Salonica World Lit: Do You Have a Stamp for That?

Do You Have a Stamp for That?

The curse of this erotic century! Everything's saturated with sex, nothing but sex and erotic stimulants! Adolescents and even children fall in love with goose-girls! Love tragedies are common currency, all through reading sexy books and watching erotic films! To the courts with these writers and educators, these purveyors of pornography! Away with the monstrous imaginings of these young folks!

Damn straight, Mr. Lansky!!! And even more '!!!'! Written by Bohumil Harbal and published in Czechoslovakia in 1965(way pre-Paris Hilton), Closely Watched Trains is touching, satirical, and erotic coming of age tale. Milos Hrma is not a virgin. He's not a quite a man yet, either. He attempts suicide after a disastrous first time and returns to his post as a signal man in small railway station with scars on his wrist. Yes sir, times are hard for Milos Hrma. This is German-occupied Czechoslovakia in 1945. This boy just wants a little sexual reprieve. Is that so wrong?

Not at all. It's not wrong, but it's not easy either. Like all the character is this slim novel, Milos is a common man with common needs. Hrabal slyly walks the line between high brow and low brow humor but what gets us are the truly human moments of insecurity and truth that Milos encounters.

My name is Milos Hrma,' I stammered. 'You know I slashed my veins because I'm supposed to be suffering from ejaculatio praecox. But it isn't true. Oh, it's true that I wilted like a lily with my girl, but between you and me, I really am a man...' 'You mean you've never had a women yet?' asked Vicktoria, marvelling. 'No, I haven't, I only tried, and that's why I wanted to ask you if you could advise me...' 'Really, you've never had anyone yet?' she repeated, growing every moment more astonished. 'No, nobody, because Masha...well, she did come to me at Uncle Noneman's studio in Karlin, so I suppose I did have Masha with me, but I didn't have anything with her, because, as I say, I wilted like a lily.'

Of course, things progress from there and he does become a man. But this is a multi-layered novel that has many meanings including subtextual commentary about the politics of the time. What's interesting to note is that Hrabal originally wrote this story in 1949 when he was considered an underground writer. It was much more dismal and controversial and when he returned to this story years later, he came up with this revised version that was more appealing and less incendiary. This novel does come to a heroic climax(ahem). You read it in one night but the story stays with you for it's tragedy and tenderness. It was also made into a pretty damn fine movie too...