The Unbearable Lightness of Being Part 6, Chapter 8 Summary

  • The senator's comment was silly because he couldn't know that children meant happiness.
  • His heart, not his brain, was speaking.
  • In the realm of kitsch, the heart is a dictator. Kitsch unites people by relying on the sentiments they share.
  • At seeing children playing, kitsch causes two tears to flow.
  • The first is moved by the children running on the grass. The second is moved by the fact that the first tear flowed.
  • ]The second tear, says the narrator, "is what makes kitsch kitsch" (6.8.6). He adds that a brotherhood of man on earth will only be possible through kitsch.