Dlouhé ucho – Bondy Egon (2020)

The manuscript, or rather the author's corrections of this very last prose work by Bondy (1997), was considered lost or destroyed for twenty years, so it was only after these textual materials were accidentally found and subsequently compiled in 2018 that it became possible to consider publishing this work. It is one of a series of Bondy's 'philosophical biographies' that evoke the life stories of prominent ancient or medieval thinkers, confronting their views with the present and with the author's own philosophical reflections. In this prose, which can be regarded in a certain sense as Bondy's 'last word', his intellectual testament, the story revolves around the semi-legendary Chinese philosopher Laozi, the founder of the philosophical concept of Taoism. In the story, we follow the departure of 'Long Ear', who is a precursor to Laozi, away from civilization, first to semi-barbaric border regions and then even further into the mountain wilderness, where he finally finds solitude, peace, and death. The story is enriched with many ancient Chinese realities, with which the author was well acquainted, as he spent the last years of his life more than ever before engaging with Chinese culture, philosophy, and especially Taoism.