Just take a look at the opening of The Book of Laughter and Forgetting: it's a presto-change-o moment in the political life of Bohemia, when a photo featuring two prominent men suddenly becomes a photo with only one. Hey, they didn't have Photoshop back then, but that didn't stop them from doctoring photos—or even doctoring people out of photos.
Anyway, that photographic manipulation is the least complex of the transformations that take place in this work. Other moments of change are deeply personal (like Kundera's father journeying toward death or Tamina giving up her soul on the island), highly psychological (like Marketa's mental decapitation of Karel), or downright bizarre (like Tamina's experience on the island). The mind is a powerful engine of change.
But it's not the strongest. Laughter takes that prize. Laughter has the power to kill solemnity, turning something sacred into something ridiculous. It has the power to alienate and deride. It takes away the weightiness of existence and replaces it with a hollow nothingness. And like most of the transformations that happen throughout the novel, those brought about by laughter are questionable. At best.
Questions About Transformation
- What is the effect of revisionist history in Bohemia?
- How does transformation make life more bearable for some of Kundera's characters? How does it make life much, much worse for others?
- In what ways does laughter change things? Is it for better or worse?
- What changes does Tamina undergo once she's on the island?
Chew on This
Supernatural transformations are just symbols for some very down-to-earth ideas in this work.
The characters in this work engage in revisionism to make life bearable.