20. - 21. století
Egon Bondy
Czech poet, prose-writer and philosopher
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He was a very controversial and often criticized Czech artist and philosopher, but his influence during the period of normalization is unquestionable. He strongly inspired the band The Plastic People of the Universe. His father was a Czechoslovak general. Bondy dropped out of high-school and led a bohemian lifestyle, often on the edge of law. In the late 1940’s he became the member of a Surrealist group, and around that time he took the pseudonym Egon Bondy (from Karel Capek’s novel) replacing his own name (Zbynek Fiser). After years of wandering and of entertaining bizarre thoughts (for example he made an offer to the French secret services to assassinate Soviet leaders by use of two matchboxes filled with fleas, which he would supply free of charge, infected with all the world’s plagues), he graduated
in philosophy and psychology from the Charles University. In the 70’s he became a guru for the band The Plastic People of the Universe, though he did not sign Charter 77 and in Stb documents (communist secret police) he is listed as a collaborator, which to this day is the subject of speculation. He was a close friend of Bohumil Hrabal and by the end of his life he moved to Bratislava. He was influenced by the Marxist philosophy, which was significantly reflected in his work and cast a doubt on its professional aspects. Nonetheless, the range of his work is great (from poems to novels to the history of philosophy) and is written in a very accessible manner, thus it became famous among the general public. He died in 2007, as a result of a fire caused by his own cigarette, which sparked his pajamas.
