Book Launch of Věčné časy (Eternal Times)

The speakers will be Jan Ruml, one of the authors of the book, as well as Ondřej Cihlář, on behalf of Cirkus totality.

The book launch starts in the Montmartre Gallery (Řetězová 7, Praha 1 - Old Town) on 30th April 2009 at 18.00.

In three parts, this publication offers three ways of remembering the totalitarian everyday life. The first part presents the confessional reflections of personalities from different generations and destinies: the views of Vaclav Havel on the early normalisation in contemporary letters to Alfréd Radok, further autobiographical essays by Jiřina Šiklová, Karel Hvížďala, Jan Ruml, and Martin C. Putna. The second part, whose author is the historian Kamil Činátl, forms a kind of anthropology of totalitarianism. Czechoslovakian totalitarian years create a collage of juxtaposed political, social and cultural events, as they absurdly met between 1945 and 1989. The terminology of totalitarianism constitutes a glossary of terms typical of everyday life under communism. There is also a listing of important domestic institutions that are engaged in totalitarianism. The book is accompanied by a wide selection of contemporary photographs and images of everyday life.