I loved this observation in Kundera’ s The Joke which I’ve just reread (and as often happens, found so much more in it that I did twenty years ago):
“At the time I felt nothing but hatred for him, and hatred shines too bright a light on things, depriving them of relief. I saw him merely as a vindictive, wily rat. Now I see him as above all a young man playing a role. The young can’t help playacting; themselves incomplete, they are thrust by life into a completed world where they are compelled to act fully grown. They therefore adopt forms, patterns, models – those that are in fashion that suit, that please – and enact them.”
I wonder, though, if we ever stop playacting?
The Joke, tr Aaron Asher (Faber and Faber, 1992) p. 87
Gert Loveday's Fun with Books 
I’d say no we don’t
Especially when doing a serious grown-up job and expecting to be shown up any moment.
I was thinking of a particular individual who annoys the hell out of me.
A mild-mannered man like you?
well there are limits, you know
I agree.
Leslie
I went through a Kundera phase some twenty years ago, prompted by the release of the film adaptation of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I’m pretty sure I read The Joke back then, but I’m struggling to recall much about it now!
I thought it was marvellous though I did read more about Moravian folklore than I ever wanted. The joke is a smartypants crack young Ludwik makes about Trotsky, trying to impress a girlfriend – but it doesn’t go down well with the authorities.
As William Shakespeare, said 1564 – 1616. “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances,….”
What a man! How did he know so much?
That’s why he’s relevant today.