Study Guide

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Part 6, Chapter 8

By Milan Kundera

Part 6, Chapter 8

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.

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