The Unbearable Unfamiliarity of Being (in Prague)

Cerny's King Wenceslaus.
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After ten days in the Czech Republic and five days in Prague, I feel that any understanding of the place is receding from my grasp rather than getting closer. I was not troubled by strangeness when I visited China since I expected it and I simply enjoyed the exoticism. I somehow expect this country, as part of Europe, to feel more familiar than it actually does.

Doug’s reactions have been somewhat different. He observes the basic human interactions within families and among friends here and feels that they are more familiar to him than what he sees in Germany or in Italy. I, on the other hand, feel somewhat alienated by knowing so little of the language—a European language! one I should speak!—and also by how little I really know of Czech history and culture. Dvorak and Smetana, yes. Kafka, of course. Jan Hus and Charles IV, okay. František Bilek? Josef Čapek? Jaroslav Hašek? Uh, no.

Cerny's Hanging Out.
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The motto of the Czech Republic, adapted from a famous statement of Hus, is Pravda vitezi: “Truth prevails.“ It’s on the Czech flag and on the wall of St. Vitus Cathedral and in a different form on the massive Jan Hus statue in Old Town Square. I find it a very powerful statement when I think of the country’s tragic history right up through the Nazi and Soviet occupations and now its current state of freedom and prosperity. On the other hand, I think Pilate’s question to Jesus—what is truth?—was not a foolish one. After all, “Truth prevails“ was the Czech motto during the Soviet occupation also.

Jan Hus in Old Town Square.
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The contemporary Czech artist David Černy suggests that Czechs don’t take life as seriously as we do in the U.S., and that their ironic approach to life comes from being invaded so many times. I’ve come across a number of his works as I’ve explored Prague.

Černy's “Hanging Out“ is on a street not far from our apartment. It apparently provoked some calls to the police when it first went up. His “Piss“ is over in Mala Strana across the river. The two men rotate their pelvises and move their penises up and down to create streams of water that write out quotations from famous Czech writers. You can text a phone message to a number displayed next to the the sculpture and the men will “write“ it out for you. Note that the fountain base is shaped like a map of the Czech Republic. And is that Sigmund Freud who’s hanging out? I can’t tell. Then there’s the parody of the St. Wenceslaus statue in Wenceslaus Square. Černy’s version of the good king sits on a very dead upside down horse, and hangs in a shopping center not far off the square.

The poster is better than the museum.
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I will have to try to pull together some of these observations when I get back. Right now? Just fresh realization of how little I know of Central Europe and the Slavic world.