——Dedication engraved on Franz's tombstone
One, the lightness and weight
of lifeHow much is a person's life?
The weight of a baby's heart at birth is only about 21 grams. With age, the weight of the heart also increases. When death came, the heart weighed several times 21 grams, but it became a useless organ. Someone once said that humans are wisdom maintained by the various organs of the body. But in this way, "people are nothing but souls involved in the body".
Franz and Sabina of light and heavy
in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", a university professor Franz died in a robbery, no one will see the body after his death, in order to remind them that the dead life. In this "junkyard dumped with corpses and rocks" in the eyes of Franz during his lifetime, people can only see heavy tombstones. Countless heavy stones have sealed the souls of the dead and pressed on this life without saying a word. Let those who pass by here feel the weight of death; freelance painter Sabina made a will after immigrating to the United States for many years, hoping that her body will be cremated and her ashes will be thrown in the sky. Is it really as light as air?
The two of them used different methods of death to interpret the two states after the death of life. The similarity is that they also get the ultimate satisfaction because of death.
Franz's death allowed him to regain the dignity that he had lost in front of Sabina, he got rid of weakness, and got rid of the reasons that made Sabina leave him. Sabina once again realized her betrayal of life: she betrayed her sentimental father, drunk husband, perfect lover Franz, and occupied Prague. After she reached the end of the betrayal, she fell into a void. , This is the lightness she cannot bear after abandoning the things that exist in her life. After experiencing the fear of the tomb, Sabina finally realized the final betrayal of her life-she needed to run away without stopping, unwilling to be imprisoned by the tombstone of death. She also enjoyed this relief with satisfaction, and was rescued by death from the things that bothered her.
Thomas and Theresa's lightness and weight
Thomas and Teresa’s love was entangled and bound during the first seven years of staying together. In order to cheat and satisfy his sympathy for Teresa, he had to fill his life with concealed, lies, and false words of love. When Teresa left him for the first time, he first greedily tasted the lightness of life, admiring the enlarging temptation in the corner and rushing towards him, and then he felt the pain of not being restrained by others. The sorrow of Resa when she left.
Before meeting Teresa, Thomas pursued the lightness brought about by freedom. He never spent the night with others. He was immersed in the pleasure of walking between the bodies of different women. Even when he was divorced, he was in a happy mood and couldn’t wait. Embrace single life. Such a man was confused by Teresa's heavy breathing by the pillow, and then jumped into Teresa's tenacious occupation of his life and the oppression of his lifestyle.
While Teresa gave Thomas emotional weight, it couldn't prevent her from feeling the lightness of life all the time, and realizing her own weakness. From the moment she was born, she assumed responsibility for her mother's unfortunate destiny, and her birth ended all her mother's longing for life. Teresa bears her mother's fate and ignores her own life, which is why she always peeks at her naked body in the mirror, trying to see her soul. All this caused her lack of self-confidence and her weakness in the face of fate. Ever since she met Thomas, she has never resisted, accepted it, and attached herself to Thomas' life. Apart from nightmares and sobbing all night, she has no idea how to face Thomas' physical infidelity. She was unable to resist or turn a blind eye to Thomas's actions. Gradually, she, together with the occupied Prague, could not bear anything.
No matter whether you choose light or heavy in life, you will fall into the eternity of the cycle of life. People choose to pursue lightness because of heavy burdens, and turn to heavy pursuits because of the emptiness of lightness. As a result, life has reached a secret balance in the constant pursuit of lightness and weight. Just like the dedication on Franz's epitaph, "Slowly lost, there will be a way back", no matter what the way back is, we will always find that way and be satisfied.
[Countless accidents constitute an inevitable]
2. The bird of accidental destiny
Love is in life
Thomas’ old lover Sabina often commented on Thomas, “I like you very much because you are the opposite of kitsch. In the kingdom of kitsch, you will be a demon. In any American or Russian film, you are just that. A disgusting character." This sentence became one of the few words in the novel that described Thomas' appearance.
As if it was a positive response to the original work, Daniel Day Lewis, who played Thomas in the film of the same name directed by Philip Kaufman (Philip Kaufman), who played Thomas, often lowered his forehead and squinted his eyes slightly. In the shadows, there was a chill and unbelievable temptation, and the left corner of his upper lip was slightly turned up. This was his special look when he focused on looking at things, as if the devil Lucifer was coveting the beauty of the world. No woman can escape this expression.
