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I read Milan Kundera’s “Immortality” and I didn’t understand it at all. The plot is even more scattered than “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”. The author doesn’t want to tell a story properly, but to make sense. I don’t really like to read such novels. There is always a lack of truth in this world. Han Han once said: “I know a lot of truths, but I still can’t live a good life.”
The story in the book is roughly divided into three parts. One is the story of modern Agnès and her sister Lola about love and body, the other is the love story of the poet Goethe and Bettina, and the other is the painter Rubens and his many Mistress’ story.
Although I didn’t understand the whole book, I still felt some of the passages, which are excerpted below.
Two people sleeping in the same bed are sacrificing each other.
The bed shared by husband and wife: the altar of marriage. Speaking of altars, we must mention sacrifice. It was on this bed that they made sacrifices for each other: neither of them could fall asleep, and the sound of one person’s breathing affected the other person’s sleep; everyone moved to the edge of the bed to make way for a large gap in the middle. One person pretends to be asleep, hoping that the other person can fall asleep without worrying about disturbing themselves when they turn over. Alas, the other one didn’t want to take advantage of this opportunity at all, he also pretended to be asleep (for the same reason) and didn’t dare to move. Can’t sleep, can’t move yet: The bed is shared by husband and wife!
Worldly immortality, poetry and purity.
Secular immortality refers to the immortality of those who remain in the memory of posterity after death. This immortality, of varying degrees of greatness and duration, is available to anyone and has been longing for since adolescence.
The dead and the immortal are inseparable lovers.
The mission of poetry is to make a moment of existence become eternal and worthy of the unbearable pain of longing.
Purity is the warm feeling of not being watched.
It takes artists and statesmen to achieve immortality.
To immortality, people are not equal. A distinction must be made between small immortality and large immortality. Small immortality means that a person leaves memories in the hearts of people who know him; big immortality means that a person leaves memories in the hearts of people who do not know him. There are some jobs that can make people achieve great immortality in one fell swoop. Of course, this is uncertain or even very difficult, but it is indisputably possible: those are artists and politicians.
Beethoven’s rebellion and Goethe’s servility.
There he (Beethoven) first met Goethe. They were walking together along a forest avenue, when suddenly they saw the Queen appearing before them, accompanied by her family and court. As soon as he saw this line of people, Goethe stopped listening to Beethoven. He stood up, stepped aside, and took off his hat. But Beethoven pulled his hat down, wrinkled his long and thick eyebrows, and walked towards the nobles without slowing down. The nobles stood still, let him pass, and paid tribute to him. Then he turned around, waited for Goethe, and told him what he thought of his servile behavior.
Beethoven was a rebellious person. He wore his hat tightly and walked forward with his hands behind his back. Goethe was a servile person. He stood on one side of the road, nodding and bowing.
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