Bohemian Bohemian
Bohemian is a part of every freedom-seeking soul, with layers of lace, batik prints, leather tassels, handmade knots, embroidery and beads all classic elements of bohemian style. A folklore, a romance like never before.
Bohemia is a spiritual and cultural symbol, the "Gypsin girl who is injured and even smiles", the decadent cultural and artistic person, who pursues freedom and wanders the world. Debauchery, rebellion, spiritual freedom...
Bohemian Rhapsody
Can you, who are obsessed with Bohemia, really know, really understand Bohemian?
To find out, we'll start with the Czech Republic. You may not know much about czech past and present lives, but you always know Prague. If you understand Prague, you are close to the Czech Republic, and you know bohemia.
The green area is the Bohemia region of the Czech Republic, and from 1198 to 1918 AD is the kingdom of Bohemia
Today, 81.36% of Czechs are legendary Bohemians.
It can be said that Bohemia gave birth to Prague, and Prague also gave birth to many free souls...
To understand bohemia deeply, let's elaborate on three great Czech men. Kafka, Kundera, Foreman, three Czech men who pry the world, despite different nationalities, but Prague and Bohemia have an impact on them, it can be said that it is no less than Archimedes's fulcrum that prys the earth.
（1）
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924)
Cute big observer of melancholy fear
Statue of Kafka, Prague, by Jaroslav Róna
The first Czech man we're going to talk to is Franz Kafka.
Speaking of Kafka, you must know that the "beetle - Gregory" who was discriminated against and marginalized by society, and was treated coldly, disliked, hated and deformed by his family.
But you may not be able to deeply understand the contradictory, distorted world, let alone Kafka.
Kafka was first and foremost a melancholy man, at least as most of the world thought. As the chief of the melancholy writer, Kafka's melancholy is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Critics say that his writing stems from mental anxiety, and that what haunts him all his life is the lingering "fear." Kafka himself once said, "My essence is: fear." ”
Kafka in 1906
The strong proof is that at the age of 36, Kafka trembled and wrote a long letter of tens of pages to his father, but did not send it. It can be seen that his heart is extreme fear!
First page of Kafka's Letter to His Father
But is Kafka really just a melancholy man with fear in his heart?
As a young man, Kafka was always worried that people would find that he would be disgusted mentally and physically. However, those who had known him felt that he was a quiet and personable boy, with a cold humor, and that, despite his simple appearance, he was a handsome young man.
It can be seen that the real Kafka is still a very cute boy.
Brod, Kafka's lifelong friend, said: Kafka is one of the most interesting people he has ever met, Kafka likes to share humor with his friends and is willing to give good advice to friends in distress. According to Blod, Kafka was an enthusiastic reader, improvising and reaping the rewards; he could also sing a few passages in a minor key.
Therefore, in fact, Kafka also has a passionate little trouble in his body, of course, this should be the small luck that his close friends can have.
Another friend of Kafka's, Gustav, once wrote that Kafka hid his paintings, was so nervous that he tore them to pieces.
Kafka's painting manuscript
Kafka's own explanation was: "These are very personal and incomprehensible hieroglyphs, which I cannot show to people." These drawings are an old, deep-rooted presence of passion. That's why I'm trying to hide, this passion is deeply rooted in my heart, not on paper, this is my passion. ”
What kind of fear and caution is it to hide the passion?
In Brodd's eyes, Kafka's two most notable features are "absolute truthfulness (sincerity)" and "extreme harshness toward oneself." He explores the details, exhausts everything, the inconspicuous, buried in the depths, he will dig with love and refinement, let it surface, which seems strange, but it is absolutely true. This is Kafka.
Kafka's extremely harsh personality was also manifested in the fact that before his death, he asked his friend Brod to destroy all his unpublished works. At the last moment of life, I would rather bury my own efforts than fear that the world will see imperfect works.
And the depths of this extremely harsh personality are not inhabited by the fear of inferiority and extreme insecurity. And the strong contradiction between the absolute truth of the self and the hypocrisy and ugliness of society should also be a major source of his lifelong torment and suffering. Extreme harshness + extreme pain should also be the basis for the achievement of his great works.
Throughout his life, Kafka looked at everything with an attitude of observation, as if he were examining things rather than blending into them. As an Austro-Hungarian (Czech and Austrian) Jew living in Prague, Franz Kafka, the son of a successful Jewish merchant, a lifelong unmarried man who was three times unsuccessfully engaged, alienation, loneliness and fear were the eternal themes of his creations. The individuality of the person in Gregory is constantly eroded and suppressed by society and the family, until it is deformed, so where is Kafka's fate doomed? Perhaps the twisted and turbulent social pathology of family, lovers, Prague, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire before and after World War I was all the cause.
（2）
Milan Kundera (1 April, 1929—)
Choke on one millionth of life
Chinese fans know Milan Kundera because of "The Unbearable Lightness of Life", perhaps starting from the novel, or perhaps obsessed with the movie "Love of Prague". The understanding and interpretation of Kundera should start from "The Unbearable Lightness of Life", and the world is also paying more attention to and exploring the philosophy of "light and heavy life".
So, what exactly to choose? Is it heavy or light? The world is trapped in the "intersection of light or heavy choices" as if it is impossible to choose. Is it confined to the shackles of secular morality and traditional values – choosing the "weight of life", or being loyal to the little evil restlessness of the soul – choosing the "lightness of life"?
Treat everything with your own value judgments, not bound by any of the dominant ideas or ideas, and discover the uniqueness of one millionth of each person. This is the "lightness of life" that Thomas practiced, and this is not the absolute transcendence that Milan Kundera aspires to achieve in his heart.
