Viktor Suchý - We should learn to slow down in life

In today's fast-paced world, the pace of life is a topic we encounter on our smartphone screens every day. Five tips on how to read one book every week, Four guaranteed tips to help you be more productive – headlines screaming from a bright shiny surface let us know that we need to make more effort to be more efficient, faster. But sometimes we may have to do the opposite in order to be able to outrun the speed of time. Viktor Suchý has been researching how to slow down almost his entire adult life. The well-known teacher, bookseller, author and most recently a librarian who turned his private book collection into a public library told us why it might not hurt to put the handbrake on from time to time and enjoy life. Viktor, tell us how you came to explore the concept of slowness? The short version of my story begins in college. I went to the Faculty of Arts in Prešov, while I worked in Bratislava in the editorial office of Kultúrne život. I used to commute by train almost every week between work and school. When you travel by train between the East and the West, you start to notice that the lifestyle in the East is slower than in our West. We don't have to perceive it only negatively, on the contrary, people there have more peace and time to do things more focused. The point where I adapted to a different rhythm was the station in Kysak, the place where I transferred and waited for the connection.

At that time, it was not common to use mobile devices, so of course I took books with me. At the same time, I also started to think and perceive various other things. I actually slowed down a bit, for example, I watched the clouds pass by from the platform. It was an impulse that made me start thinking about slowness.

I am a fast person, I represented the school in running and football, but at the same time I like to do things that require a slow pace. Therefore, when we were given an assignment to write an essay in philosophy, I played around with the idea of ​​what speed, slowness are and how I perceive the whole issue myself. I based my work on slow-motion footage that is part of television broadcasts, as well as on speeded-up footage in nature films, where slow growth is revealed thanks to the acceleration of the recording. This does not mean that slow is good and fast is bad, but that it is necessary to decide on the right pace at the right time . The turn of the years 1999/2000 was an interesting period, several authors independently began to address the topic of slowness. There was speculation about when the millennium actually begins and what it will bring us. In the theory of literature, I chose the topic of time in a literary work and from these partial works I came to my diploma thesis Discovering Slowness, where I did not stick to literary texts only. The topic has not left me and now I have returned to it again. Theoretically and practically.

Your latest project is a library in Nová Cvernovka called Kabinet Pomalosti. Why a library? After being a teacher and bookseller at Artfor, I was thinking about where to move. At the same time, during this period, my girlfriend and I moved twice and I was constantly solving the problem of what to do with the books, of which I had accumulated almost four thousand volumes during my life. I was thinking about how to simplify this “torment”, which is on the one hand a joy, but on the other hand a problem of where to put the books, how to transport them. It was impossible to have them at home, I had them at my father’s, at my brother’s, at my grandmother’s, in the basement… As a result, they were in boxes and were not accessible. I was thinking intensely about what to do with them. My friend Evka has a friend in Finland who told us and wrote about how the local library works. Evka was inspired by this and suggested to me whether we should establish a similar small, modest library. On May 1, 2017, we visited the Open Studio Day in the relocated Cvernovka and participated in a debate on what to do next with the building and the premises. We approached the founders of the Cvernovka Foundation, asking if they would like to have a library in Nová Cvernovka. The idea came at the right time and in the right place, as they already had a sponsor at the time who wanted to give them money to preserve the existing library that was left here after the Secondary Industrial School of Chemistry. The foundation provided space, furniture, money, and our civic association provided books, know-how, program dramaturgy, and my workforce. Later, the Bratislava – Nové mesto Library gave us a helping hand. To this day, we are still creating and improving the way we operate. How is the Cabinet of Slowness different from a classic library? It is not just a room where you can read books, it is a place where a person can hide from the hustle and bustle of the city, relax, work or relax. Our focus is the evening and sometimes weekend program, which we organize together with the Cvernovka Foundation. We are part of festivals and events in Nová Cvernovka, and within them we also organize chamber events independently. We have several regular cycles, one of which is, for example, the Slow Readers Club - a classic book club. However, we do not want to focus only on books and literature, we have joined forces with the Fashion Revolution initiative, which is dedicated to sustainable fashion, and we have organized various lectures, seminars and workshops. We also focus on music. Vladimír Potančok, ethnologist and Radio FM presenter, lectures on non-traditional musical instruments. He invites a guest to introduce the instrument, Boris Čellár was here with a woodpack, Martin Fogo Halász with a berimbau... followed by a short workshop on playing the given instrument, primarily intended for children, but also for adults.

