{"id":322,"date":"2024-07-10T17:22:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T15:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pluh2.wordpress.com\/?page_id=322"},"modified":"2024-07-10T17:22:09","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T15:22:09","slug":"sokrates-na-rovniku","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/sokrates-na-rovniku\/","title":{"rendered":"Sokrates na rovn\u00edku"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Socrates at the Equator)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u201c\u2018Socrates at the Equator\u2019 opens your eyes. Hopefully for a long time, or better yet, permanently.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Mlad\u00e1 fronta DNES
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About the Book<\/summary>\n
Original Title<\/strong><\/td>Sokrates na rovn\u00edku<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/strong><\/td>2013<\/td><\/tr>
Publisher<\/strong><\/td>Mishkezy, Prague<\/td><\/tr>
Pages<\/strong><\/td>198<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Socrates on the Equator<\/em> is a non-fiction book on the theme of Czech author Tom\u00e1\u0161 Zme\u0161kal’s search for his Congolese father. The book has two parts, the first describing the search and the second, in diary form, the visit in Congo to his father and his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book opens by describing how, in 2006, eight years after returning from an 11-year stay in London, Zme\u0161kal decides to take up the search for his father again, leaving no stone unturned even though he has little to no concrete leads. His hopes of finding his father are slim, and he compensates by immersing himself as much as he can in Congo’s history and, for instance, in how and why his father was able to end up in the then communist Czechoslovakia from Congo in the 1960s. Tragic in this, his mother refuses to give him any information about his father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crucially is a meeting with renowned Belgian writer David van Reybroeck, known for his book Congo<\/em>, Thanks to van Reybroeck’s contacts in Congo, there is hope that Zme\u0161kal will actually find out something concrete about his father. The first part ends with Zme\u0161kal , now back in Prague, receiving an e-mail from his half-sister. It then turns out that his family has also been looking for him for some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.The second part is an account of Zme\u0161kal’s trip to Congo. In the form of a diary, he describes, among other things, his meeting with his father and his family. A thread running through this diary is the clash between two cultures: Zme\u0161kal as a (Western) European who, as his father’s eldest child, suddenly becomes the pater familias in an African (Congolese) culture he is unfamiliar with and sometimes at odds with his own European values and norms. His statement: ‘For Europe I am too black, for Africa I am too white,’ sums it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The diary is a combination of tourist impressions, historical facts, sketches of a self-consciously developing society, a glimpse into complex family ties (Zme\u0161kal’s father married several times and has children from all his marriages), and into the prevailing social and cultural codes. But above all, it is still a personal account, in which Zme\u0161kal also explicitly reflects his own person and experiences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cTom\u00e1\u0161 Zme\u0161kal\u2019s book oscillates between fiction and non-fiction. The amount of information and the way it is presented about the history and present of the Congo goes beyond the usual amount of facts used in fiction. The realistic, unembellished view of Africa and his family members also contributes to this impression. For the reader, the book is an opportunity to share Zme\u0161kal\u2019s world for a while, to participate in his quest.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Va\u0161e Literatura
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\u201cTom\u00e1\u0161 Zme\u0161kal\u2019s book \u2018Socrates at the Equator\u2019 is more personal than his previous novels.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Hospod\u00e1\u0159sk\u00e9 noviny<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Socrates at the Equator) \u201c\u2018Socrates at the Equator\u2019 opens your eyes. Hopefully for a long time, or better yet, permanently.\u201d \u2014 Mlad\u00e1 fronta DNES Socrates on the Equator is a non-fiction book on the theme of Czech author Tom\u00e1\u0161 Zme\u0161kal’s search for his Congolese father. The book has two parts, the first describing the search […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":997,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-322","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}