#jacek dukaj

[bracketsoffear]

Ice (Jacek Dukaj) "The story of the book takes place in an alternate universe where the First World War never occurred and Poland is still under Russian rule. Following the Tunguska event, the Ice, a mysterious form of matter, has covered parts of Siberia in the Russian Empire and started expanding outwards, reaching Warsaw. The appearance of Ice results in extreme decrease of temperature, putting the whole continent under constant winter, and is accompanied by Lute, angels of Frost, a strange form of being which seems to be a native inhabitant of Ice. Ice freezes history and philosophy, preserving the old political regime, affecting human psychology and changing the laws of logic from many-valued logic of "Summer" to two-valued logic of "Winter" with no intermediate steps between true and false. It can also be used to create candles that cast shadows instead of light. This isn't normal darkness, but rather a sort of "anti-light", which can make people and objects in its radius cast "anti-shadows" made up of non-darkened areas, and seems to have an odd effect on the minds of people who spend a lot of time exposed to it."

The Shadow Wood (Sean Stewart) "The hero faces down and defeats an army of living shadows with a magic candle… until his own shadow rises up and blows it out."

[konstarnacja]

Tak, w chwilach naprawdę ostatecznych wracamy do słów najprostszych, przemawiając, jak się przemawia do dzieci, na początku i u kresu jest ta sama szczerość, pewność i prostota.

Jacek Dukaj „Katedra”

[haveyoureadthisscifibook]

note: the only translation of this listed on Goodreads is the Russian translation (cover included above). I don’t really trust Goodreads to be a complete listing, however, and ISFDB doesn’t even show the Russian translation. it’s possible it’s available in other languages as well — Dukaj’s other books have been translated into a range of mostly Eastern European languages. if you’ve read this in another language than Polish or Russian, do let me know!

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[trupowieszcz-moved]

hmm nie wiem po przeczytaniu jednej powieści i jednego opowiadania jacka dukaja mam wrażenie że jest strasznie frustrujący bo ma bardzo ładne żywe opisy i przyjemnie się go czyta od strony techniczno-estetycznej ale strasznie od czapy dobiera konwencje i nie czuję jakieś takiej fajnej fuzji czy synkretyzmu tylko taki randomowy zbitek trope'ów. perfekcyjna niedoskonałość np to było takie skakanie między mocnym sci-fi body horrorem i jebanym w pustyni i w puszczy i to wszystko było strasznie "osobne" moim zdaniem zamiast jakoś fajnie złączone. tak samo dzisiaj przeczytałem jego opowiadanie "gotyk" i znowu to samo, kordian-nekromanta zatrudniający do zabójstwa cara steampunkowego żydowskiego golema z bajek robotów ale 18+. no nie wiem jak to inaczej opisać niż Od Czapy

[the20thcenturykid]

Huh, I just realised I've passed my oral native language final high school exam (matura) by talking about gender fluidity and how sticking to completely binary form is outdated. All that during time I didn't know much about LGBTQ+ community, not knowing I'm aro/ace and of "I don't care" gender and I based my reasoning on the hard sci-fi book (what was actually topic of my exam "how author portraits their time period in their piece" and yes I explained quite nicely why I used sci-fi book as "author's present time") where gender and sex is just the way you portrait yourself since most of people are practically digitalised and you choose your physical avatar you live in and some people have more than one so... You can look however you like basically, so for that manner new pronoun is used for them as basic one.

And I didn't knew this book were quite interesting piece of gender ambiguous umbrella in my country for some time.

You know, in my language (Polish) we use pronounces even in first person talk usually by changing last part of some words for feminine -am and masculine -em (I'm not going to explain it better, I'm ass in grammar) and there's no real alternative aside from pronoun for 'it', which in my language could mean child or object so... Also plural pronouns are gendered to.

