submit to love. She lived superficially in America, far from her home. For Tomas, his lightness of being, his infidelities, become meaningless and he needs to fill the void with loving Tereza and his need to assert his personal views. In the end, he acceded that a life without mssion is happiness.

I suspected that I did not read this with appreciation the first time long ago because of the infidelities of the characters too. Also the narrator did not reveal himself till the end that the voice can be confusng at times. This is a uniquely voiced novel, plus philosophy class plus essay reading 101.

If one comes from a country of painful past that is evidently being forgotten because the present claims that the sin of the past is not their doing and not even their intention of doing like mine now the Philippines... one can deeply appreciate this classic novel. 

The treatise on kitsch is one of my favorite parts in the novel. When something is being praised as kitsch, the next thing to do is to be forgotten. kitsch is defined as "art, objects, or design considered to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic or knowing way." (oxford languages).

The nihilism, the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless, (oxford languages) exposed in this novel make our appreciation of lightness in our being bearable. Also, the heaviness of our existence is also put into test so that one can see that the heaviness depends on us. As Tomas said, Missions are stupid, tereza. I have no mission. No one has. And it's terrific to realize you're free, free of all missions." 

I think this novel became dear to me now because I believe that a personal decision to love or not to love, to have infidelity or not, to move away or not, these micocosms have been influenced or led by the historical and political unfolding in a country, that is the macrocosm I consider. History and individual lives do not repeat so there is only one life and one history. Hopefully, that being said, then history, as in life, will end and never be repeated.

But for the 21st cetury the macrocosm transcend nations, it has to be global. 

As Yuval Noah Harari observed, we have global problems which needs global organization which we lack. I think love in 21st century will be affected by AIs invading health, dating, jobs, hobbies and the rise of cryptocurrency. Hoping for a bearable lightness of being in the next decades to come.

This novel was first published in 1985 but it definitely transcends time.