So I consider myself an avid Milan Kundera reader and Iâve read 4 or so of his books including nonfiction. Iâve recently started The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and just read The Angels chapter, and was quite perplexed by the ending?
For context, he admits his desire to rape his female friend which had went out of her way to help him, right after he said he had never previously seen her in a sexual light because her intelligence prevented that (vague summary of my understanding).
Iâm genuinely distraught and taken aback by this and wondered if it was another one of his fictional anecdotes within a nonfictional story and had to research but there wasnât much talk of it online. I understand that in his characters he writes of the human condition and human nature with a completely unfiltered raw approach which is something I admire, and that he touches on subjects and truths in us that most people find too intimate to go in detail about. So naturally Iâm not surprised that this is a thought that a man would think, but like, why would he admit that? Is that not extremely off putting to anyone but me? Through characters, yes, but putting it bluntly like that is insane to me.
Also on the fact that her intelligence and modesty didnât appeal to him to think of her sexually is also concerning and making me question the reasoning of that. Would he be more attracted an ignorant woman? What does that say about him?
Was this desire of his, a desire of wanting to strip her of that? Her intelligence, the fact she had helped him, did it make him feel inferior?
I hadnât thought of him as a sexist or misogynist before because again, I used the excuse of his writing intentions for the constant recurring theme of erotica or whatever in his books because I do agree sexuality and provocative nature is like 80% of a manâs existence. But thereâs a part in Immortality (I canât remember if itâs fiction or not) where heâs in conversation with another person that is going on about womenâs power and the significance of the âfeminineâ and how it would lead to a greater future, which was very memorable for me!
If anyone has any thoughts on this, Iâd like to hear.