If Milan Kundera’s philosophical expositions in the book are deleted, this book is just telling an ordinary love story. And love stories never seem to be that simple. The reason why Kundera chose to use a love story to carry his thoughts on life may be because only love exists in life that is extremely real. The outbreak of war cannot prevent the coming of Eros. One second Teresa was still facing the black hole's muzzle, and the next second she would be jealous of Thomas' affairs.
Love is closely related to everything in the world. Thomas has always been plagued by a problem, that is, "People can never know what they want, because they can only live once, that is, they cannot be compared with the previous life, nor can they be corrected in the next life." He was hesitant and ambiguous, he couldn't give up the wonderful feeling Teresa gave him, and he was afraid of losing other opportunities because of this. The people of Prague, caught in Russian artillery, also don't know what the country needs. The photos taken by journalists risking their lives are nothing more than evidence of the Russians investigating the Prague militants. While the people of Prague resisted the occupation of the Russian army and laughed at the Russians for their stupidity, the Russians also bitterly said that they were only helping the people of Prague. They don't know what the country needs, and these mysteries are like benches drifting across the Vltava River, which will be forgotten over time, and people will no longer care about them.
Everyone has a special desire for love. Just like Paz in Mexico said: "We pray for love-as a wish, love is a yearning for the harmony of two hearts, a yearning for sacrifice, death and even resurrection-to give us a true life. .At that time, the opposition disappeared, and there is no such thing as life and death, there is no such thing as realization and eternity. We seem to realize that life and death are nothing more than two opposing and complementary movement processes in the same reality. Creation and destruction. Melt into one in the process of love; in this short moment, people vaguely saw the supreme perfection. "
Thomas likes to have sex with all kinds of women, because different women have different ways of making love. His way of making love allowed him to see the difference in life. Doing so made him feel his own existence, and only by doing so would life not appear so vain and unpredictable. He naturally enjoyed the joy that light brought him.
But one day, Teresa dragged her luggage and her life she was about to dedicate knocked on the door of Thomas’s house. In his eyes, she was like a "child who was placed in a resin-coated straw basket and floated along the water." He just couldn't bear to let this child drift down the river towards the violent and turbulent rivers. In this tender metaphor and thought, dangerous love slowly breeds in his heart.
Yes, how many ancient myths started with the story of rescuing an outcast, and Thomas’ rescue of Teresa was the redemption of love for both of them. Love allowed Thomas to distinguish the feelings of having sex with a woman and sleeping with a woman for the first time, that is, "Love is not manifested through the desire to make love (this can be the desire for countless women), but through the desire to sleep with her ( This can only be manifested by the desire for a woman. "
If the burden of life makes us feel the weight of life and it is difficult to move, then love often presents a state of lightness and weightlessness in the early stage of blooming. Plato said in his "Dialogue", "The original people are both sexes. Since God split people into two, all this half has been roaming around the world looking for the other half. Love is what we long for. The lost half of herself." Thomas can often feel Teresa’s pain, her hysterical fear when she has nightmares, in addition to his so-called "sympathy", there is also a part of Teresa hidden in his body. Deep down, so he seemed to have foreseen it a long time ago, waiting for her to cry and plunge into his arms.
The accidental bird of destiny
people will never know whether they will meet the other half of their lives tomorrow or the next decade. Thomas returned to Prague just to meet Teresa. Who would have thought that such a fateful decision is tied to such an accidental love?
Life in front of love completely presents a kind of floating lightness, as if everything can be changed, and everything is so firm and irreversible, one accident after another, and finally constitutes an inevitable encounter. Kundera directly pointed out in the book that life turns accident into the theme of life movement. People will remember the time when they first met, and regard everything they met as a prelude to happiness, just as Theresa fell in love with Beethoven's music. She doesn't love classical music, but just when it happened to be played, she met Thomas.
Usually, because men and women in love have lost their weight to maintain a normal life in the past, they will always do things that are difficult for ordinary people to understand. This is not surprising, because when a person can't feel the weight of life, they will naturally make crazy actions, until this action touches the wall of life, they will fall back to the ground.
Thus, love fell, and then the passion also returned to silence, only forgetting spread in people's hearts. As the poet Neruda said, "love is so short, forgetting is so long". After love dies, forgetting becomes the pressure of life on us, and this weight often prevents many people from moving forward. The difference between light and heavy is often so subtle, and two extreme changes are completed in the blink of an eye. In this transition, life makes people feel the unbearable weight. However, no one can say that it is not good to be too light in love or too heavy in life.