There are some initiatives to use 'it' form or create new pronouns for gender ambiguous community but it's tough case since it's basically making quite big change in whole language where our society is still way behind many countries and while portrayed from outside as way more homophobic than it is in case of transphobia... Well, let's say trans people don't have easy and gender ambiguous are usually just treated as 'tomboys' or 'femboys'. (Yes, it's changing and is way better in bigger cities but we are in middle ages still). So pronouns are being created and... While it's individual thing for every person which to use, for me most of them don't seem natural to the language (like -ix one because letter 'x' is basically not existent in polish language and some even change it to '(i)ks' when writing english word in polish sentence) and here I came back to my exam because pronouns that I found the most fitting were... From that book I used as base to my oral essay (created on spot mind you, I had like 15min to prepare after I've got a theme). The thing is they seems interestingly natural and work very well with our grammar. They're based on -um pronoun and next to -om one seems the most fitting to the language itself. They even named after author's surname so it's 'dukatyw' or 'dukaizm'. Of course, I didn't knew that those 7 years ago.

I'm not here trying to push any agenda or great statement - I just found it funny than my 19-yr old ass completely outside of LGBTQ+ community when heard theme was "let's make 15+min lecture about gender and sex fluidity" based on book I've readed like a year earlier which burned my brain and twisted it to the other side and I decided to love it.

The book is "Perfekcyjna Niedoskonałość" (Perfect Imperfection) by Jacek Dukaj and was never translated to any other language and honestly I think it's almost impossible to do so to English without loosing most of it's "flavour". That pronouns thing is just a part of writing and shown universe, tho while subject on ones identity and purpose is main theme of it, the gender is just it - the part.

Time fluctuations, tech bending time and space and some social and interspecies tensions are quite big part of it too but that's other story.

[endiness]

Debunking misinformation about Netflix's The Witcher (Part 4)

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] [Part 7]

"The Witcher producer blames dumb American audiences for simplifications to the story."

Any headline and article remotely resembling that is just clickbait — and clickbait with the fairly obvious purpose of inciting the fanbase against the show and the people involved in making it. In the original article as translated by Redanian Intelligence, Tomek Baginski explains some of the reasons for the simplifications to the story such as having to adjust things due to normal tv production problems:

Along with creating shows for a broader audience in general:

Given that he brings up a project he pitched that never even made it past that stage due to American network executives and producers not understanding the moral complexities of it, I think it is fairly obvious that he is not blaming American audiences, or audiences in general, for any simplifications to the story but rather speaking broadly about how creating shows — and, yes, shows largely for an American audience because the studios producing these shows and funding them are usually American — works.

Btw, these are also Baginski's comments about Tiktok — which he made a year before the above comments — as they're usually brought up in conjunction with the clickbait headline to further incite the fandom as they're framed in a way that makes it seem like he made both sets of comments at the same time even though he didn't:

BAGINSKI: I see the fastening of the processes Jacek Dukaj wrote about in his book – “Po piśmie” (“After the script”). We resign from cause-and-effect chains, from the linear narration. This book-like narration. When it comes to shows, the younger the public is, the logic of the plot is less significant. INTERVIEWER: What is significant, then? BAGINSKI: Just pure emotions. A bare emotional mix. Those people grow up on TikTok, Youtube, they jump from a video to video… INTERVIEWER: You’re talking to such person. BAGINSKI: So, it’s time to be serious: Dear children, what you do to yourself makes you less resilient for longer content, for long and complicated chains of cause an effect. INTERVIEWER: You’re talking about something else that’s hidden between your words. What you mean is that you don’t know how to make a show kids’d like to watch. BAGINSKI: Generally, I try to know what people react to and like to watch. Long and complex narratives will remain, it’ll be like a classic shelf in a bookstore. People will still read that, it will be popular at some point. But the edge of the mass audience is moving a bit into the a less linear narration, less cohesive one. I think it’s inevitable. As reading is not natural for the human brain. INTERVIEWER: Yep, you gotta learn it, it’s hard. BAGINSKI: Oh, in this sense, yes. You need a lot of effort to learn to recognise all these symbols. You probably don’t remember that. If you’re a genius, you read when you’re 3. It’s some big effort for your brain, moreover, it’s not natural. The things we receive with our heads… There’s nothing literary there. We have to learn literature. Learn to receive it and write it. It’s like mathematics, a lot of abstract symbols you have to learn to recognise. People who understand it will remain, the people who work on narration, they have to work on texts. But, more and more people won’t need it. Why write if I can record or say it? Why write if I can receive emotions in a different way. It’s a controversial thesis. When Dukaj published it, there was a lot of arguments like: “But I still read! My friends, too!” However, we talk about trends in a scale. INTERVIEWER: Yeah, it’s not about you or your friend. BAGINSKI: We talk about global trends. The success of TikTok wouldn’t be possible without that. It’s happening. It’s just easier to watch and click, watch another one, than read a book and follow all those twists and plots. We’ll see how it goes. I think The Witcher is safe for now, there are still a few more years… Maybe it’s because of the generation.

