Slowness

"Slowness," Milan Kundera's seventh novel, tells, in parallel, my love stories; one in the eighteenth century, which witnessed an atmosphere of liberation and openness, is slow and flavorful, while the other, set in our era, is fast and sarcastic. The author, while glorifying slowness in this novel, invites us to awareness of "the secret bond that connects slowness with memory, and speed with forgetfulness." In this world where the speed of everything continues to grow, Kundera sees that we have lost the memory that leads us to pleasure and enables us to feel enjoyment in living the present. Kundera highlights in this novel the concept of current love relationships that no longer embody intimate feelings between two individuals but are a kind of artificial display in front of others. In this sense, the novel "Slowness" is a reflection on redefining the boundaries between the spaces of intimacy and privacy on one hand, and the public on the other, in a world where everything has become governed by speed and haste. In this work, we once again find elements of strangeness, lightness, and humor, which are the elements that shape Kundera's style, as well as opinions on the world, politics, intellectuals, media, love, desire, and sexual liberation; these are the themes dear to this great writer.