"Prague Cafe" or "Literary Salon"
Czech society is often divided according to political or cultural labels. Alena Vitásková opposes the term "Prague cafe" to her own image of a "Literary salon" - a community of people who look for support in books, cultural heritage, their own experience and the ability to form an independent opinion. According to her, literature is not only a testimony of its time, but also a means of preserving values and passing them on to future generations.
"Prague cafe", "Prague pub" or third? For me, it is the third, the "Literary Salon", as I called the majority public, which is united not only by literature, as a legacy of cultural heritage and the future of our individuality.
We are among the nations that read the most books per year. On average, this is about ten books per citizen over the age of fifteen. We are simply excellent readers, we are a well-read nation.
Someone has a "Prague cafe" and thinks it's a TOP company. People associated under this (now possibly derogatory) name have more opportunities to influence the public media and other means of getting their views into people's consciousness if you want to control the masses. Who owns the public media, for which there is a constant battle. They think they have power. Do they have the right opinion?
Someone prefers "Literary salon" and does not think that it is a TOP company. Because to think is to know nothing. Those who know try to leave behind an indelible message for future generations. Not negative. Be it the results of your work, creation, or just reading and forming your own opinion. In poetry, prose, fiction, historical novels, or just plain non-fiction.
We can be proud of both Milan Kundera and other writers who left behind this indelible mark. In their works, they were able to depict the course of life in a given epoch, such as Jaroslav Hašek in The Fates of the Good Soldier Švejk. They were able to set up a mirror of society. Either with humor or as "littérature noire". Emile Zola and his works from the period of the French Revolution such as The Belly of Paris and many other classics.
The "Literary Salon" is lucky enough to be proud of what the "Prague Cafe" does not have. The public around the "Literary Salon" experiences life from a different point of view. Kind, soothing, soothing, anticipatory, gentle, comforting, soothingly insightful, often even prophetic and wise.
Such a society is able to create values on which it is possible to survive even periods of darkness, for example.
Alena Vitásková
writer and commentator
Prague 20 September 2026
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