Thought ... what a concept.First Hitchens, and now Havel; the grim reaper is having a pre-Christmas harvest spree, taking men of letters as oblivious shoppers revel in the ephemeral.
Appropriately, the Guardian's obituary is not a casual or fast read, but rather seeks to convey the nuances and ambiguities surrounding Havel's own life and the experience of the Czech lands during the course of a tumultuous century.
Václav Havel obituary: Czech playwright and former dissident who led his nation after the collapse of communism, by WL Webb (Guardian)
... After the Soviet invasion that turned the Prague spring of 1968 to long winter, he became a leading dissident, a founder of Charter 77 and Vons (the Czech acronym of Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted), and spent much of his 40s in and out of prison. Finally, he emerged as the effective voice of the crowds that, after 20 years of sullen resentment, at last exploded in Wenceslas Square in the winter of 1989 and, having postered all of freezing Prague with the slogan Havel na Hrad! (Havel to the Castle!), did indeed send him across the river and up the hill to the castle as president of the reborn republic.
A brief Q&A with Bush 1 at the White House as a young man left me feeling patronized and isolated. A simple wave from Havel at the castle a few years later had the exact opposite effect.
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