# Where the name "DOG" came from...



## Buddy's mom forever (Jun 23, 2011)

That's beautiful. Just to add this:
*“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace.”*
- Milan Kundera


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

I'm not sure Kundera actually said that. The only place it appears is in _The Canine Hiker's Bible_, where it's attributed to Kundera, but it doesn't appear in any of his writings.

Kundera wrote this in _The Unbearable Lightness of Being_: 


> The answer seems simple to me: dogs were never expelled from Paradise. Karenin knew nothing about the duality of body and soul and had no concept of disgust. That is why Tereza felt so free and easy with him. (And that is why it is so dangerous to turn an animal into a machina animata, a cow into an automaton for the production of milk. By so doing, man cuts the thread binding him to Paradise and has nothing left to hold or comfort him on his flight through the emptiness of time.)


It may be that the author of the hiking book paraphrased Kundera and put his name on it. Or there may be some Kundera source I don't know.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

Whoever said it or wrote it was right.


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## vcm5 (Apr 20, 2011)

Agreed, it is beautiful, no matter who wrote it!


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## Buddy's mom forever (Jun 23, 2011)

tippykayak said:


> I'm not sure Kundera actually said that. The only place it appears is in _The Canine Hiker's Bible_, where it's attributed to Kundera, but it doesn't appear in any of his writings.
> 
> Kundera wrote this in _The Unbearable Lightness of Being_:
> 
> ...


Tippykayak, to be honest with you I found this quote in the book "Soul of a dog" by Jon Katz, quoted as Milan Kundera poem.
I read Kundera years ago, back in my home country in my first language, it could be written all over the pages I wouldn't noticed. Sad to say, but at that time I could not care less about dogs.
The best way to find out would be to ask about that on th official website of Milan Kundera.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

I still think it's a lovely quote, regardless of who wrote it. I just remembered something from _Lightness_ that was similar, so I went looking. It's totally possible that it's somewhere in a fragment of Kundera work. It's quite similar in sentiment to that part in _Lightness_, so I wouldn't be surprised.

If it's part of a poem, I'd love to see the rest!


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