“We can regard the gulag as a septic tank used by totalitarian kitsch to dispose of its refuse.”

— Milan Kundera , book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Five: Lightness and Weight

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Milan Kundera 198

Czech author of Czech and French literature 1929–2023

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

Title of book (1976)

“I got a shotgun and a backhoe and no one looks under a septic tank for a dead body. (Bubba)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

“Whenever a single political movement corners power, we find ourselves in the realm of totalitarian kitsch.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Five: Lightness and Weight
Context: Whenever a single political movement corners power, we find ourselves in the realm of totalitarian kitsch. When I say “totalitarian,” what I mean is that everything that infringes on kitsch must be banished for life: every display of individualism (because a deviation from the collective is a spit in the eye of the smiling brotherhood); every doubt (because anyone who starts doubting details will end by doubting life itself); all irony (because in the realm of kitsch everything must be taken quite seriously); and the mother who abandons her family or the man who prefers men to women, thereby calling into question the holy decree “Be fruitful and multiply.”

“In the realm of totalitarian kitsch, all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Five: Lightness and Weight
Context: In the realm of totalitarian kitsch, all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions. It follows, then, that the true opponent of totalitarian kitsch is the person who asks questions. A question is like a knife that slices through the stage backdrop and gives us a look at what lies hidden behind it.

“Before we are forgotten, we will be turned into kitsch. Kitsch is the stopover between being and oblivion.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Means at our disposal should be regarded as a bulwark against the many evils and misfortunes that can occur. We should not regard such wealth as a permission or even an obligation to procure for ourselves the pleasures of the world.”

Arthur Schopenhauer book Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life

E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 348
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life

“We can not live as disposable people. The broader community, which has firmly established compulsory heterosexuality as the law of the universe, has to get over its problem with us.”

Jeffrey Montgomery (1953–2016) American LGBT rights activist and public relations executive

America...You Kill Me

“She regarded men as creatures made for women to dispose of.”

Henry Adams book Democracy: An American Novel

About Madeleine, in Ch. XI
Democracy: An American Novel (1880)

“To dispose a soul to action we must upset its equilibrium.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

The Ordeal of Change (1963)
Context: To dispose a soul to action we must upset its equilibrium. page 27, Buccaneer Books edition (1990) pages total

“There can be no real place for personal possession unless it carries with it the rights of disposal and use. The condition on which this right must stand is that of wisdom in the disposal; if the disposal of property is foolish, then the ruler or society may withdraw this right of disposal.”

Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966) Egyptian author, educator, Islamic theorist, poet, and politician

Source: Social Justice in Islam (1953), p. 133

“We can regard the gulag as a septic tank used by totalitarian kitsch to dispose of its refuse.”

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Milan Kundera 198

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