Between humans and chimpanzees, the degree of DNA similarity is 96%, and the degree of similarity between people is even more similar, even if Einstein and Hitler are only one in a million differences between the two. Kitsch, on the other hand, is to kill this last millionth, which Thomas cannot accept. It was even more intolerable to Milan Kundera!
From the perspective of human nature, with the theme of positive emotions such as the love of lovers, the love of friends, and the love of home and country, a philosophical novel is presented to the world. "History is as light as an individual's life, as light as it cannot bear, as light as a feather, as light as a flying dust, as light as something that will disappear tomorrow."
"Mission? That's irrelevant. I have no mission. No one has a mission." Nothing is "necessary"!
Perhaps the one-millionth that chokes life is the Czech master Kundera, an alumnus of the philosophy department of Charles University in Prague, who has both "philosopher's wisdom and poet passion", and warns the world to keep the philosophy of life, which is also the greatness of Milan Kundera's achievements.
（3）
Miloš Forman (18 February 1932—)
Chasing "True Freedom"
Many people don't know Milos Foreman, who didn't spark a world-class wave of literary thought like Kundera, nor did he touch people's hearts like Kafka. It doesn't matter if you don't know a figurative person, but you know That Leap madhouse, the great film that prys the world of cinema, is the work of Czech director Milos Foreman.
Film TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
Milos Foreman, who is only two years younger than Kundera, is an alumnus of Kundera because they all attended the Prague Film Academy, one of Europe's premier film schools, on the banks of the Vltava River, the mother river of the Czech Republic, and downstairs is the famous Slavia Café, a meeting place for Czech intellectuals since Kafka's time, where celebrities meet and intellectuals speculate. The spark of the master's wisdom cannot but be said to be inspired and enlightened by such an atmospheric background.
Returning to the theme of Leaping Madhouse, you might think it's: The Pursuit of Freedom! Climb over walls, climb tree trunks, go outside, escape from this oppressive environment to murder... This is not difficult for Mike Murphy. Greatness is great because it jumps out of the limits of focusing only on the self. He seems to be an unruly, cynical, dangerous madman who pretends to be crazy and stupid; in essence, he has a clear mind, insight into the essence, and realizes the abomination of this system that suppresses human nature, and what he really pursues is to shake the foundation of the system of the hospital and give all people real freedom.
Prague Spring Democracy Movement, 1968
As a Prague Czech of Kundera's contemporaries, like Kundera, he has experienced turbulent political changes, and Prague, which is at the center of the political vortex, is shrouded in the clouds of World War II, capitalism, and communism, and like the smog of Beijing, no one can completely stay out of the matter.
After the Czech "Prague Spring" in 1968, Foreman went into exile in Europe, arrived in the United States in 1969, and in 1975 used film footage to transmit the "McMurphyian spirit of freedom" to the United States and the world. The theme of the Leap Madhouse focuses on "the system of the mental hospital", and the director's soul explores and thinks deeply is not the deeper "social system", accusing the cry and lament of human nature under the suppression of the powerful society?
Bohemian → Czech | tenacity – always moving forward!
From the Kingdom of Bohemia to today's Czech Republic, there are too many political variables in this land:
The Kingdom of Bohemia (9th century - 1806) → the Austrian Empire (1806-1867) → the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918) → Czechoslovakia (1918-1993.1.1) → the Czech Republic
Like the above three Czech masters who have leveraged the world, Bohemia, or the real strength of the Czech Republic, may not lie in the territory and economic prosperity of the country you can see, but in the obsession of the national spirit: truth, freedom (soul), thinking, conquering, pioneering → dreams; tenacity - always moving forward!
Just like Prague's 120-year-old car brand, Skoda Škoda Auto
1895: Václav Klement, a 26-year-old bookstore clerk with no technical experience and unyielding accidents, leads him to start a legendary car manufacturing business with bicycle manufacturer Václav Laurin, the Laurin & Klement company.
1906: Laurin & Klement's first car, the Voiturette A, debuts in Prague, and the success of the Voiturette A establishes its position in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and even in the world.
1925: Škoda Works, an Austro-Hungarian arms manufacturer, acquires Laurin & Klement in order to expand its car manufacturing footprint, thus beginning its history under the name of Škoda.
1945: The post-war reconstruction of Skoda begins a new chapter, starting with the first post-World War II car, the 1101 series.
Skoda 1101 Tudor Roadster (1949)
1960s: The Škoda Felicia, a compact four-cylinder convertible sedan exported to the United States, became the model of spacious, comfortable and luxurious coupe at that time.
Skoda Felicia (1959-1964)
In the 1970s-1980s, Škodas was common on the road in Britain and Western Europe. In the 1980s, Rapid was even portrayed as an "affordable version of Porsche" and achieved unprecedented success in the British market.
1990s: Under the wave of privatization of Czech state-owned enterprises, Volkswagen acquired 30% of the shares of Škoda Motors on April 16, 1991, and 70% of Volkswagen's shareholding weight in 1995/12/11, making ŠKODA Automotive the fourth largest brand of Volkswagen after Volkswagen (VW), Audi and SEAT (SEAT).
2015: Skoda is voted the most trusted car brand in the UK.
2016: As of August 2016, ŠKODA has sold in 102 countries worldwide.
Similar to the complex history of the Czech Republic, which has experienced many wars and coups, Škoda has experienced multiple variables such as war, destruction, reconstruction, and annexation in 120 years, but the brand spirit of "tenacity, freedom (soul), pioneering, and conquest" has always been there.
SKODA, one of the world's four oldest car manufacturers, pride of "Made in Prague", came to China in 2006 and will continue to "always move forward and use strength to create Skoda's masterpieces" in China.
Writing here, I am going to relive the "love of Prague", the light and heavy that life cannot bear, how will you choose and do it?
If you can't find the answer, it's absolute, so let's go and watch "Flying Over the Madhouse" again...