july and august continued

I discovered Czech writer, Vitezslav Nezval, while doing some light research prior to my eastern european trip and got into some of his poetry. One I am quite fond of:

St Wenceslas Square at Evening

Sun-tanned girls
Like dark church corners
Indistinguishable from the wall
Which they form
Under the lamps in which the wind whistles

Good evening unknown lady
Dressed in the smells of the yawning street
How I adore you how I love you
One more day and we shall keep our illusions
Prague is blending with all other cities
As you blend with all women
Each having its own subtly different illusive perfume



Published in Nezvals, Prague with Fingers of Rain, a collection of poems whose backbones are the streets of Prague. He was one of the most momentous avant-garde Czech writers of his time ( the first half of the 20th century), and a co-founder of the surrealist movement in Czechoslovakia.

 It was a nice surprise when someone suggested one of his books to me in Prague.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, a bizarre erotic, gothic, vampire, fairy tale, intriguing, and unlike most of his other work. Quite fitting with society`s recent fang obsession, here i will unabashedly confess to my childhood walking dead obsession. I was excited about this piece, I can`t tear away from the glamour and sexual titillation of vampires.

He wrote this novel in 1935 which was quite controversial at the time. Valerie is on the threshold of puberty. Blood represents life, the sight of blood usually represents death and in Valerie`s case blood represents sexuality and a step towards womanhood. Her week of wonders is implicitly her first week of menstruation. It`s extremely sexual and innocent at the same time, as is the experience with many young women including myself . You do need a strong imagination to revel in this book, which i am not short of. My imagination is what I have always had and taken comfort in. It`s a great surrealist novel as well as an entertaining gothic fairy tale. Well written, entertaining and open for interpretation.

I am also dying to see the highly acclaimed adaptation of the novel in the 1970 film by Jaromil Jireš ,  It looks breathtakingly beautiful.




this is the more mellow trailer