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"The occultist Jurajda was of the mind that ... it was
certain that even such fun very often contained prophetic facts when the
spiritual sight of man under the influence of mysterious forces penetrated the
veil of the unknown future." - The Fateful Adventures of the Good
Soldier Švejk During the World War, Book Three, Chapter 3
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The installation of
Hors D'oeuvre à la Jurajda
['yoo-rai-dah]
- An Apotheosis of Consumerist Lifestyle -
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Photo © Leoš Poříz |
Only because of the astuteness and diligence of the
photographer Leoš Poříz we are able to reveal the identity of at least
one of the people responsible for erecting the assemblage depicted above.
As surreptitious as the event was, the co-author of the sculpture, Jaroslav
Fieger, let his guard down and showed his face. Yes, he is the
read-headed man at the center of the scene above. If you think his visage
is more akin to a Viking, remember that the Swedes laid siege to the
Lipnice castle and pillaged the surrounding area during the Thirty Year
War that was, incidentally, started by the Second
Defenestration of Prague.
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"Cook Jurajda broke into philosophizing, which in fact corresponded to
his former job. That is to say, he used to publish, until the war, an occultist
magazine and the book series Mysteries of Life and Death. In the military he got himself stashed out of sight to the officers’
kitchen and very often burnt some roast when he got immersed in reading a
translation of ancient Indian sutras, learned texts, the Pragnâ-Paramitâ
(Revealed Wisdom). Colonel Schröder liked him as an
oddity at the regiment, because, which officers’ kitchen could boast a
cook-occultist who, peering into the mysteries of life and death, surprised all
with such good svíčková,
pickled beef in cream sauce, or with such ragú
that down below Komárovo the fatally
wounded Lieutenant Dufek kept on calling for Jurajda." - The Fateful
Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War, Book Two,
Chapter 5
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The sculptor, Radomír Dvořák,
reports: "Richard Hašek [the grandson of Jaroslav Hašek] proclaimed a
wish during the unveiling ceremony for 'even more stonemason's humor made
of sandstone, granite and marble'. Only afterward one of the guests had
the insight of an analogy of form: The 'Hors D'oeuvre' evokes (also
because of where it's located) a
plague column. Only the Virgin Mary is missing atop the ball up
above. Probably the Day After Assumption. So, in case of avian influenza
or another epidemic one needs to seek refuge in Lipnice. That's because any
plague will avoid it since Lipnice is the only municipality that had the
presence of mind to apply the only preventative measure proven to work in
Baroque times already. A plague column is, that is to say, much more effective
than any TamiFlu or vaccine."
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