"In the very beginning of Genesis, it is written that God created man to rule over the birds, the fish, and generally all the animals. Naturally, Genesis was written by a human, not, for example, a horse. It is not at all certain that God truly wanted man to rule over His other creatures. It is more likely that man invented God to sanctify the authority he usurped, seizing it from the cow and the horse. Yes, the right to kill a deer or a cow is the only thing that unites all of humanity, even in the bloodiest wars.
"This right seems self-evident to us because we are at the top of the hierarchy. However, it is enough for a third party to enter the game, for example, a visitor from another planet, who has been told by God: "You will rule over the creatures of all the other stars," and the entire authority of Genesis is automatically called into question. Man, harnessed to a carriage by a Martian, or perhaps roasted on a spit by an inhabitant of the Galaxy, might then remember the beef steak he often cut on his plate and (too late) ask for forgiveness from the cow."

In "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," perhaps Kundera's most famous novel after "The Joke," which established him worldwide, the author, against the backdrop of modern political history and under the pretext of a labyrinthine love affair, guides us through the adventure of human existence, with interlocutors such as Parmenides, Nietzsche, Beethoven, and others. With his well-known humor and bitter sarcasm, he talks to us about love and sex, the dissonant language of lovers, aesthetic and political kitsch, as well as the various imperatives, the "musts" that define human life, making the weight of its lightness increasingly unbearable.