Cestovní eseje z let 1991-2008 – Komárek Stanislav (2018)

Essays on other countries and cultures form a distinctive part of Stanislav Komárek's essayistic production. This volume captures their 'older' dimension – from the very beginnings to the transitional period associated with the economic crisis, focusing on both European and non-European countries, those traditionally counted as 'West' and those often understood as 'East'. Which of the author's expectations and judgments have been fulfilled in the meantime, and which have not? Why travel at all in the age of the internet? What is judgment and what is prejudice? How do different cultures view each other? Do we assess others primarily and practically only in terms of their willingness to resemble us? What is distinctive in each cultural sphere and nation? To what extent should we support national peculiarities – ethnic delicacies yes, self-immolation of widows no? Does not each culture have differently arranged charms and horrors, sincerity and hypocrisy, sophistication and primitivism, tenderness and brutality, wisdom and folly? How much can be conveyed about other countries and how much must be experienced? To what extent is knowledge transferable? To read about a cesspool and to fall into one... Where do we project our lost paradise and where hell? Do birds in Guyana not ultimately have wings and beaks, people heads, hands, and feet, and houses windows and doors?