The untranslatable 'Litost' of Milan Kundera
Part five of Czech born French writer Milan Kundera's novel The Book
of Laughter and Forgetting sets out an exposition on the lines of
fictional storytelling of what the writer expressly states as a quality,
and/or a state of being, without which the human soul cannot be
understood. 'Litost,' Kundera says is an untranslatable Czech word.
Titled Litost, part five of The Book of laughter and Forgetting
expounds a thesis of this state of emotions and its psychological
impelling with relation to a scheme of human characteristics. The
emotion appears to take precedence over the premise of psychology in the
working(s) of litost and therefore I wish to phrase it as an 'emotio-psychological'
state.
The
separatist Tiger terrorist who lunges to the given target to
become a death dealer are emotional captives within a form
litost, with 'the Kamikaze solution' as the sole act within the
scope of possibilities that can uplift them from a state of
disempowered unimportance. |
As beings of cultural and social intellect, as well as beings of
emotional constitution(s) the idea of litost is not unrelatable to,
although it may not perhaps be within the etymological spectra of the
Sri Lankan linguistic streams. The base of litost appears to seem as a
state of emotions that is rooted in the individual feeling himself to be
a singular entity in the face of overwhelming hopelessness and a
painfully evident helplessness.
In the methodology adopted in delivering to the reader an
understanding of 'litost' the scheme contains an essayist approach which
combines an array of fictional events narrated with the mastery of an
explicator who crafts his voice to be a ground for dialogue but with
clear conciliation created between the subject and the audience.
Spectrum
The elucidations Kundera provides are not limiting to a set framework
that could be grounded through linguistic definitions alone.
However the ethos which is at the core of the idea of litost remains
clear in the course of narratives which also seem to be a statement of
how an emotio-psychological state cannot be simply limited to a
dictionary definition in order to be comprehended from a socio-cultural
standpoint while being attuned to the emotional constitutions concerned.
With a scheme of characters and events that spread out a spectrum of
stories, Kundera devises an explication of litost by narrating a chain
of incidents between two young lovers. "What's the matter with you?" she
asked him, and he started to reproach her: she knew about the current
near the other bank, and that he had forbidden her to swim there because
of the risk of drowning - and then he slapped her face. The girl began
to cry, and when he saw the tears on her cheeks, he took pity on her and
put his arm around her, and his litost melted away.
The incident appears to provide a scenario where an emotional impulse
triggered a psychological state that impelled an act which consequently
proved violent.
The male character in this snippet is affected emotionally when the
girl cries, and results in a counter effect in his psychology which
moves him to act piteously to her with implications of a reconciliatory
path being initiated. What is notable is that litost 'melted away' when
the status quo between the lovers was once again restored, despite
probable gender inequities.
Kundera says "Litost is a state of torment created by the sudden
sight of one's own misery" the male character was certainly made to feel
miserable when he was made to see him self as the lesser of the two, and
that torment was the ground on which his psychology uncovers the
perpetrator of his misery: his lover who has been unpunished.
And assuming that once the status quo on which the lovers had found
their relationship was resolved, their love too had flourished, one can
deduce that 'litost' could be deemed somewhat an anti-thesis to love. In
his expounding of litost in relation to the topic of 'love' Kundera
says-"[o]ne of the customary remedies for misery is love. Because
someone loved absolutely cannot be miserable."
Inexperience
Kundera speaks of Litost as being "characteristic of the age of
inexperience." This turn in the discussion comes from the writer's
belief that litost would not be as devastating in its impact upon those
whom Kundera calls as having 'wide experience of the common imperfection
of mankind."
Thus one can reasonably argue that dependent on the degree of
experience an individual would have on life and 'the imperfections of
mankind' action incited by litost would vary in form and intensity.
The slapping and the tears that follow present a focus point which
brings to light what Kundera brings in to the discussion to understand
the outcomes of litost and the chain of action that leads to a
resolution.
"Litost is like a two-stroke engine. Torment is followed by the
desire for revenge. The goal of revenge is to make one's partner look as
miserable as oneself. The man cannot swim, but the slapped woman cries.
It makes them feel equal and keeps their love going."
Referring to the earlier discussed status quo between the lovers
which forms the power paradigm in which the relationship remains intact,
it is revenge as Kundera points out (in the guise of a punishment) that
brings an equilibrium to satiate the tormented soul. And going by the
formula presented through the case of the young lovers, it appears
misery begets misery. And the commonality of misery between the lovers
sets them as 'equals;' a state that permits the restoration of the love
that was momentarily lost on account of litost.
The illustrations of litost through the theme of non-platonic lovers,
brings Kundera to theorise that 'love becomes a permanent source of
litost.'
This could seem to be a contradictory point to what Kundera theorizes
on how the malady of misery finds its remedy in love. How ever it may
not be love itself that becomes 'a permanent source' of litost but a
breakage of the innumerable conditions that set the ground on which love
stands.
