Feldman's Faves: July 22, 2024

GOOD MORNING

And greetings from Arizona where it is about 10,000 degrees in the shade at 5 am.  If you have the choice, I  don’t recommend you visit here in July…..

While I try to avoid discussing politics in this forum it is virtually impossible not to acknowledge the historical decision made by Joe Biden yesterday. Love him or hate him you have to admire that he is a person who put the best interests of the country ahead of his own ego. A very good lesson in leadership for the entire world to admire.

No theme this week – just random topics of interest.

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING By: Milan Kundera – I first discovered Milan Kundera and his work 30 years ago, when I was a pretentious graduate student studying in Paris (how pretentious does that sound….). Kundera lived around the school from where I was studying and seeing him roam the streets of the Left Bank were quite exciting, like seeing a Kardashian today…. Following a recent trip to Paris I thought it might be a fun idea to reread Kundera’s classic, The Unbearable Lightness of Being to see if my understanding and perspective of his writing and ideas would have changed given all that has happened over the last thirty years – the life in Prague he describes under Soviet rule is now a relic of the past, the “carefree” lifestyle of his various characters is still one I have yet to have, and his ideas of how one’s history, baggage and upbringing impacting one’s own take on life makes even more sense to me now than it did when I first read it.  This book is in many ways a time capsule exploring Czech society from the Prague Spring of 1968 to the invasion of the Soviet Union and how people lived their lives in the aftermath (e.g., Tomas, the protagonist and a surgeon becomes a window as a result of his defiance of the regime). Kundera does a really interesting job of weaving together the lives of his main characters (including a pet dog) and the complexity of relationships (in particular monogamous ones – favourite theme of his) and how the politics of the time shapes our lives. In a time of political uncertainty today, his ideas do have resonance.  As one reviewer notes, “I can't remember precisely when I read my first Kundera or which it was, because once I had started I couldn't stop until I emptied them all. Fresh from the English classics at Oxford and finding my feet on a south London rag, a little sheltered, very impressionable, I was drawn into a restless world of ideas and characters in which nothing is how we first perceive it, and meaning and motive are bent like light refracting through a prism. It was heady stuff, original and subversive. I was brought up in a Lincolnshire market town, went to the local grammar; at 16 I was a communist, by 17 a Roman Catholic. I read Graham Greene and Iris Murdoch, and was as intoxicated by Goody Pangall's red hair as the unfortunate Dean in Golding's study of obsession, The Spire. I chased and caught girls but spent many hours in prayer too. And the church seemed as interested in sex as I was. I didn't pray that much at university, but I found another faith: I was in love. It was the early Eighties, with causes aplenty for a born believer: liberation theology and the Labour Party of Foot and Benn, republicanism in Ireland, nuclear disarmament at home. I believed in what Kundera describes as "The Grand March" to universal brotherhood that goes ever onwards through history. For Kundera this is "kitsch" – the triumph of sentiment over reason – but I clung to the hope like a limpet to a rock. I became a journalist and set out with Kundera on a journey away from "the noisy foolishness of human certainties". He had made the same journey in Czechoslovakia, from communist to outcast, turning his back on "the totalitarian world" where there is an answer to everything. Published in Kundera's exile in 1984, The Unbearable Lightness of Being explores the idea of "lightness" and heaviness – emptiness and meaning – through the story of two couples; Tomas the surgeon and womanizer who loves his wife, Tereza, and Sabina, a painter conducting an affair with a Swiss lecturer, Franz. It's a tapestry of ideas woven through the lives of the characters by the teasing voice of the author-narrator. Can Franz begin to understand why Sabina is excited by betrayal, or Tereza appreciate what drives Tomas from conquest to conquest? They have been shaped by such different experiences they are unable to interpret each other's feelings and actions – with comic, sometimes tragic consequences. As a writer, it is the skill with which Kundera opens up that gap between perception and reality that I admire so much. This is a shamelessly clever book – at times a little cold – but exhilaratingly subversive and funny. Kundera takes you by the scruff of the neck and shakes you pitilessly: "Is that what you really believe? Is that what you are like?" Can you ask more of a novel?” Kundera deals with existential questions in a way that is thoroughly readable and entertaining. I cannot recommend him enough if you are a looking for superlative writing. Here is a good review from the archive of the NYT - https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/17/specials/kundera-unbearable.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

How I Built This with Guy Raz - Dave’s Hot Chicken: Arman Oganesyan- My daughter and her boyfriend opened my eyes to the deliciousness that is Dave’s Hot Chicken, which is now a treat that I indulge in far too often. I love this PODCAST because you learn the origin story of businesses that are huge successes today and it is clear that this was not a sure thing. It is amazing how this business went from a pop up in LA (since the guys couldn’t afford a food truck) to one of the most successful and profitable fast food franchises in the US (with a presence in Canada, Dubai and eventually all over the world).  The food is really good but I strongly recommend that you avoid the hottest of their hot sauces (reaper) for which you would need to sign a waiver. I think that says it all…..Here is an excerpt from the PODCAST itself, “Dave’s Hot Chicken began as a tiny pop-up, selling spicy chicken tenders and fries from a tent in East Hollywood. Their homemade take on Nashville Hot Chicken was an overnight sensation in a city that had barely heard of it, and within days, co-founder Arman Oganesyan and his partners were working frantically to serve the long lines out front. Since launching seven years ago, the pop-up has grown into a chain of 200 stores, with franchises across the country, and a beloved rubber chicken mascot.” https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?i=1000657476669

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon