Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Stefan Grabinski

A kind friend recently sent me a copy of 'The Dark Domain' containing a selection of stories by Stefan Grabinski written 1918-1922, as translated by Miroslaw Lipinski. I'd never read this author before and I am enjoying the experience. The following passage struck me from the story entitled 'The Area':

"‘Yes, yes,’ the heads of the literati sadly nodded, ‘he wrote too much too soon…’ […] Wrzesmian wasn't too popular. The works of this strange man, saturated with rampant fantasy and imbued with strong individualism, gave a most unfavourable impression by inverting accepted aesthetic-literary theories and by mocking established pseudo-truths. His output was eventually acknowledged as the product of a sick imagination, the bizarre work of an eccentric, maybe even a madman. Wrzesmian was an inconvenience for a variety of reasons and he disturbed unnecessarily, stirring peaceful waters. Thus his premature eclipse was received with a secret sigh of relief."

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