19. Most disliked popular books?

Controversial, I like it!

One book in particular I have a beef with? Žert (The Joke) by Milan Kundera. He's the Czech author that is most likely to be known by foreigners (apart from Kafka) which only adds to my sense of frustration. The really annoying thing is that he was a genuinely really talented writer, but the sheer amount of sexism in that book makes my skin crawl.

The main protagonist of The Joke just seems like a blatant self-insert character (and I swear I never wanted to punch a literary character so much before or after!) The two prominent female characters can be described as: a) the dumb innocent twit that the hero wants to save b) the evil emancipated woman who gets punished in a weirdly quasi-sadistic super uncomfortable scene towards the end. Yikes.

So whenever I'm abroad and some guy tells me 'oh you're Czech? I have a favourite Czech author!' my mind just automatically goes 'Please say Kafka'.

In honour of the EU Parliamentary Elections, let me briefly interrupt the staple frev/classics posting and tell you about the terrible, beautiful insanity that is the Czech political scene.

Okay, so we have three brothers who are all in politics, except each of them is in a party that is diametrically opposed to the other two.

I know it sounds like something straight out of a sitcom, but I swear that I'm not making this up

Hi, thank you for asking and sorry for taking so long!

22. Random historical fact about the place you are at the moment

Hope I don't accidentally dox myself, but I'm currently here:

Aka the Library of Czech Academy of Sciences where I get to embody the dark academia aesthetic have a space to diligently work on my thesis.

Anyway, here's the random historical trivia: the two statues you can see in the first photo are apparently Thrift (Hospodárnost) and Frugality (Spořivost). That's because when the building was constructed in the 19th century, it first belonged to the Czech Savings Bank.

12. What do you think about English translations of your favourite native prose/poem?

I don't think I'll ever came across any translations of Czech poetry or prose. I'll need to look into it, but it's actually a really interesting question.

Update: managed to find one of my favourite Czech poets translated here!

It's definitely a valiant effort, but since most of the original poems have an ABAB rhyming scheme which is almost untranslatable it doesn't necessarily capture the feel of the original. Still, really nice that someone took the time to actually do it.

13. does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?

Oh boy do we. I tried to explain it to slightly horrified-looking Western Europeans more times than I could count.

Basically, on Easter Monday, we have a tradition of men whipping women with a bundle of sticks tied together. They recite a poem while doing it and after it, the women give them a decorated egg. It's usually interpreted as a fertility ritual.

I fully realise it sounds kind of terrifying, but I promise it's not as bad as it sounds. It's mostly symbolic. Like you don't go full-on with the whipping unless you're a total jerk. There has been a lot more emphasis on consent in the recent years. There's a window of time when girls can get their revenge by splashing water on the boys as well.

I've also recently found out about the Roman festival of Lupercalia and ever since then, I kind of see it as the Lupercalia's spiritual successor?

Non-english speaker's problems

I desperately need to translate the phrase "don't kinkshame me" to my native language so I can use it ASAP...