books collection

• yukio mishima

manhwa/manga collection

• haikyuu

TBR

• amrita by banana yoshimoto

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Milan Kundera

Notes

a woman’s life running from her femininity, accepting it and succumbing to the weight of her femininity
a man’s indecisive mind torturing him and finally becoming his self destruction
the countries at war with each other as well as people at war with their own beliefs and values

Quotes

• The brain appears to possess a special area which we might call poetic memory and which records everything that charms or touches us, that makes our lives beautiful.
• Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost
• to imagine- to dream about things that have not happened — is among mankind' s deepest needs.
• in the mind of the woman for whom no place is home, the thought of an end to all flight is unbearable
• the man cannot resist the woman whose soul this responds to his voice
• she did not desire her lover’s body. she desired her own body, newly discovered, intimate and alien beyond others, incomparably exciting.
• once her love had been publicized it would gain weight, become a burden
• she had come to him to escape her mother’s world(a world where all bodies were equal). she had come to him to make her body unique, irreplaceable. but he too had drawn an equal sign—he had sent her back into the world she tried to escape, sent her to march naked with other naked women.

characters and summary

• Tomas: initial narrator of the story. story makes it seem like everyone’s story is revolving around his thoughts and decisions. whereas we learn soon that he has no device over his own life. he lets the women in his life make decisions for him
• Tereza: Tomas’s wife, a photographer. refuge in his country. is used to feeling like an outsider all her life. she is the reason for their move. lives a long life with Tomas unhappy and in-love. her femininity is running from the feminine-ness in it, the impurity that is imposed on her by her mother is visible throughout her life.
• Sabina: Tomas’s mistress. an artist. she experiences womanhood opposite to Tereza. her femininity is running away from the male-ness in it, the patriarchal purity that is imposed on her effects how she looks at herself. starts an affair with engineer after Tomas leaves the country with Tereza.
• Professor: Sabina’s mister. Franz is all academia and intellect. but when coming face to face with those ideals and nuances and debate, he succumbs to their pressure.
• Karenin: Tomas and Teresa’s dog. they raise it as their child. Karenin is the outsider perspective, uncaring what is happening in the owner’s life. all that matter to him is himself

I Went to see my Father

Kyung Sook-Shin

i am once again floored by the way kyung sook shin tackles familial relations and their complexities
we are once again introduced to the family with children that left the