Milan Kundera 'denounced Western spy to police' »

RSS Join the Discussion

Comments So Far: 5 (view all)

- Display No Filter Fair Comments - 25% and above Good Comments - 50% and above Excellent Comments - 75% and above

• 100%

  gamahuche1 year, 1 month ago

  This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »

  A sad tale but not such an unusual or surprising one. If there are surprises perhaps its how long it took for this story to emerge. There must be others who knew names and dates and places.
  I'm particularly struck in this instance by the turnings of the wheels of fate - that as Kundera was exposed - and this seems to be a well-documented fact - at the same time an 80 year old Czech living in Sweden learned the truth of who betrayed him, having lived for some 60 years believing quite another reality. I guess I have in my mind a denouement which would be worthy of a Kundera fictional plot. Simply that Kundera would make his way to Sweden and apologise for what he did. That would be his salvation.
  In some respects its almost miraculous that Mr Dvoracek is still alive. Very few people who went to the uranium mines did survive; it was meant to be a slow and very unpleasant death-sentence.

  (comment_max_expanded_depth : 2) (comment depth : 2) (recursion depth : 1) (max_comment_reply_depth : 40) (comment_max_render_depth : 3)

  Reply

  3 Replies

  loading ...
  • 100%

    gamahuche1 year, 1 month ago

    This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »

    I just realised that the title in fact is somewhat deceptive. Mr Dvoracek had indeed been recruited to spy FOR the West, but he was Czech. So it would be more accurate to describe him as a Czech who was spying for the West. It changes the dynamic in subtle but important ways.

    (comment_max_expanded_depth : 2) (comment depth : 3) (recursion depth : 2) (max_comment_reply_depth : 40) (comment_max_render_depth : 3)

    Reply

    2 Replies

    loading ...
    • 100%

      dissent1 year, 1 month ago

      This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »

      i can't help but notice how closely this resembles a kundera plot. it reminds me of one of his characters from The Joke i think it was, or maybe not, but it was a young pretentious man he had written about, full of self-deluded self-importance of about kundera's age at the time this is supposed to have occurred. if this story is true my first impression is that naive but all-consuming jealousy got the better of him, as it did many of us preoccupied with the over-inflation of such interests at that age. in kundera's novels there is always a clear ironic sense of the autobiographical.

      (comment_max_expanded_depth : 2) (comment depth : 4) (recursion depth : 3) (max_comment_reply_depth : 40) (comment_max_render_depth : 3)

      Reply

      1 Reply

      loading ...
• 100%

  gamahuche1 year, 1 month ago

  This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »

  UPDATE:
  This evening, in a phone call from France with the Czech Press Office - who instigated the call - Kundera denied having been involved, or even knowing the gentleman in question.

  (comment_max_expanded_depth : 2) (comment depth : 2) (recursion depth : 1) (max_comment_reply_depth : 40) (comment_max_render_depth : 3)

  Reply

  0 Replies

  loading ...

View All 5 Comments

More News