Most of the time, memory is not a good thing, it will only make people unable to move forward because they are obsessed with past happiness or immersed in sadness. Many people have said that they hope that this moment of time will stop forever. However, if life really repeats every second countless times in this way, then we will all become life sacrifices, as Kundera said, and be crucified on the eternal cross.
With regard to the idea of human beings, philosophers are obsessed with the issue of "eternal calamity return" and do not let go, and fear this unimaginable pressure from the bottom of their hearts.
Gide couldn’t help sighing: “The absurd worldview and outlook on life have caused us three-quarters of misfortune. We are obsessed with the past and don’t understand: Only if today’s joy is withdrawn, tomorrow’s joy can appear. Every ups and downs are only due to the previous waves. Retreat forms a beautiful curve. Every wave should automatically wither for its own fruit. If every fruit does not fall and rot, it is difficult to guarantee that another new season of flowers will come again. Therefore, even in spring. Always leaning against the threshold of winter."
[Sabina's black top hat]
Third, Sabina's black top hat
As mentioned earlier, Thomas distinguished between the desire for love and sex by sharing the same bed with each other. In the film, you can also see the difference between Thomas's treatment of his lover and Teresa. The sex between him and Teresa was like a hilarious game, just to prepare for the rest of the sleep together, most of the time the camera focused on the scene of them cuddling and falling asleep. As Thomas’ closest lover Sabina, most of the scenes where the two of them appeared together in front of the camera were spent in naked sex. Not long after the movie opened, Sabina and Thomas showed a scene of physical intercourse in front of the mirror.
Kundera spent a lot of space describing the relationship between Sabina and her other lover, Franz, which was mentioned in the film due to time constraints, but in the original work, Franz's existence triggered a series of thoughts on both sexes. The appearance of Sabina also made Franz's previously unknown personality characteristics slowly unfold in front of people.
The relationship between Sabina and Franz is completely different from the love between Thomas and Theresa. That kind of relationship is entirely the product of the contradiction and rejection of the spirit and the flesh.
The black top hat worn by Sabina has always played an important role in the film. The first time I saw Sabina’s naked body and the worn top hat formed a great conflict, beauty and ugliness, debauchery and conservative, not so much as a means to arouse Thomas’ passion, as it is. An interpretation of her own life. This top hat is a passage for people to her soul. This men's black felt hat trampled on her feminine self-esteem, but also brought her pleasure and became an important prop for her to stir people's hearts. She hates it and can't help but use it. This is like those women who have caused a lot of troubles because of their beauty, still can't help showing the vanity that beauty brings to them in various ways.
The top hat is the relic of Sabina's father, the imprint passed down by the ancestors' family. When she ran away again and again and escaped from the life that made her dissatisfied, the only thing she did not change was this top hat. This hat represents her past time, an inescapable relationship. Each time this hat appeared, it witnessed Sabina's different emotional journeys.
Facing Thomas, Sabina opened up her soul, willing to accept this man as a part of her life. Because Thomas understood the meaning of a top hat, he was moved to tears. Sabina is convinced that their souls are close and similar, and he can understand her, even if it is used as a way of love, for her, this is the simplest and most effective way to understand each other. They didn't talk much, but they knew each other's weaknesses, and they knew when to watch the fire from the sidelines and when to lend a helping hand. This is one of the reasons why Sabina is invincible among Thomas' lovers.
Of course, the acquaintance of the soul does not mean the coming of love. After Teresa appeared and had sex with Sabina, Thomas would look at the watch absently, looking forward to the end soon, returning to Teresa’s side, feeling Her childlike breath.
When Sabina and Franz had sex, she still wanted to wear the black top hat, but this made Franz feel uncomfortable and at a loss, as if she was a monster, describing in different languages that he could not reach world. Franz smiled and took off her top hat, and also erased the way to Sabina's heart. The huge gap in their perceptions of feelings is also the source of many contradictions in their daily communication. Sabina would be dismissive of his weakness and sentimentality, mocking his stupid loyalty, and treating his favorite music as noise. When Franz was immersed in the power and joy brought by the darkness, Sabina fell into the embrace of the darkness because she refused to look at the man.
Franz is at best Sabina's sex partner. Their language is nothing more than physical communication, only sensual pleasure. The body has no memory, and forgetting is easy for the body.
