[ExI] authors, italian and otherwise

Tomasz Rola rtomek at ceti.pl
Tue May 18 03:50:00 UTC 2010


On Mon, 17 May 2010, spike wrote:

> Friends,
>  
[...]
> Question please: if you wished to explain your native culture to someone
> outside, which book would you recommend and why?  This question is not what
> is your favorite book, or what explains transhumanism etc.  Rather, if you
> wanted to explain your native land and culture for instance, which book or
> which author?  Tomasz for instance, would you recommend Michener's Poland?

Man, do you really want me to answer? You know I am a bit talkative, don't 
you :-).

In case you cannot read anymore, try to skip down to the "Summary" line.

I cannot give Michener the wholehearted recommendation, simply because I 
didn't know about him until last week. I hope placing Vienna in Poland was 
your mistake and not his :-). From wikiquotes, it seems a book is well 
written and the writer looks interesting, maybe I will be able to grab him 
somewhere and give him a try.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Michener#Poland_.281983.29

Personally I feel a bit wary of foreign writers describing Poland. On the 
one hand, it can be an eye opener for a Pole to read it and see himself 
from the outside. On the other hand, well... I remember reading about some 
s-f saga in wikipedia. The aliens invaded Earth during WW2, starting in 
Central Europe and, well, have been fought not only by German Wehrmacht 
and Soviet Red Army but by Jewish partisans, too. While there was some 
limited effort that could be called as Jewish resistance, in reality one 
of the biggest of such movements (3rd after Yugoslovians and Russians) was 
Polish Home Army, about 400,000 people. So, you know, someone who reads 
only s-f, could be left with... interesting impressions, to say the least.

The goal of naming just one book that has it all is really hard. Poland is 
multifaceted country and during ages have been changing a lot. Much easier 
would be forming a short list of nominees and naming a winner, just like 
they do with Oscars.

Here it is. An author, "a Polish title" ("an English title" mostly from 
wikipedia or my own translation if I couldn't find it) - some blahblah.
 = when the action takes place?

1. Henryk Sienkiewicz, "Krzyzacy" ("Teutonic Knights") - an account of 
fighting with, you guessed it, Teutonic Knights, and beginnings of the 
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. And some tragic romance.
 = beg. of 15th century

2. Henryk Sienkiewicz, so called "Trylogia" - "Ogniem i mieczem", "Potop", 
"Pan Wolodyjowski" ("Trilogy": "With fire and sword", "The Deluge", "Fire 
in the Steppe") - lotsa fighting with lotsa enemies (Cossacks, Swedes, 
Ottomans, maybe some other too) is a background for some romantic etc 
histories. Since the background is rather bloody one, this is recommended 
for veteran Poland lovers. Some impalement from time to time. Other 
tortures, too. Killing is refreshing.
 = sec. half of 17th century

3. Stefan Zeromski, "Popioly" ("Ashes") - can be compared to "War and 
Peace" (by Tolstoy, not by Woody Allen ;-) ), the main character develops 
himself while at the same time being a witness to Napoleonic era, up to 
beginning of Napoleon's unfortunate war with Russian Empire.
 = beg. of 19th cent.

4. Aleksander Fredro, "Trzy po trzy" ("Topsy Turvy Talk") - memoirs of a 
writer, describing his experiences during Napoleonic Wars.
 = beg of 19th cent.

5. Wladyslaw Reymont, "Chlopi" ("The Peasants") - deals with everyday 
life and conflicts in the Polish village located somewhere in what is now 
central Poland. Everything goes by rhythms made by a slowly cycling (as 
seasons go by) nature.
 = sec. half of 19th cent.

6. Wladyslaw Reymont, "Ziemia obiecana" ("The Promised Land") - forming of 
young capitalism during industrialisation in the city of Lodz.
 = sec. half of 19th cent.

7. Boleslaw Prus, "Lalka" ("The Doll") - a social panorama of Poland under 
Russian partition. Developing of big money and lots of interactions.
 = ca. 1875-1890

8. Stefan Zeromski, "Ludzie bezdomni" ("Homeless people") - Tomasz Judym, 
MD, chooses to sacrifice his personal happiness with intention of totally 
dedicating himself to helping the poor and the helpless.
 = 19th/20th cent.

9. Stefan Zeromski, "Przedwiosnie" ("A spring to come") - young man 
(inspired by his father tales) goes from living in Baku, Russia to living 
in Poland, at the same time becoming disillusioned with his new homeland 
and coming closer and closer to bolshevism.
 = years 1914-1924

10. Tadeusz Dolega-Mostowicz, "Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy" ("The Career of 
Nicodemus Dyzma") - in interbellum Poland, primitive guy is promoted up to 
the highest ranks in the country, mostly thanks to luck and connections. A 
political satire, kind of. Worth noting, perhaps, is the number of similar 
guys in nowadays Polish politics and business (not big, but still more 
than nothing).
 = years 1925-1930 (?)

