Living in Truth: 22 Essays Published on the Occasion of the Award of the Erasmus Prize to Vaclav Havel

by Václav Havel, Jan Vladislav (Editor)

Vaclav Havel is Czechoslovakia's leading playwright. For years he has been a victim of state repression.
Now, as the spokesman of Civic Forum, he has become the international voice of the country undergoing extraordinary political change. He has been described (in The Times) as "The uncrowned King of Prague."
Living In Truth is a witness to Havel's Struggle as a writer, and the essential testament to his beliefs.

Contents:
pt. 1. Six texts by Václav Havel --
Letter to Dr Gustáv Husák --
The power of the powerless --
Six asides about culture --
Politics and conscience --
Thriller --
An anatomy of reticence --

pt. 2. Sixteen texts for Václav Havel --
Catastrophe / Samuel Beckett --
Courtesy towards God / Heinrich Böll --
Prague : a poem, not disappearing / Timothy Garton Ash --
Ex-prophets and storysellers / Jiří Gruša --
From Variations and reflections on topics in Václav Havel's prison letters / Ladislav Hejdánek --
Citizen versus state / Harry Järv --
The chaste centaur / Pavel Kohout --
Conversations 36 / Iva Kotralá --
Candide had to be destroyed / Milan Kundera --
I think about you a great deal / Arthur Miller --
When I was still living in Prague / Zdena Salivarová --
The sorrowful satisfaction of the powerless / Milan Šimečka --
I saw Václav Havel for the last time / Josef Škvorecký --
Introduction to The memorandum / Tom Stoppard --
Letter to a prisoner / Zdeněk Urbǎnek --
On the house / Lukvík Vaculík.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Czech Literature, History, Philosophy, Essays, 20th Century

315 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Václav Havel was a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). He wrote over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally. He received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, the Order of Canada, the freedom medal of the Four Freedoms Award, and the Ambassador of Conscience Award. He was also voted 4th in Prospect Magazine's 2005 global poll of the world's top 100 intellectuals. He was a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.

Beginning in the 1960s, his work turned to focus on the politics of Czechoslovakia. After the Prague Spring, he became increasingly active. In 1977, his involvement with the human rights manifesto 'Charter 77' brought him international fame as the leader of the opposition in Czechoslovakia; it also led to his imprisonment. The 1989 "Velvet Revolution" launched Havel into the presidency. In this role he led Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic to multi-party democracy. His thirteen years in office saw radical change in his nation, including its split with Slovakia, which Havel opposed, its accession into NATO and start of the negotiations for membership in the European Union, which was attained in 2004.

Reviews

[Chaundra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got so angry at the dearth of media coverage after Havel's death (and more specifically at the depth of coverage given to a much more wicked man) that I went through my library looking for what of his writings I owned when I came across this volume. I forget where I bought it originally, no doubt from a used bookstore somewhere, and it had gathered more dust on my own shelves with only one lone bookmark 30 pages in where no doubt I had started reading and then got distracted by something else.

It's an odd little volume. The first half being a selection of Havel's own more philosophical writings rather than his better known dramatic works. The second half is a set of 16 pretty random "texts for Vaclav Havel". Some are fascinating others insipid and many just plain dull. The most interesting thing about the book though is that it was compiled on the cusp of what was to be a very momentous year indeed. The whole system was on the verge if collapse and yet here it is presented as something solid, frustratingly durable. It's a rare glimpse behind the curtain while there still was a curtain without an embarrassing prologue excusing it all away.

[Eduardo Santiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for surviving a totalitarian regime... or, if we're lucky, avoiding one. Havel's voice is beautiful. He writes with humility and uncompromising integrity on the importance of maintaining one's principles and dignity despite oppression. He stresses the need to avoid labels like “dissident,” declaring them meaningless and easily twisted; he calls instead for living honorable goals, for speaking truth and speaking out, defining yourself in affirmative terms instead of anti-tyranny.
Every war is unpredictably different; this coming one will be no exception. History has shown that peaceful resistance can effect surprising and (relatively) long-lasting change. Let's see how it goes.

