Too Loud A Solitude

In Chapter 7 of Too Loud a Solitude, Haňt’a’s world is irrevocably altered when two young workers from the Socialist Labor Brigade arrive at his workplace. Haňt’a’s boss has called them since he is unhappy with the pace of Haňt’a’s work. The workers are equipped with modern attire—orange gloves, blue overalls, suspenders, green turtlenecks, and yellow baseball caps—and this contrasts with Haňt’a’s rough appearance. They take over Haňt’a’s press and begin operating it with efficiency, producing five bales in an hour. Haňt’a feels humiliated and displaced, likening his situation to that of monks who could not accept Copernicus’s discoveries and died by mass suicide.

Haňt’a’s boss, reveling in the young workers’ efficiency, dismisses Haňt’a and tells him he will be making bales of clean paper at the Melantrich Printing Works, a modern facility, starting next week. Haňt’a is devastated by the prospect of leaving behind the job he has known for 35 years, which involved finding and rescuing valuable books from the waste. Watching the young workers handle his machine, Haňt’a feels a deep sense of loss and shame.

Desperate to cling to his old life, Haňt’a retrieves a book—Charles Lindbergh’s account of his first transoceanic flight—from the waste.