Nietzsche, Kundera and the Fragility of Meaning
Some people advance through life easily, as if manoeuvring the concept of consequence. Others may feel as though each decision they make within a day is like a stone in their pocket. However, for the vast majority of us, our lives reside in the in-between.
The conflicting contrast of floating and sinking, within our decisions day-to-day, is what captures the essence of Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The novel opens, introducing a question borrowed from the philosopher, Nietzsche. He believed in eternal recurrence, where if our lives repeated infinitely, the details of each life lived would remain the same; he does this as an indirect attempt to suggest that each choice within one’s life makes one’s life. He confronts the reader with that thought, urging them to imagine the two sides proposed by that; the idea of lightness versus weight.
Kundera externalises these opposing opinions, creating something painfully human within the nature of his characters. Tomas embodies light, possessing a fleeting soul and passion. The choices he makes deliberately avoid responsibility, believing that this detaches himself from true meaning. However, Tereza carries a conflicting instinct, she desperately attempts to search for purpose within devotion, despite the pain. Sabina resides in our in-between. We can see her drift from betrayal to self-understanding, uncertain of where she truly belongs.
These apparent categories within the novel’s character render the concept of meaning to fragile perception. Brief alterations to how you attack the subject of meaning, deconstruct and rebuild the ideology of meaning into a completely new structure.The actions and choices the characters function as their own arguments within the narrative to bolster the two divided sides: Weight and Lightness.
There is an instance of the novel that I interpret as Tereza’s emotional highpoint within the novel. She displays a blind adherence to Tomas’ blatant instruction as he tells her to head to Pretrin Hill. She confronted with the ultimatum of life and death, observing victims of assisted suicide victims at the peak of the mountain. On a metaphysical level, the choice displays beyond the gravity of life and death, illustrating the choice of devotion or self-preservation. She embodies the true weight of meaning; this may apply to all individuals who accept this. Motives may fluctuate depending on the person but the weight of a decision remains as constant.
Kundera intricately forms these veiled arguments through profound moments, like this - I urge you to read the novel to grasp a larger understanding of what I am addressing, however, my point still stands. His confrontation of the meaning itself was one of the most intricately formed scalpels within literature, sliing into one of the very fundamentals that make up the construction of life. However, the question is what do you believe in Lightness or Weight?
- Jericho Dela Masa