We don't want to function just like a classic library. It's not important to have as many books as possible, it's important that readers come to us. There are enough books for everyone to find what they need. We want to develop deep thinking and cultivated debate.

It's commendable that you're making your collection available to the public and not hiding your treasures like most collectors. It's a combination of the selfish intention of having books somewhere handy, in one row and not in three. It's a great advantage for me too, balanced by the altruistic intention. Why should such a good collection serve only one person?

Who visits Kabinet? Is it predominantly the younger or older generation? It's diverse. One group of visitors is made up of Cvernovkári, more or less my peers. The second group is made up of people I know from previous jobs and we brought them here from the city. Then there's the audience from the surrounding area. So isn't it confirmed that young people don't read, they don't want to find a relationship with books?

On the one hand, the situation is paradoxical in that more and more books are being published, even in Slovak translation. But on the other hand, there are fewer demanding readers. Bookstores also report that turnover is growing, but this is not made up of books that could be called artistic literature.

On the other hand, I wouldn't say that young people don't read. I know many young people who do. There may be a little less of them, but it's also hard to tell the difference, because I think that even those who read text on a monitor or e-reader will get access to quality articles or short stories. I'm not a pessimist on this matter, but I feel that the circle of "slow" readers is narrowing.

How can you learn to read slowly? This is one of the key questions we ask ourselves.

Patience is one of the important qualities, the ability to put down all devices and not be distracted by incoming messages.

It is not written anywhere that a person has to read books from beginning to end, line by line, it is possible to read pieces of several books at once, based on which the reader chooses the one that suits him, so that he can read what he enjoys, what interests him. It is then necessary to read it honestly, more slowly, more attentively, not to skim through the pages. This so-called fast, informative reading is the exact opposite of what we strive for. To read concentratedly, to perceive what one is reading, to think about it, or to read at least some passages repeatedly, if not the entire book.

People think they can read, but it is one thing to read the way one learns in the first grade of elementary school, that is, to connect letters and understand what the text is telling us, and it is another thing to read with understanding. It is important to be aware of the difference in how one reads a text that is only supposed to provide us with basic information, such as a train schedule or a cookbook. It is completely different to read texts of artistic literature. If I take the extreme example of poetry, it is a completely different text that requires reading as slowly as possible, unlike a train schedule, which can also withstand faster reading.

People race to see how many books they can read in a month or year, what would you tell them?

I would like to engage in a debate with them about what each reader remembered from it and what remained of those books in them. Because there are people who have read even a hundred books in their lifetime, but they have read them thoroughly and have taken a lot from them. And then there are those who read one book a week, but in a year they would not be able to name the author or the work, let alone the content. Our goal is for reading to be knowledge, for people to learn something about themselves while reading. Because in the end, a person is looking for themselves in books.

How could people slow down? You need to start with simple tasks. A person usually goes somewhere directly and purposefully, to the store, to work, they want to get to their destination as quickly as possible. It is good to choose a different principle at least from time to time, I just go for a walk along the streets, into nature, to the park. Not to rush anywhere, not to know where I am going. It is easier for a slow person to speed up than for a fast person to slow down. However, it is necessary to perceive life around us a little better. To sit down, meet, perceive each other without having a mobile phone under the table. However, there is no need to condemn technology. They are not bad at all, on the contrary, fast trains and airplanes are great inventions that make our lives easier and ultimately allow us to slow down. It is wonderful to sit on a fast train and read slowly. After all, the speed of technology allows us to save time, which we can use meaningfully ...