Litost

I finished Kundera's book.  In my own view, it was offered in a spirit of Litost to the supporters of "Progress", of "Rationality", and of Meaning as expressed by the Party, and the rape of Czechoslavakia.

Temina is who the book is about.  He says that.  And she drowns, under the watchful and uncaring eyes of the "angels", who are the embodiment of officially expressed sadism and emotional disconnection.

Angels represent, he says, meaning.  Demons, loss of meaning.  And laughter was invented by the demons in a spirit of mockery.

And we are subjected to an orgy conducted in a spirit of seriousness, of "meaningfulness", which is disrupted by, in this context, demonic laughter.  A funeral, likewise.  A group of nudists, likewise, with Kundera ending his novel pining for a return to innocence, and basic human emotion undetermined by manias of any sort.

This is only my view, but in opinion Kundera was mocking the very people who praised him, most of whom, looking at the reviews, can be assumed…