Which is also clearly just a commentary on younger audiences in general and a general shift in the overall trend of how media is consumed and the type of media being consumed. (Also, like, he even says "I think The Witcher is safe for now." ie this argument doesn't even apply to it currently.)

Also just to add, but here's Lauren talking about the reasons behind some of the simplifications and changes, too:

Which mainly has to do with the inherent problems that come from adapting one media form to another along with having a limit amounted of time and resources in which to tell the story.

"‘The Witcher’ Casting Director Says Yennefer Casting Was To ‘Challenge Beauty Standards.’"

In order to get into it, here is what Sophie Holland, the casting director, had to say in the original article from Variety:

Every subsequent article reporting on the original is, once again, just another example of misleading clickbait designed to incite the fanbase against the show and its cast and crew — and clickbait pushing very blatant racist agenda at that. Because either the articles deliberately misconstrued what Sophie said to somehow mean that she thought Anya was ugly even though Sophie obviously did not think that and she was commenting on how whiteness is seen as the default and standard in beauty and she wanted to challenge that ideal and/or the articles were just outright critical of her for wanting diversity.

[zemfruit]

collage inspired by both mark z danielewski's house of leaves and cathedral by jacek dukaj, there is something so fascinating when inanimate objects/buildings get described like living organisms

[driffting]

KSIĄŻKI PRZECZYTANE/DO PRZECZYTANIA 2024

Nauczyłem się czytać książki ponownie!!!

Przeczytane: 1. Nieznośna lekkość bytu - Milan Kundera 2. Białe Łzy Hari Kuzuru 3. Ślepnąć od świateł - Jakub Żulczyk 4. Dzikie Łabędzie: Trzy córy Chin - Jung Chang 5. Nigdy Dość: Judith Grisel

Polecam wszystkie ale najbardziej 4

Lista (Kolejność przypadkowa): 1. Tako rzecze Zaratustra - Frudery Nietzsche 2. Muchomory w cukrze - Marta Bijan 3. Jolanta - Sylwia Chutnik (czytam teraz) 4. Notatki z podziemia - Fiodor Dostojewski 5. W świecie głodnych duchów - Gabor Mate 6. Lód - Jacek Dukaj 7. Perfekcja Niedoskonałości - Jacek Dukaj 8. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 9. Zaproszenie na egzekucje - Vladimir Nabokov 10. Ulysses - James Joyce 11. Zrobiłbym coś złego - MIchał Jan Chmielewski 12. Sposób na Alcybiadesa - Edmund Niziurski 13. Sklepy Cynamonowe - Bruno Schulz 14. Ludzie Bezdomni - Stefan Żeromski 15. Bracia Karmazow - Fiodor Dostojewski 16. Ósmy dzień tygodnia - Marek Hłasko 17. Cmentarze - Marek Hłasko

Ogólnie to niektore juz czytalem z listy ale to sporo lat temu, polecajki z tematyki: dla nastolatek, egzystencjalizm milewidziane.

Jakies fajne ANIME też mozecie chce grobowiec swietlikow i pare innych obejrzec ale polejki przyjme

[secretsstash]

Neverwhere (by Neil Gaiman) was certainly a good palate cleanser after Other Songs (by Jacek Dukaj).

I still don't know how to feel about Other Songs. It overwhelmed me in a way that still has me staring at the walls during random moments of the day. It left me with a nagging feeling that I missed out on something amazing.. like a concept that keeps eluding my grasp and slipping through my fingers. Or like when I leave the house and still feel like I've forgotten something despite making sure I had everything on me and rationally knowing that's not possible.