[grandmother longlegs · Rating 5 out of 5]

During the darkest of times within the Czech Republic, the country in whole was guided by the brightest of lights. Václav Havel was able to relate to the simplest of man and the highest of scholars and uniting them in hopes of creating something out of a the barren land the communists had stripped bare. Havel's essays throughout Living in Truth, are inspiring, they show insight through one of this worlds greatest visionaries perspective, humble yet so passionate about the country he so desperately knew deserved better.

[Mantell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a series of essays about personal honesty and life in a totalitarian state (Czechoslovakia under Communism).
What optimism and belief in humanity to predict that Communism had to pass!
"Vitality cannot be suppressed forever. A secret streamlet trickles on beneath the heavy crust of inertia and bureaucratic pseudo-events, slowly undermining it. It may take a long time, but one day it must happen. The ice can no longer hold and begins to crack."

[P · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Power of the Powerless" is worth reading alone, but Havel's musings on being a dissident, the importance of culture, and the stories about Havel from people as diverse as Arthur Miller and Milan Kundera make this book worth reading.

[Bagus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Václav Havel as the first post-communist president of Czechoslovakia and later the first president of Czech Republic has brought into world attention his philosophy in this book: living in truth. His essays in this book are central into understanding the state of affairs in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, and especially in Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (CSSR). Havel actually came from a background that is far from the traditionalist sense of politics, he was a poet-playwright.

And while living as a playwright who in his daily life writes plays, he encountered unrest in his mind. That he and his other fellow artists in Czechoslovakia at that time, could not express themselves freely in their artistic expressions due to the limitations set by the communist regime. This was despite himself originally not actively opposed the regime, he constantly found himself in opposition with the people in power just by trying to express his artistic ideas which he thought should be free from repressions.

And thus, Havel began his telltale about dissidents and what they really want. His main notion is that dissidents are not people who actually oppose the political system at that time, but rather they are just people who want to live in truth and express themselves freely as what has been the tradition in European Humanist views. And on the way to express themselves, they found themselves labelled with the term opposition by the regime. I find that his essays as eye-opener to me, to get a glimpse inside the life in a former Eastern Bloc country. And it surely took great courage to write something like what Havel had put into words in this book, where the possible consequences might be prison sentence or execution.

It's a sad story that he could not stop Czechoslovakia from disintegrating into Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1992, while in the same year the Treaty of Maastricht was signed forming the European Union, an eventuality which I think has made borders between countries becoming less relevant and amid the ongoing globalisation. Nevertheless, this collection of essays have recorded Havel's thoughts and philosophy in addressing the repression of communist regime in Czechoslovakia. His way of explaining ideas is unique in the sense that he does not only use political terms and economic data, but he also incorporates humanist ideas into his essays. He cited a lot of quotes from Jan Patocka and Franz Kafka, two philosophers from Prague who have been great influences in his idea in conquering post-totaliarianism.

[R. Allain · Rating 5 out of 5]

The act of recognizing oneself in another human being seems an essential capacity of our species. And by extension, recognizing features of one's own political system elsewhere - say even in country under totalitarian rule, would seem an invaluable skill. Startled by such a recognition, one might - like some modern day Paul Revere, figuratively race about the republic warning one's complacent but eager fellow citizens, "The autocrats are coming! The autocrats are coming!" Because for me, playwright Vaclav Havel's Living in Truth, particularly its unforgettable 'Letter to Dr. Gustav Husak' communicated an indelible and painful truth, namely, the seeds of totalitarian rule - fully grown in 1975 Czechoslovakia, germinate here as well. Recognizing such things, needless to say, is deeply unsettling. But as a people, if we're committed to strengthening our democracy, highly necessary. In the letter to Husak, head of the Czech Communist Party, when the brave, euphoric Prague Spring had been crushed - one finds remarks that also recalled DC (and even mainstream America) under Donald Trump. For example, Havel writes: "All the fear one has endured, all the painful and degrading buffoonery, and the feeling of having displayed one's cowardice - all this settles and accumulates somewhere..." Indeed. Because in the final analysis, here Havel's remarkable 'cri de coeur' (impassioned protest), is an enduring plea for human dignity and rights. Like Moses in Egypt, Havel asserts that while his people may be subjugated and nearly crushed, a spark of resistance, though suffocating under the conformity and deep suffering the system exacts, flickers still. And finally, that through his witness, one of visionary courage and insight, Vaclav Havel demonstrates the power of hope - something we must urgently recognize.

