Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Kundera got into a sand-throwing match with Vaclav Havel, the man who would become the Czech president, over the fallout of the Prague Spring. The argument was about whether or not activism under a totalitarian regime could ever really be useful. Hint: optimistic Havel went on to lead the country out of Soviet oppression. (Source)
Remember the hat that Clementis gives to Gottwald on the balcony—and how Kundera goes on about it being the only thing left of Clementis in the photo? Yeah, not so much. It looks like Kundera revised history a bit himself. (Source)
It turns out that Kundera lost his Czech citizenship in response to the publication of The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Even though he was safely tucked away in France and already making a new life for himself, that had to hurt. (Source)