Neverwhere, on the other hand, was something akin to returning home; even though it's not the kind of fantasy I usually read. But I needed something to tether me back to the present. Especially when this present turned out to be sprinkled with magic and mystery. Although some of the gruesome scenes made my stomach churn (it was fantastic and so unexpected- I loved that), it still feels.. unfinished? Like the author only scratched the surface of the world he had created. It's a great overview, but I'd love to see more intricacies and workings of this book's universe.

[bracketsoffear]

Nightworld (F. Paul Wilson) "At the start of Nightworld the sun rises five minutes too late. Repairman Jack can't understand why the scientists are so disturbed by this, but when portals to Another Dimension open all over the world, spewing a horde of Eldritch Abominations every night, the fact that every day the sun inexplicably rises later and sets earlier than the last becomes a reason for serious panic."

Ice (Jacek Dukaj) "The story of the book takes place in an alternate universe where the First World War never occurred and Poland is still under Russian rule. Following the Tunguska event, the Ice, a mysterious form of matter, has covered parts of Siberia in the Russian Empire and started expanding outwards, reaching Warsaw. The appearance of Ice results in extreme decrease of temperature, putting the whole continent under constant winter, and is accompanied by Lute, angels of Frost, a strange form of being which seems to be a native inhabitant of Ice. Ice freezes history and philosophy, preserving the old political regime, affecting human psychology and changing the laws of logic from many-valued logic of "Summer" to two-valued logic of "Winter" with no intermediate steps between true and false. It can also be used to create candles that cast shadows instead of light. This isn't normal darkness, but rather a sort of "anti-light", which can make people and objects in its radius cast "anti-shadows" made up of non-darkened areas, and seems to have an odd effect on the minds of people who spend a lot of time exposed to it."

[bitwa-lektur-szkolnych]

Adam Mickiewicz – Oda do młodości

Jacek Dukaj – Katedra (z tomu W kraju niewiernych)

[not-so-bored]

29 March 2024, Friday 

Things I have done: 

💻 Online training (work) 

📺 Video essay on A Cyborg Manifesto 

🦉 Duolingo: Dutch 

💧 Drops: Dutch 

🗒 Maths Revision (41/73) 

📃 Minor bureaucracy (unthreatening, annoying stuff)

✍️ Writing 

💫 Successfully resolving an issue by contacting my teacher in addition to overthinking

🌾 Walk* (50 minutes)

📚 Katedra by Jacek Dukaj 

*saw two cats, two horses, more dogs, and even more bugs 🐞 

[iwannapushthebutton]

Elolvasott könyvek - 2023

megjegyzések a végén

Regény/próza: 

Fejes Endre: Szerelemről bolond éjszakán

Brian W. Aldiss: Szürkeszakáll  

Ghyczy Csongor: Egy könyv lapjai

Jacek Dukaj: Zuzanna és a világmindenség 

Robert M. Pirsig: A zen meg a motorkerékpár ápolás művészete

Kemény Zsigmond: A rajongók

Cserna-Szabó András: Zerkó - Attila törpéje 

Aradi Péter: A csend, amire vágytál

Visky András: Kitelepítés

Mati Unt: Őszi kavargás

Tudományos/szakkönyv:

Frantisek Drtikol: Eyes wide open 

Tóth Klára: Elem Klimov

Philip Matyszak: Antik Róma napi öt denariusból

Képregény:

Hill/Rodriguez: Locke&Key 1-3

Inio Asano: Goodnight Punpun 1-2-3

Sinonimo/Pásztor/Várai: 1241 - Farkasnak foga között 

Mervorius-Brazil: Hosszú az út hazáig 

Ghyczy Csongor: Salem Budapest - eredet 

Joonas Sildre: Két hang között 

Q5 - KépregényÚjság

Hudra-Oravecz: Mi a film? 

