Exit Havel, Stage Left

Havel

December 20, 2011

Allan Stevo

As you may have heard, Vaclav Havel passed away this week – December 18, 2011.  The dissident playwright was imprisoned by the communist government of Czechoslovakia only to emerge from jail barely long enough to get involved again with the opposition movement and to oversee the overthrow of that government in the Velvet Revolution of 1989 before he was appointed and later officially elected President of Czechoslovakia.  He helped throw his tormentors out of power and then replaced them in their offices.

As you see his name in the news this week, you may wonder, as I did until I was 22 or so, why his name is spelled as if it should be pronounced Vaklav, but is pronounced Vatzlav.  His name in Czech is pronounced not Vaklav, but Vatzlav, as the letter “c” in these languages represents the equivalent of a “tz” or “ts” together in English as in the words Switzerland or cats.

If you have a careful ear you may wonder, like I did, about his unusual accent.  Shortly after learning to pronounce Havel’s first name, I soon after came to realize that he had a speech impediment – he was unable to roll the letter “R” when he spoke.  Most English speakers would not think of that as a speech impediment, but that’s only because most English speakers do not have a need to roll the letter R.  While watching old tapes from November and December 1989, I noticed that Havel spoke differently from the others.  He had his own accent.  ”Račkuje” my friend said to me in Slovak, which in English meant  ”He doesn’t know how to roll the letter R.”

If you have never read Havel, you may wonder how you can find a piece written by him.  I’m going to recommend this short one written about a controversy surrounding fellow Czech writer Milan Kundera.  It’s not a play, only a brief essay.  I like it because it gives a quick, complicated view into the morass of paranoia and complexity that these men lived through, that all of Czechoslovakia lived through (though perhaps not always to the extent of a writer like Havel).   The world was not a black and white one for them.

There were some Slovaks who loved Havel for his Czechoslovakness (a united federal state of the Czechs and Slovaks) and others who disliked him precisely for his Czechoslovakness (a united federal state in which the Czechs were the elder brothers).  Along with that were a host of other reasons he was either adored or not appreciated.  It is undeniable though that Vaclav Havel was a part of the history of Slovakia.

Yesterday Slovakia’s most well recognized political cartoonist “Shooty” ran a tribute to show his feelings for the playwright as he exits stage left.  You can find Shooty’s cartoon at this link (he appears regularly in the Slovak daily SME) or you can find the cartoon at the top of the article that you are currently reading.

I have little ability to judge Havel from an unbiased perspective.  He was a fellow writer, a kindred spirit.  A friend from Pennsylvania, an attorney, some 40 years my elder once called Havel the philosopher king that Plato wrote about.  He was a dissident that pushed his tormentors out of power and then replaced them in office, which on its own offers cause to celebrate the man.

My views of Havel are romanticized and incredibly unrealistic.  Once I met him at a birthday celebration and presented him with a collection of my poems.  Everyone at that celebration spoke to him in either Slovak or Czech.  I spoke English to him in hopes that I would stand out in his head.  I’m pretty sure he did not understand a single word that came out of my mouth.

I, like many of the visitors to this region, aren’t loaded with the right kind of baggage to blame Havel.  We don’t know of things like how he closed Slovak munitions factories and allowed Czech munitions factories to prosper.  We don’t know about his dramatic love life.  We don’t have the cultural knowledge to say to a Slovak the way a Slovak once said to me “He’s nothing but a bar-room prophet.”  Havel is a romantic idea. I can do no honor to anyone by writing about a man from that perspective.

Because of my strong biases on the topic, I hope you’ll forgive me for not writing more about Havel at this time.  With every newspaper in the world eulogizing the man, there’s little I could say that would meaningfully add to the discussion.  Maybe months or years from now I will feel that I have something to add.  But maybe below you’ll have some thoughts to add on this topic where mine are lacking.

At the same time, Shooty’s cartoon was too nice for me to not share with you.  I’ve noticed that the readers of these pages are always very appreciative of little cultural tidbits like Shooty.

What are your thoughts?  Does the name Vaclav Havel ring a bell?  Did he mean much to you?  I invite you to share your thoughts about Havel. Was he a “bar room prophet” that got lucky or a playwright and political dissident extraordinaire who earned his place in history?

Allan Stevo writes on Slovak culture at www.52inSk.com.  He is from Chicago and spends most of his time travelling Europe and writing.  You can find more of his writing at www.AllanStevo.com.  If you enjoyed this post, please use the buttons below to like it on Facebook or to share it with your friends by email.  You can sign up for emails on Slovak culture from 52 Weeks in Slovakia by clicking here.