ax² + bx + c = 0. i don't know anyone like agnes, who subtracts things from themselves that are exterior and borrowed. i think maybe it takes till a certain age before you have built up enough of yourself that you can even think about subtracting things. right now everyone is trying to find themselves by addings things to their persona and identifying through that. sure hobbies can change, old habits, lifestyles fade away, but really, is anyone trying to come closer to their "sheer essence?" when i hear "sheer" all i can associate with that is pantyhose.



i wouldn't even know how to define someone without listing their hobbies, interests and attributes. if i told you that a friend was "outdoorsy, loves techno music, reads non-fiction and hates the simpsons" doesn't that give you a decent picture of them? aren't we really only a collection of our likes and dislikes? i have to meet an agnes, before i can properly put into perspective what kundera means by his passage.



and are personality traits part of the adding and subtracting? do terms like "outgoing, generous, somewhat neurotic" belong in the same identifying category as interests? is it possible to change personality traits as easily as hobbies? if not, then maybe this is what kundera is talking about -- getting to the sheer essence of a person.



i feel like if you take away all my interests, hobbies, likes and dislikes, i would be an amorphous blob with no definition or direction. i need the exoskeleton of the world to prop me up, i need to be defined by other things to figure out who i am. i need to be easily parceled down into my various component interests. i need this to know where to shop, which section of the bookstore to head towards, which radio station to listen to. my friends need this to know what to talk to me about, what to buy me when they make millions of dollars. acquaintances need these tidbits to remember me by. nobody remembers a jon who is nice, but a jon who is into comic books? a-ha!



isn't this how everybody does it? am i missing something here?