"At the very beginning of Genesis, it is written that God created man to dominate the birds, the fish, and all living creatures. Naturally, Genesis was written by a human and not, for example, a horse. It is not at all certain that God truly intended for man to dominate his other creatures. It is more likely that man invented God to sanctify the power he usurped, taking it from the cow and the horse. Yes, the right to kill a deer or a cow is the only thing that unites all of humanity, even in the bloodiest wars.

This right seems obvious to us because we stand at the top of the hierarchy. However, it only takes a third party to enter the game, such as a visitor from another planet, who might have been told by God: “You will dominate the creatures of all other stars,” and suddenly the entire authority of Genesis is called into question. A man tied to a chariot by a Martian, or perhaps roasted on a spit by an inhabitant of the Galaxy, might then remember the beef steak he often cut on his plate and ask (very late) for forgiveness from the cow.

In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, perhaps the most famous novel by Kundera, following The Joke which established him worldwide, the author, against the backdrop of recent political history and under the guise of a convoluted love affair, takes us on an adventure through human existence, conversing with Parmenides, Nietzsche, Beethoven, and others. With his well-known humor and bitter sarcasm, he talks to us about love and sex, the asymptotic language of lovers, aesthetic and political kitsch, as well as all kinds of imperatives, the "musts" that define human life, making the weight of its lightness increasingly unbearable.