Brno Now » literature

Birthplace of Milan Kundera, world famous novelist

Michal Kašpárek — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:00:58 +0000

Villa at 6, Purkyňova st.

Novelist and essayist Milan Kundera is one of the best known people born in Brno – although he has been living in France for several decades.

Musicologist Miloš Štědroň revealed the address of the house where Kundera was born several weeks ago in an interview – it is located in quarter Královo Pole, at 6 Purkyňova st., next do Dobrák swimming pool and quite near the complex of University of Technology and IBM.

It is just an ordinary house, not belonging to Kundera’s family anymore (according to the land register) – but I think it is just a nice trivia about Brno.

Month of author reading: meet renowed French writers

Michal Kašpárek — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:00:06 +0000

Claire Legendre, performing on Wednesday, July 14, at 7 p.m.

Every year, Brno-based publishing house Větrné mlýny is organising a fresh cultural event, A month of autor reading. This July, you may enjoy performances of popular and influental French writers; they are going to read aloud their works in theatre Husa na provázku.

Check out the complete programme – I do not know almost anything about the contemporary French literature so I am not able to highlight any performer. I will be glad if you do that in the comments.

The shows start at 7 p.m. and you may pay any entrance fee you wish.

You’d better understand French – the performances will be only translated to Czech by screened subtitles.

Milan Kundera awarded the honorary citizenship of Brno

Michal Kašpárek — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:00:55 +0000

Milan Kundera (source: stardustandfairymagic.files.wordpress.com)

The most popular writer of Czech origin, Milan Kundera, who was born in Brno 81 years ago, will be awarded the town’s honorary citizenship on Tuesday, January 26.

Kundera has been living in France since 1975 and he has been publishing only in French language since 1990. However, he has written some great works also in Czech, including The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Joke. He has developed from advocating communism to being a bitter critic of totalitarian systems.

It is unlikely that Kundera would attend the evening ceremony, as he travels to the Czech republic only rarely and always in a disguise.

The other man awarded the honorary citizenship will be the late cardiologist Jan Navrátil.

Calendar showing nude librarians becomes an instant hit

Michal Kašpárek — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:00:12 +0000

Non-profit “Guerilla Readers” prepared a 2010 calendar with nude pictures of Masaryk University “library studies” undergraduates, taken in the Moravian library. The calendar was supposed to popularize books, libraries and learning.

It became an instant hit, as it was sold out quickly and Guerilla Readers got a great press coverage. “Let’s start a tradition and become the Pirelli of libraries,” states the website of GR – I think you are looking forward to next year as much as I do. Here is a small gallery:

May

January

July

Jan Skácel, the greatest bard of Moravia, died 20 years ago

Michal Kašpárek — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:00:10 +0000

Jan Skácel smoking a cigarette near main train station. Photo by V. Reichmann, scanned from the second volume of Skácel's anthology.

Jan Skácel, in my opinion the greatest poet that Brno and Moravia have ever had, died 20 years ago – on November 7, 1989.

Skácel’s work was influenced by south Moravian traditions and nature as well as by minimalist Chinese poetry. He was the editor-in-chief of art magazine “Host do domu” in the 1960s; after the Soviet occupation he was prohibited from publishing in the 1970s. Skácel’s poems were distributed in “samizdat” editions at that time, copied by typewriters.

This is my amateur translation of Skácel’s poem about the burial of the only Nobel Prize winning Czech writer:

The burial of Jaroslav Seifert

Folks still had not finished
throwing handfuls of soil to the grave
to make his homeland press him some more.

Drivers were starting their engines beneath a wall
and it seemed it was raining a little bit.

The cemetery got empty
and it was silent
as if somebody
had set a dog free in his courtyard.

And when the dark falls,
the beautiful crazy Victoria will come here from a weir
having a water-lily in her hair.

Novel inspired by Villa Tugendhat nominated for Man Booker Prize

Michal Kašpárek — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 05:40:32 +0000

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

Novel The Glass Room by Simon Mawer is among the 13 books nominated for Man Booker Prize this year. The interesting thing is that the novel is inspired by Villa Tugendhat in Brno and the complicated life of their original Jewish owners.

Wealthy Jewish car manufacturer Viktor Landauer and his gentile wife Liesel have been made a gift of land by Liesel’s parents to build their own house. “Something good and solid,” Liesel’s father advises. But Viktor doesn’t want something good and solid: what he wants is something modern. And what he gets is a modernist masterpiece, Der Glasraum, the Glass Room.

The architect employed by Viktor is a man named Rainer von Abt, a disciple of Adolf Loos. “I wish to take Man out of the cave and float him in the air,” Von Abt proclaims. “I wish to give him a glass space to inhabit.” The house, when it is built, has vast windows, an onyx wall, white ceilings and white floors. It is the definitive modern house, for definitive modern people.

A review in The Guardian

I’ll buy and read the novel as soon as possible.

Source: iDnes.cz.