11. Sergiusz Piasecki, "Kochanek Wielkiej Niedzwiedzicy" ("The lover of 
Ursa Major") - based on his own expieriences as smuggler, he paints a 
vivid picture of Polish-Soviet border and people living on both sides of 
it.
 = years ca. 1925-1930

12. Sergiusz Piasecki, "Zapiski oficera Armii Czerwonej" ("The memoirs of 
a Red Army officer") - partially a parody and partially a farse, 
fictionised memoirs of Red Army officer giving his view of Polish Wilno 
(now Vilnius) under Soviet occupation and few years later. After 
witnessing atrocities of early soviet life, Piasecki himself became 
strongly antibolshevik and so maybe (or maybe not) some parts of this book 
are a bit too well colored. But, on the other hand, I believe he didn't 
really made this all up. The book shows both a life in Polish part of 
Lithuania as well as, by contrast, pre-war life in Soviet Union.
 = years 1939-1945

13. Roman Bratny, "Kolumbowie. Rocznik 20" (??? - say, "Columbuses born in 
1920", probably not translated to English) - describes the lives (and 
deaths) of a group of twenty-something years old Home Army members. They 
were later named as Generation of Columbuses
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_of_Columbuses
 = years 1942-1948

14. Marek Hlasko - various books like "Osmy dzien tygodnia" (?? - "Eight 
day of the week") or "Nastepny do raju" (?? - "Next one to Paradise") give 
some insights about life in Poland not very long after WW2.
 = years ca. 1950-1955

As of books describing more contemporary Poland, I am undecided at all. Of 
those that I've read, none can make it to this list. I suspect their 
authors don't know the art of writing. But maybe it will be clear, one day 
in the future, that they were great innovators. Hopefully not. I was 
mostly in various stages of disgust after reading them.

So, a Summary :-).

As I have written above, it is really really hard to choose the one book. 
I believe, if one's goal is to better understand Poland, then one should 
read more than just one book. Some of them have been translated into 
English (and if not English, there could be German, Russian or French 
translation, with my feel German and Russian should be preferred). Some of 
them are available on the net for free, both originals and translations. 
And some of them have made it to the films. I am not for substituting 
books by films, but if you have no better choice...

But, anyway...

In a category of "just one book", the Oscar goes to "Lalka" ("The Doll") 
by Boleslaw Prus. Truly great. Mostly overlooked, I think. While it may 
seem to be a romance set up in historic decorations, it happens to 
describe a number of "typical" Poles, their aspirations (or lack of them), 
pictures society as a whole. Czeslaw Milosz, a Nobel laureate, expressed 
similar opinion about this book, so I am in a good company :-). The times 
during which an action takes place were a times of big change for Poles, 
this is when we switched from being "sabre users" into being "logarithm 
users".

In a category of "just one writer", I give Oscar to Sergiusz Piasecki. He 
was a very unusual person. He himself learned literary Polish as an adult, 
while serving his sentence after being a smuggler, an intelligence officer 
and a mugger. He had been paroled by our president after his books became 
bestsellers in a pre-war Poland. During WW2, he was in Polish resistance. 
After the war, he was hiding from communists for some time and then 
smuggled himself to Italy. The rest of his life he spent in England and 
was rather poor. Died in London. Great and brave individualist, one that 
you would rather have with you and not against. Alas, the world promotes 
ass lickers. He deserved a better planet. And he wrote very interesting 
books, describing our eastern borders. I believe, they mirror his 
independent spirit. Definitely worth reading.

Post-Summary.

As a distinct category, there is also poetry. While not giving too many 
descriptions by itself, it may serve as a means to get inside Polish 
minds. Or hearts. Whatever. Let's be brief this time:

- Jan Kochanowski, Polish Reneissance, 16th cent (1530-1584)
- Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski, of Polish Columbuses, (1921-1944)
- Zbigniew Herbert, with his poetry stemming from humanistic ideals and 
antique/classicist tradition - a great read (1924-1998)

There are some translations available, seek the links on wikipedia.

> USians, you get to play too.  Personally I am a huge fan of Steinbeck, but
> his stuff is dated now, having pretty much ended in the 1960s.  His Travels
> With Charley is a great 1960s book.

As non-USian, I was impressed by Jonh dos Passos' "The 42nd Parallel". 
Perhaps in English it would not have been so great, but Polish edition had 
been accompanied with lots of footnotes (summing up to perhaps 1/3 or 
maybe even 1/2 of the book) that gave me this bigger picture. Not a photo, 
but definitely a better understanding (for a while, that I managed to 
remember them, at least).

I think I should find the time for "Manhattan tranfer" by the same author. 
And for Mark Twain.

> Websites are OK too, in fact preferrable in some important ways.

While doing quick research to write this email, I have stumbled upon 
Sarmatian Review, which deals with issues related to Central Europe (and 
there is a lot about Polish literature and other stuff).

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia/

Regards,
Tomasz Rola

--
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature.      **
** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home    **
** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened...      **
**                                                                 **
** Tomasz Rola          mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com             **



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