The contradiction between the spirit and the flesh seems to be full of helplessness here, making people unable to choose. Teresa has never been able to see the distinction between soul and body so clearly. Someone has also asked the question, which one is betrayal on love, betrayal on the soul and betrayal on the body? And most people are silent about this, and at the same time eager to occupy the highest point of body and soul.
Emotion and Morality
For Thomas, love and sex can be separated, and sex with different women is only part of his life. But for Tereza, this will only bring endless harm and pain to their relationship. She restricts him and monitors him, and her love makes Thomas happy and tired of Thomas.
However, in Sabina's eyes, people are born to betray others and themselves, and every betrayal makes us farther and farther from the initial starting point, and then become travellers who cannot turn back. Nothing can return to the previous calm after it happened. For selfish love, any betrayal will be fatal.
In fact, for Thomas, his so-called pursuit of female sexuality does not need to rise to the stage of searching for life in a high-sounding manner. After all, it is just human nature.
Prudhomme once said: "Morality and pleasure are the two sisters of death. One makes you lose the joy of life, and the other is that you hate life... Morality does nothing else in the world, but often denies human nature." Thomas just didn't want to lose the joy of life because of secular morality, but he began to hate life because of the over-indulgence of pleasure, because this kind of pleasure made him lose Tereza, his love. Maybe Tereza is not his original other half, but he doesn’t seem to care about the destined other half who doesn’t know where it is, because Tereza he fell in love with, it was the child who drifted down the river who let him know The beauty and pain of love.
It is entirely possible that he will meet someone else and start with someone else, but he seems to want to start with Tereza. In fact, maybe the other half you imagine is often the person you just accidentally lost, and this matter often won't be realized until you lose it.
[What does Karenin's smile mean to Teresa? ]
4. Karenin’s Smile
Before the 20th century, concertos and sonatas were mostly composed of three movements, and chamber music such as symphonies and string quartets consisted of four movements. The movements are often in a state of separation, and there are not too many connections, which makes the work lacking in completeness. The Hungarian composer Bartok created the iconic "arch structure" in his late works. The music is expanded into five movements. This technique is often characterized by the third movement as the axis, the first movement and the fifth movement. The movement, the second movement and the fourth movement are symmetrically distributed. Bartok used different techniques to form a close relationship between the two movements that echoed each other, including speed, orchestration, theme, and developmental techniques.
In the first five chapters of "The Unbearable Lightness in Life", Milan Kundera uses the words "light and heavy", "spirit and flesh", "incomprehensible words", "flesh and spirit", and "heavy and light" in the first five chapters. "Presents the "arch structure" that Bartok embodies in music. The same scene echoes from different angles, forming a wonderful reading experience.
Film director Philip Kaufman tried his best to abide by the "triune rule" of drama conflict in filming, that is, things happen at the same time, at the same place, and with the same theme. As a result, we saw that many of the events and characters that happened in the second half of the novel appeared in the first half of the film. The story is basically a linear narrative, with very few flashbacks and interruptions. The complex characters in the novel have been simplified into several supporting roles. The chairman of the co-op and his little pig Memphis first appeared at Thomas and Teresa’s wedding, instead of just a few years after they lived in seclusion as in the original. Appear. Although I can barely tell the story to perfection in this way, the most valuable part of the original work has been lost, and only the story and kitsch love are left.
There is also a puppy in the book that witnessed the love between Thomas and Theresa and the "Prague Spring" incident. It is Karenin. Its appearance seems to be to distinguish between humans and other animals, but this puppy continues to embody the cycle of time that people have fallen into-every day of it is a new beginning and a cycle. It is the weakest and least defensive animal, completely dependent on humans for survival, but it never shows worry or sadness, and does not worry about the alternation of light and heavy. From animals, we can see the moral nature of people. In the face of the children who buried the crow alive, Teresa rescued the crow in horror, her fingernails were broken, and the blood shed.
People mostly judge the dog's happiness and anger from its body language. The most obvious thing is that its wagging tail expresses its joy. Karenin shook his tail when he was dying from cancer. This brought light and hope to the dark death, and made death warm. You can say it resembles occupied Prague, or it represents the doomed death of Thomas and Teresa. However, its smile, nostalgia and love for life are more moving than the self-satisfied death method of Franz and Sabina.
In the face of life, many people are thinking, what can people leave behind after death?
Why do people who are alive have to take care of things after death?
If you want to feel the weight of life, don't care about death, don't let people die of life, only the indifference of death can bring out the fiery passion of life, just like Karenin's peaceful smile in the afternoon.
Please indicate the author: Nine-tailed Black Cat
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