'Dependent arising' as taught in Buddhist doctrine would lend the
rationale to this line of discussion. One could reasonably argue that
love does not take place in a vacuum, and that love would arise
conditionally based on a great many factors that would apply to both the
subject and the object of his desires, as well as the context in which
they are found. If one or more of the crucial factors on which love
arose were to cease or temporarily disappear, the conditionality which
keeps love in place would be thrown into a flux, and a breakage would
occur. It may be that lapse in the construct that causes litost to
surface and be misread as being sourced in love itself. The modes of
litost impelled action are identified and illustrated as two fold by
Kundera, who maps out how power dynamics determine the outcome(s) of
this soul tormentor.
"If our counterpart is the weaker, we find an excuse to hurt him,
like the student hurting the girl who swam too fast...if our counter
part is the stronger, all we can do is choose circuitous revenge-the
indirect blow, a murder by means of suicide."
This elaboration on how the face of litost changes on the basis of
power dynamics brings to light the two ends of the spectrum, where power
play becomes a determinant on the action options for a litost victim.
Just as the lovers were a storyline on which litost was illustrated by
Kundera he also presents scenarios by which litost can be understood as
a cause of self destruction opted for willingly by an individual.
Kundera conjures up n incident between a child who is harshly
criticised by his violin teacher for making mistakes, and not playing in
tune. The power dynamic at play posits the child as the weaker and
certainly incapable of retaliation. Yet his ability to exact revenge
would be through deliberately continuing what he is reproached for until
the teacher acts violently towards the child and is made guilty of
committing a legally punishable offence. And in this scheme of action
and events the tormented child would exact revenge at the expense of his
own well being.
Kundera builds this theorem in the following lines - "The child plays
a wrong note on his violin over and over until the teacher goes mad and
throws him out of the window. As he falls, the child is delighted by the
thought that the nasty teacher will be charged with murder."
Referring also to history of the classical age, the Persian army's
prevailing over the unyielding contingent of Spartans is cited by
Kundera as an instance of litost at work, becoming a destructor o the
victim who is dissuaded from rational thinking for self preservation.
The idea of 'pride' which can lead to one's own destruction may also be
read as an underlying sub-text when Kundera says -
"[T]hey were blinded by tears of rage and refused to take any
reasonable action, being capable neither of fighting better nor of
surrendering or fleeing, and it is through litost that they allowed
themselves to be killed to the last man."
Defiance of the unconquerable aggressor however admirable it maybe
leads to inevitable destruction when courage disregards the voice of
reason for survival. The birth of the notion of litost, Kundera
attributes to the turmoil wracked Bohemia and its tragic inheritance of
conflict throughout the ages which the author calls "an endless story of
rebellions against the stronger." He cites how litost impelled the voice
of its people to mark defiance against Soviet aggression which took
place in the latter half of the 20th century.
"[I]n August 1968 thousands of Russian tanks occupied that amazing
small country, I saw a slogan written on the walls of a town: "We don't
want compromise, we want victory!" You must understand, by then there
was no more than choice of among several varieties of defeat, but this
town rejected compromise and wanted victory! That was litost talking!"
Citizenry
The resistance of Bohemian citizenry however futile it maybe, one
should note, had the frugal satisfaction of chance for expression, which
was not a dignity the unhappy child learning the violin could afford
with the censorious teacher.
In such a set up the tormented victim of litost wields the power to
be a destructor who eliminates both himself and the force that battered
him.
However neither the Spartans nor the Bohemian resistors could ensure
the destruction of the respective forces that beleaguered them, while
both could seal their own respective annihilation. This would seem to
demonstrate that the self- destruct action mode of litost takes two
levels, dependent again on power dynamics.
The paradigm of litost as an emotio-psychological state of the
muffled man (who is disallowed expression in the face of insurmountable
force, as is the case of the child taking violin lessons) appear to
contain within itself the only possible remedy to the predicament caught
in. And that is the act of the suicide bomber, which in this article's
discussion will be termed 'the Kamikaze solution.'
It is strongly relatable to ongoing modern contemporaneous war
scenarios. The Palestinian jihad warrior who I made in to a walking bomb
is erased of his state of empty, hopelessness and turns productive for a
cause through destruction.
The separatist Tiger terrorist who lunges to the given target to
become a death dealer are emotional captives within a form litost, with
'the Kamikaze solution' as the sole act within the scope of
possibilities that can uplift them from a state of disempowered
unimportance.
'The Kamikaze solution' may offer the scope of gaining an end at the
expense of his own end which may be desirable than a continuance of
existence which is empty of fruit and gain.
The extinguishing of the enemy who is deemed the destroyer and the
denier of his emotional and mental satisfactions may be the only
satisfaction a dire victim of litost is able to experience.
It is a recipe which builds the rationale for martyrdom. 'The
Kamikaze solution' is an act opted for by the abjectly helpless who are
faced with insurmountable odds that threaten to efface the very face of
their existence.
Litost, then arises when the individual is in crisis of existing as a
being denied of his human dignities. Kundera's thesis of litost seems to
carry a critique of commonly held conceptions and perceptions of heroism
and admiration of martyrdom. The formulae of injury and self destruction
seem to be elements that define litost and the outcomes of those who
become its captives.
It is a yearning for revenge in the denial of happiness regardless of
the costs. Kundera, in expounding a theory of this emotio-psychological
state also defines it through the nature of its outcome when he says- "A
man possessed by it takes revenge through his own annihilation." |