While looking on JSTOR for some information on Klima, I came upon an interview published in The New England Review. Below I have selected a few points that interested me the most, and the link to the full interview is at the end of the post.
The interviewer, Rob Trucks, talked to Klima in the Spring of 1999.
Trucks asked Klima what he thought the "Great Czech Novel" would be (as many say Huckleberry Finn is the "Great American Novel"). Klima said The Grandmother by Bozena Nemcova was the first novel in Czech literature as well as a "Bible of Czech literature." It is a collection of stories. He also says K. H. Macha is the greatest poet, with his greatest poem being "May," an epic poem (found here: http://www.lupomesky.cz/maj/may.html). But more interestingly, for later work, Klima says Kundera's The Joke and Svorkecky's The Cowards are great novels.
When speaking about Judge on Trial, Klima admitted that he hates it only because he rewrote it so many time. He said that the experiences in the novel are very autobiographical, but Adam doesn't equal Ivan.
Two quotes that stood out to me from the interview are:
- "Censorship may add to a book's appeal but it can add nothing to its wisdom." (excerpted from a fiction work of Klima's: My Golden Trades, "The Smuggler's Story")
We talked about censorship in class a couple of weeks ago and how that adds/detracts from a book's reading. It is very insightful that while more people want to read it because it is censored, it doesn't make the book any better. This relates to the government giving meaning to works of art just because they censor them, whether or not the author or artist intended for that meaning. The artist's work is what it is - other people cannot add to it by banning it. They just make the acquisition of it harder, and the whole experience more exciting for the reader.
- "...but people need literature. They need something in common that they can discuss, that will unite them."
This is something that transcends the situation of Communist Czechoslovakia. We can appreciate this idea today. It is obvious from the enormous fanbases of books, mostly young adult literature (Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Twilight, etc.), that people will come together through their reading. However the experience is different for readers today and readers of literature in Czechoslovakia during the regime. While we read as a leisurely activity and have fun joining groups or writing fan fictions, as well finding a support system, Czech's used literature to give them hope and share the common experience when it felt like they were alone.
link to the full interview: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40244462
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