EK’s Reviews > The Melancholy of Resistance > Status Update

I’m not entirely confident on this thought because the tone and timbre have changed dramatically from the first section, but I think Valuska is potentially a representation of the hopeful optimist without a cause that is unable to see what is right in front of him.

Is it willful blindness or an inability to make out shape and form? Unclear at the moment. Could change my mind on this!

Mrs. Eszter feels like she is another metaphor for the state. Tearing down everything in its path on its mission to the intended end. Careless to any despair left in its wake.

She lays in her bed after indulging in grotesque hedonism - the sleeping giant. The mice slowly cross the room, careful not to wake her, hyper-aware that something unsettling is present. She is the state. The mice are the people.

Brilliant.

Mrs. Eszter and Mrs. Plauf seem to act as foils to each other. They are more similar than they would like the think.

I am completely blown away by the extended metaphor of Mrs. Plauf. I feel as though I am experiencing living under an oppressive regime, always slightly uneasy & out-of-sorts.

My neck is tightening a bit from the experience.

Nicely done so far LK.

The opening pages of MOL are, so far, more gripping than Satantango.

The atmosphere more claustrophobic.

Mrs. Plauf’s experience seems to be a metaphor for the misunderstanding of citizens under the slow creeping, gas light-y oppressiveness of a totalitarian state.

I think LK’a writing from Mrs. Plauf’s perspective is rather impressive & shows he has an understanding of female anxieties & experience.