Lamm Lenke: Itt hagytad nekem a zajt 

Hollerbach Emil: Amit a falakról tudni kell 1-2 

Érsek Laura: Hogyan lőtte le a dédim a hajóskapitány szeretőjét, és más történetek 

Graphic Narratives From Lebanon’s 2019 Popular Uprisings (edited by: Lina Ghaibeh)  

Marjai Petra Lilla: No One Can Be Here With You 

Kati Akraio: Kitchen Towel Comics 

Poór Dorottya: Bébi (igaz történetek 1# by Hurrikán Press) 

Mihály Gréta: Kín (igaz történetek 2# by Hurrikán Press)

Ophélie Paris: Snail Tale (igaz történetek 3# by Hurrikán Press)  

Janek Koza: Erotic Confessions

Thomas Wellman: Pimo&Rex 

Vaughan/Chiang: Újságoslányok 1-4

Leopold Maurer, Regina Hofer: Rovarok

Yoshiharu Tsuge: The Man Without Talent

Zerocalcare: Az óriástatu jóslata 

Koska Zoltán: Lyolyabi és Rizmiráng 1-2

Matz/Jacamon: Killer 1. kötet (1-2.rész)

Ghyczy Csongor: Salem Budapest - Terrárium

G.L.O.M.A.: Feine - Hagyjatok aludni 1-2 

Anamarija Kvas: We Drift Apart Where We Get The Closest

Benczédi Anna: Broken Days

Benczédi Anna:What’s That on Your Arm?

Szép Eszter: Weekdays

Rumi Zsófi: I could kill for a pimple

Zinek: 

Zina 7#

Marjai Petra Lilla: A Political Picturebook

Untold Stories No.2. 

Helena Klakocar: Revolt 

Lamm Lenke: I’m not ideal

Az idei év nem pont úgy alakult olvasás szempontjából, ahogy terveztem. Az év első pár hónapjában hagytam magam megvezetni egy nagyon hosszú darabbal, ami végül annyira feldühített, hogy a felénél a sarokba dobtam. Ugyanakkor azt hiszem elég idős lettem már ahhoz, hogy ne vesztegessem feleslegesen az időmet az engem nem érdeklő művekre. Nagyon sok könyv hagyta el idén a könyvtáramat mivel egyáltalán nem voltak érdekesek. (Sajnos vagy nem sajnos közel ugyanannyi könyv lépett be, így nem csökkent az állomány, bármennyire is törekedtem rá. 😅)

Voltak azonban könyvek, amik bár nem voltak hosszúak, mégis alaposan megizzasztottak. Szerencsére ezek mind egytől egyig megérték a belefektetett energiát. Pirsig, Kemény és Visky írásai nem csupán élményt nyújtottak, de változtattak a világlátásomon is.

A képregények között nagyon sok a rövid mű és szerencsére egyre több a magyar. Ráadásul ezek mind fontos társadalmi/pszichológiai témákkal foglalkoznak, ami fontos előrelépés a képregényes közegben.

Szakkönyvből/tudományos munkából jóval többet kezdtem el, de ezeket rendszerint félbehagyom, mivel nem mozgatják meg az agyamat. Ezt a párat, amivel végeztem, viszont érdemesnek találtam kiemelni, hogy ne vesszenek el a többi között.

A jövőben a listában a zinek is végre a helyükre kerülnek.

Végül pedig egy kis vallomás: idén azért sem haladtam olyan jól az olvasással, mert sok év után idén újra elkezdtem játszani. Először butaságnak tartottam, de rá kellett jönnöm, hogy olyan reflexeket és kognitív dolgokat mozgat meg bennem, amelyeket nem nagyon használtam már egy ideje. Úgy hogy a számítógépes játékok is maradnak, és mivel másból már nem tudnak, így az olvasásból fognak időt elvenni. De ezt egyáltalán nem bánom. 🙂

[endiness]

for people who actually care about basing their opinion off of all of the information instead of, idk, none or clickbaity article headlines... here is what tomasz baginski said in his interview when it comes to changing things from the books:

There is also the question of the recipient’s sensitivity. I often point this out to others [in the production team], such as how they simplify politics in the plot. We, Poles, see various political events differently because of our history and experiences. We see more nuances. Especially in the context of what is happening beyond our eastern border. We can recognize this gray area where various influences and powers flow. It is more understandable and transparent to us. For example, that this person is good and this one is bad, but also a little good, and here it’s rather gray and we understand why this good hero does some unpleasant things. We catch it in three seconds. I had the same perceptual block when I presented Hardkor 44 [a never-made variation on the Warsaw Uprising] abroad years ago and tried to explain: there was an uprising against Germany, but the Russians were across the river, and on the German side there were also soldiers from Hungary or Ukraine. For Americans, it was completely incomprehensible, too complicated, because they grew up in a different historical context, where everything was arranged: America is always good, the rest are the bad guys. And there are no complications. When a series is made for a huge mass of viewers, with different experiences, from different parts of the world, and a large part of them are Americans, these simplifications not only make sense, they are necessary. It’s painful for us, and for me too, but the higher level of nuance and complexity will have a smaller range, it won’t reach people. Sometimes it may go too far, but we have to make these decisions and accept them.

and here is the thing he said about tiktok in an interview over a year ago when talking about s2 because for some reason we're bringing this up:

BAGINSKI: I see the fastening of the processes Jacek Dukaj wrote about in his book – "Po piśmie" ("After the script"). We resign from cause-and-effect chains, from the linear narration. This book-like narration. When it comes to shows, the younger the public is, the logic of the plot is less significant.

INTERVIEWER: What is significant, then?

BAGINSKI: Just pure emotions. A bare emotional mix. Those people grow up on TikTok, Youtube, they jump from a video to video...

INTERVIEWER: You're talking to such person.

BAGINSKI: So, it's time to be serious: Dear children, what you do to yourself makes you less resilient for longer content, for long and complicated chains of cause an effect.

INTERVIEWER: You're talking about something else that's hidden between your words. What you mean is that you don't know how to make a show kids'd like to watch.

BAGINSKI: Generally, I try to know what people react to and like to watch. Long and complex narratives will remain, it'll be like a classic shelf in a bookstore. People will still read that, it will be popular at some point. But the edge of the mass audience is moving a bit into the a less linear narration, less cohesive one. I think it's inevitable. As reading is not natural for the human brain.

INTERVIEWER: Yep, you gotta learn it, it's hard.

BAGINSKI: Oh, in this sense, yes. You need a lot of effort to learn to recognise all these symbols. You probably don't remember that. If you're a genius, you read when you're 3. It's some big effort for your brain, moreover, it's not natural. The things we receive with our heads... There's nothing literary there. We have to learn literature. Learn to receive it and write it. It's like mathematics, a lot of abstract symbols you have to learn to recognise. People who understand it will remain, the people who work on narration, they have to work on texts. But, more and more people won't need it. Why write if I can record or say it? Why write if I can receive emotions in a different way. It's a controversial thesis. When Dukaj published it, there was a lot of arguments like: "But I still read! My friends, too!" However, we talk about trends in a scale.

INTERVIEWER: Yeah, it's not about you or your friend.

BAGINSKI: We talk about global trends. The success of TikTok wouldn't be possible without that. It's happening. It's just easier to watch and click, watch another one, than read a book and follow all those twists and plots. We'll see how it goes. I think The Witcher is safe for now, there are still a few more years... Maybe it's because of the generation.

in either case, it’s pretty obvious he’s not blaming ~*~the fans~*~ for the changes the show made to the books but talking about how american/western media is made and younger audiences who grew up on social media in general.

[ostropest]

Hey there! 11 for the ''3 things'' ask ?

11. 3 books that you would recommend everyone to read

I don't think I know any books that could be racommended to anyone. But if someone was to have similar taste to mine, then it would be:

Trylogia husycka (The Hussite Trilogy) by Andrzej Sapkowski

anything by Anna Kańtoch

Lód by Jacek Dukaj

to name only 3... 😅

I think only the first one has been translated into english. Alas 😬

[budynzsmalcem]

It might be only tangentially related but there is an amazing story "The Cathedral" by Jacek Dukaj about a Cathedra on a asteroid that is very much alive, which i wholeheartedly recommend.

your thing about how machines are alive and are creatures reminded me of church organs because they're literally a system that exists within the very structure of a building and its got this very complex system of windpipes and gadgets and stuff and whatnot... church organs are also creatures :) and they're one of my fav creatures ever.