[Andreea Idu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un volum pe care mi-aș fi dorit să-l citesc încă de când îmi pregăteam lucrarea de disertație. O colecție impresionantă de eseuri, discursuri și însemnări ale unei personalități bivalente (om politic și scriitor), care a reușit să influențeze nu doar parcursul istoric al unei țări, ci și să contribuie la mobilizarea și schimbarea unei mentalități. Una dintre cele mai bune și inspirate cărți pe care le-am parcurs vreodată. Recomand! 10/10

"Dușmanul nostru cel mai mare îl reprezintă astăzi propriile noastre defecte. Indiferența față de cauza generală, vanitatea, ambiția, egoismul, aspirațiile personale și rivalitățile." (pp. 41-42)

" [...] nicio structură nouă nu se va crea cu adevărat și nicio structură existentă nu va avea curajul să se schimbe cu adevărat fără ca gândirea, comportamentul și conștiința socială a oamenilor să se schimbe radical." (p. 108)

"În aceste țări oamenii au luptat din greu pentru libertatea după care tânjeau. Însă, în clipa în care au obținut-o fost luați prin surprindere [...] se tem de ea; nu știu cu ce s-o umple [...] semnele unei frici noi, frica de viitor." (p. 115)

Etc.

[Michael Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent essays (22) on the human spirit and the power of Truth. Even in totalitarian conditions, the power of the people comes from the final expulsion of the status quo by ones and twos who begin to find each other and reject the superficiality of political sloganeering that is felt by many but suppress it due to a subtle form of fear. The quiet compliance or acquiescence of the average citizen to political will can be undermined by people who decide "I'm not going to take it anymore!" It is an interesting read to see what Havel was saying in the 1970s and the results of people finally deciding to "live in truth" inside the soviet influenced system of his contemporary Czechoslovakia. I found some common ground for my own life as well. I'm especially fond of the essay titled "The power of the powerless".

[IJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Betting for good.
Live in truth.
Don't shirk your courage and responsibility.

[BM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for any and everyone. One of the most inspiring thinkers, writers, and human beings that has ever lived.

[Gosia Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book to impress my crush, now we're engaged so I guess it worked. review incoming!

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A timeless politics unwisely less-discussed than it should be. Read this on ideology.

[Hugh Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a fascinating collections of writings about trying to live as a dissident under authoritarianism from maybe the only playwright/president in history(at least as far as I’m aware of). There’s one particularly poignant section where Havel dissects how the Soviet Union perpetuated its regime in the minds and spirits of its occupied peoples. By making everyone dependent on and complicit in its various systems of oppression, when he decided to “live in truth” and speak out against the government, he was socially ostracized and reviled by his friends and family, not only to protect their social status and personal safety, but because living as a dissident made everyone in his community aware of their own moral failure.

[versarbre]

Quote:

[the ethical work] offers a ready answer to any question whatsoever. It can scarcely be
accepted only in part, and accepting it has profound implications for human life . . . all
one has to do is accept it, and suddenly everything becomes clear once more, life takes
on new meaning, and all mysteries, unanswered questions, anxiety, and loneliness vanish
. . . . (Havel, Living in Truth, 1983: 38–39).

[Jaindoh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit that I didn't have time to read the full text before I had to send the book back to the library, but the excerpts that I flicked through - both Havel's own writing in Part 1 and the pieces written to/for him in Part 2 (including Samuel Beckett's 'Catastrophe', Arthur Miller's 'I Think About You A Great Deal' and Milan Kundera 'Candide Had To Be Destroyed') I found thoroughly thought-provoking and a good insight into Czech culture and psyche.

[Sharad · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess this was supposed to speak to me but as a pampered east-west digerati, I'm probably just too far removed from the perspective.

[Meganhayes]

About socialism

[Bronwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book to read Havel's essay "The Power of the Powerless", written in 1978. I recommend it.

[Saul Hudacin]

incredible