The Video Scripts
 

Hašek’s Voice Preserved

What if you could read the Good Soldier ŠVEJK
as Hašek WROTE IT,
not as represented by the later illustrations by Josef Lada?
and by translators, who have smoothed the texture.
The Centennial Edition Chicago Version takes a radically faithful approach to Hašek's language,
preserving his word order, repetition, rhythm, ambiguity, and structural choices wherever they can be understood in English.
Because Švejk is more than a comic soldier.
And more than an anti-war novel.
Beneath the laughter is a devastating portrait of bureaucracy, authority, obedience, and the absurd systems that shape modern life.
For readers discovering
Švejk for the first time...
and for those who thought they already knew the book...
The Chicago Version offers a chance to encounter Hašek ... again.
Takeaway:
Illuminating translation of the human complexity of a Czech classic.

What the Apparatus Reveals

What if The Good Soldier Švejk has been hiding something
in plain sight?
The Centennial Edition Chicago Version goes beyond translating Hašek's words.
Its extensive apparatus and online essays uncover the historical, cultural, and linguistic layers hidden beneath Hašek's words—and what can disappear in translation.
Because sometimes a single Czech word can change who is implicated.
A repeated phrase can reveal a pattern.
And a grammatical detail can change how we understand Švejk himself.
The laughter is still there.
But beneath it is something larger
Bureaucracy. Authority. Obedience. And the absurd systems that shape modern life:

svejkardomsvejkardom
BookLife calls it a translation of “greater bite
 heft and complexity." 
An “Illuminating translation of the human complexity of a Czech classic."
The Fateful Adventures
of the Good Soldier Švejk.
The Centennial Edition.
The Chicago version. 
 

Why Švejk Matters

Why does Švejk still matter more than a century later
Because the absurd system he faced did not disappear with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Austro - Hungarian Empire did not vanish;
...it metastasized. Its techniques—
bureaucratic diffusion of guilt,
procedural violence,
moral displacement — 
are still with us
 though their uniforms and slogans have changed.
Švejk's answer is simple: carry the system's own logic to its absurd conclusion.
That method became known as švejking.
And the world that requires it has a name:
svejkardom
A world of systemic absurdity in which survival itself becomes an achievement.
Švejk is not a hero because he conquers the system.
He is a hero because he survives it.
And that may be why Švejk is becoming a hero for our time.
The Fateful Adventures...
of the Good Soldier Švejk.
The Centennial Edition.
The Chicago Version.
When people ask me to comment on current events or politics, my answer is simple:
Read The Good Soldier Švejk first...
THEN ask me again.