Slow down.-Vincent

Vincent-lost in speed and forgetfulness.

"Everyone is eager to get what they want in the first place. Time is cut into disconnected moments, leaving a blank in the memory after the incident, so this era of speed will also be a forgotten era. " With the arrival of modernization, the pace of people's life is getting faster and faster, which brings more anxiety, weakness and panic to people.

In the novel Slow, Kundera tells us the story that happened overnight in a hotel converted from a castle in France. This night, the hotel became a big stage. Everyone is a "dancer" who puts on airs and performs hard under the influence of self-expansion. Everyone is eager to be noticed, and everyone is looking for the value of self-existence in the eyes of others.

For Vincent, the protagonist in the work, his appearance has set a misunderstanding for his own existence. He attended the insect seminar in order to make a scene here. He has always emphasized the contemptibility of "dancer", but he is consciously imitating the existence of "dancer", living according to the established value system, indulging in it, and taking pains for his self-righteous self-worth.

Vincent is the worst and weakest performer in tonight's performance. In anxiety and powerlessness, in the established value system, he consciously became a dancer and unconsciously made a series of crazy moves. He imitated Ponte's "girlfriend thing" theory and dancer's theory, but it didn't achieve the expected effect. Instead, it caused a sharp attack from the three-piece youth and hurried out with ridicule. Later, Vincent thought that "the real victory is the only victory worth fighting for, that is, to seduce and conquer a woman quickly in the desolate and asexual world of entomologists." So he decided to seduce the typist Julie.

Sex is often a means for the characters in Kundera's works to acquire themselves. In his works, Vincent regards sex as a manifestation of self-awareness. He wrote, directed and performed a simulated sexual intercourse, but the performance ended in failure. In order to comfort himself, Vincent wrote and directed a group sex in his mind. The representative of the imaginary "plural penis" made him very happy. However, in the eyes of the knight (representing slowness and memory), Vincent became weak and unable to tell people about his "wonderful" night, just wanting to forget it quickly. At this time, he had an infinite desire for speed, and he thought of his motorcycle-using its speed to get rid of the whole terrible night.

"The degree of slowness is directly proportional to the intensity of memory, and the degree of quickness is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting." Fastness and forgetfulness make people lose themselves, while slowness and memory make people realize their existence. From beginning to end, Vincent was like a weak child. He was led by his unconscious madness, unable to control himself, and lost himself step by step at a crazy speed.

References:

Milan Kundera's slowness

The Light of Dialogue by Li Fengliang Liyan