#twardoch

[fran-franki]

(...) to nie był bezwstyd, lecz niewstyd i w tym niewstydzie była piękna, jakby w ogóle wstydu nie znała, jakby jej jednej nie dotknęło wygnanie z raju (...)

Szczepan Twardoch "Morfina"

[ayanos-pl]

W sierpniowym numerze Subaru (w sprzedaży od 5 lipca 2024) przetłumaczyłam na język japoński opowiadanie Szczepana Twardocha pt.„Zeitverschwendung” w ramach Subaru Foreign Authors Series. Napisałam też komentarz.

すばる2024年8月号（2024年7月5日発売）に【すばる海外作家シリーズ】シュチェパン・トファルドフの短篇「時間の無駄（ツァイトフェアシュヴェンドゥンク）」を訳出しました。がんばって解説も書きました。どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。

[zakochana-w-cytatach]

"Gdy się od życia nie oczekuje niczego, to nie sposób się rozczarować, a gdy oczekuje się najgorszego, wtedy każdy dzień, w którem najgorsze nie nadeszło, okazuje się świętem."

- Szczepan Twardoch, "Chołod"

[nacpanaasoup]

Gdy się od życia nie oczekuje niczego, to nie sposób się rozczarować, a gdy oczekuje się najgorszego, wtedy każdy dzień, w którem najgorsze nie nadeszło, okazuje się świętem.

Szczepan Twardoch

[ahosia3]

Czy ja się kiedyś zakochałem? To ważne i nieważne jednocześnie. Ważne. Bo to jest właśnie substancja życia. Z tego się składa, z porywów serca i z drgań lęd��wi. A nieważne, bo życie jest nieważnym, w ogóle.

~Szczepan Twardoch:"Morfina"

[beyourselfchulanmaria]

👍 Well said & good point 😎 "Co zostało zobaczone, już się nie odzobaczy." 🦕

Aleksandra Waliszewska.

[trzpiotka]

opinie o "Królu"? jestem mniej więcej w połowie i poraża mnie ilość przemocy wobec kobiet i jestem dość rozczarowana, że tło historyczne chyba jednak ma tylko nadawać ✨klimatu✨ (słyszałam, że Twardoch kreuje się na komentatora rzeczywistości społecznej, lewaka, czy kogo tam, więc mam odrobinę większe wymagania)

[geminipdf]

szczepan twardoch. thoughts? 🎤

[soschmutzig4]

Dein Lieblingsbuch ?

Das sind ein paar die ich sehr mag:

Underground Railroad von Colson Whitehead, The Street von Ann Petry, Die Buddenbrooks von Thomas Mann, Die Wohlgesinnten von Jonathan Littel, Morphin von szczepan twardoch, Das schwarze Königreich von szczepan twardoch , In Stahlgewittern von Ernst Jünger, Crossroads von Jonathan Franzen , Die Korrekturen von Jonathan Franzen , Die Früchte des Zorns von John Steinbeck , Der Fremde von Albert Camus , Die Parade von dave eggers , milchman von anna burns , Auf den Marmorklippen von Ernst Jünger

[fran-franki]

Czym mogę mu zagrozić, skoro nie ma w nim strachu przed niczym?

Szczepan Twardoch "Morfina"

[power-chords]

I also really want to read that Szczepan Twardoch novel now that it's been translated from Polish to English...

[rfsnyder]

ARTISTA DARIUSZ TWARDOCH

[edgygayguy]

Nobody who follows me on here gives a shit about literature but I just finished Morphin by Szczepan Twardoch and I need to be heard

I started reading around may, one of my polish teachers told me to read it since she assumed I'm "interested in narration". This book is singlehandedly responsible for 3 large breaks in my reading habits, the biggest one being literally all of vacation untill now. I read 50 pages a day and to remedy what this book caused me required dusting off a lot of fucking audiobooks.

I hate the book but I have to say it's objectively pretty damn good. Because I took such long breaks and didn't want to read it most of its meaning and themes probably escaped me but idgaf, I just want to move on with my life.

If you want to read it stop here because now I'll be writing down all the shit I remember from it so I may better remember it later.

The book takes place in 1939 Warsaw, just after the Nazis took over. The hero is a miserable shadow of a man guided by a mysterious female voice, which interrupts the narration. The voice isn't that prominent at the beginning and end of the book, but it's very on display for most of the middle.

At first I thought the voice was his anima, maybe his daimonion. Then I thought she was some sort of Goddess. But in the end I believe her and her sisters represent what another polish writer, who came close to getting his hands on the Nobel prize award for literature, Witold Gombrowicz calls "Form".

Form is a complicated thing, but the most basic definition is "situations which, once set in motion, have to unravel a certain way and cannot be interrupted, mostly because of social norms". So a mini version of the ancient Greek fatum.

The hero is being guided by the voice thought the book, his actions directly chosen by the female voice who keeps vigil over him.

The big theme of the book is personhood and identity, who am I? At first the hero is a half baked shadow of a man, so he is a slave to the voice and form. Later through a confident woman's actions he realizes that he isn't the things he likes, his nationality, his interests, his relationships with people. He simply is. He breaks free of the voice and is able to slowly begin his journey as a fully fledged human being. Though it's interrupted by his childhood friend who's life he ruined by sleeping with his wife many times. He shoots the hero and the voice takes control over him, now finding another empty man. In the end the voice and form win, it's a parasite that found a new host. The last line of the book is "I need to pay the driver", the hero at his last moment is worried about being embarrassed, commiting a social faux pas.

The theme of the voice and form is wonderfully realized here, at first I thought the setting being war torn Warsaw was just to cash in on Polish people's obsession with world war two and romanticizing it, but the setting does well to show what kind of man our hero is; with the added benefit of being the most hopeless place I could think of, it also plays into the theme of form.

I could analyze this more but everything above probably makes no sense, so here's some extra thoughts:

The strong woman in question, Dzidzia (weird and probably significant name choice) is the most interesting character in the story, mostly defined by her role and the horrible end she will eventually meet.

The hero during his youth before the war outs two guys who bullied him at school. They were gay, and they were having sex at the school in the Janitor's closet. He ruined their lives and I was so blinded by the shock I didn't even attempt to analyze what the fuck was going on there, what purpose did it serve. Maybe the writer is homophobic, who knows, I don't. But I'm not willing to assume, we're past the point of that .

If you read it thanks, and sorry, because I didn't even go back to re read all the shit I wrote.

[aksamitna]

Nie oburzać się, oburzenie jest parą spod kotła naszej sprawczości uchodzącą przez gwizdek, oburzenie nie napędza do czynu, bo spala naszą energię samo w sobie, oburzenie to kolejny narkotyk odcinający nas od rzeczywistości (...).

Szczepan Twardoch