Postscript: Vaclav Havel, 1936-2011
In a parallel universe, in a luckier realm, Havel would have lived out his life as a Czech epigone of Ionesco and Beckett, a carefree son of privilege, free to write, to pursue his pleasures, to listen to the rock ‘n roll he loved. Instead, like a living figure from Kafka, he was born to a system where absurdity, not law, ruled; calmly, resolutely, he pursued a life of dissidence, led a revolution, and then assumed a home in the Castle, the seat of power in liberated Prague…
– David Remnick remembers Vaclav Havel: http://nyr.kr/vdUGhA
When poets become presidents. And another thought: what would Mario Vargas Llosa have done had he won?