I used to think that I didn't like short stories. I thought they would leave me unsatisfied , without any time to develop neither story nor characters. Akutagawa made me doubt my attitude, Borges changed my mind, and now, Gombrowicz has sealed the deal. After having read a perfectly measured story, there is no turning back. And Gombrowicz really knows how to do this.In Bacacay, Gombrowicz presents us with a ridiculing look at social interaction and expectations. The usual ideas of how "everything is supposed to be" are drawn to extremes, making up an absurd jumble of standards and values that are smudged into troubled shadows of our everyday world. The people in these stories are held tightly by the standards of society, and some of them want out. There is a longing for the ugly, the ungraceful and the grotesque in a world where everything that isn't light and beautiful cannot be accepted. Gombrowicz characters, as well as himself, exhibit an aversion to the "european, unpolluted and fresh" that they are asked to abide to. Their possible elbow room is getting tighter by the minute, held back by the rules that aren't even unspoken, since we hardly know they exist. However, rebelling against them can't happen without punishment from the external world. Nobody breaks away from the ordinary without a backlash, and sometimes it can be severe. The characters that break free, however, are not nearly as interesting as those that conform stubbornly. Here chaos erupts, where people try to act normal in abnormal situations. An investigating magistrate is absolutely sure that a crime has been committed, even when none has happened. The crew on a ship try to keep their minds intact when exposed to absolute monotony at sea. The more these characters cling to normalcy, the more insane their actions become. The stories range from darkly humorous to almost brutal. Gombrowicz bitterly writes about our beliefs about how the world should be, versus how it really is. Her repeatedly smashes our idealised pictures of society to pieces, and I'm happy with that. I've both laughed out loudly and looked at the pages with disgust while reading this, and that's definitely a good thing. Extremely fine collection of short stories. (I've read the Swedish translation by David Szybek which seemed very good, and hopefully I'll be able to read it in the original Polish in a few months!)
There are perfect moments in these stories:When I do something well, I feel suspended on the inscrutable smiles of women, horses, frogs, dogs and bees.Virginity - a stunning combination of physics and metaphysics, abstract and concrete - from a minor bodily detail there flows an entire sea of idealism and wonders that are glaringly at odds with our sorry reality. When I kiss a lady's hand I lick it moistly, after which I quickly take out my handkerchief: "Oh, pardon me! "I say, and wipe it with the handkerchief.That is how it is ladies and gentlemen; you smile and narrow your eyes; you cherish swallows and torment frogs; you find fault with a nose. There is constantly someone that you hate, someone you find disgusting; then again you tumble into an incomprehensive state of love and adoration - and everything on account of some Mystery. But what would happen if I were to acquire my own mystery and impose it on your world with all the patriotism, heroism, and devotion i was taught by love and by the army?The astonishing feeling of his own helplessness in the face of extraordinary idiocy struck him like a blow to the head.
What do You think about Bacacay (2006)?
Zbiór opowiadań Gombrowicza przeczytałem już trzeci raz. Odzwyczaiłem się trochę od jego pióra i chyba muszę na nowo przypomnieć sobie jego twórczość. Samego Gombrowicza zawsze umieszczałem w ścisłej czołówce pisarzy, których uważam za geniuszy i z roku na rok nic się w tym wypadku nie zmienia. Po długiej przerwie (ostatni raz czytałem jego powieści na studiach a nowo wydany Kronos mnie jakoś nie przekonał), efekt zachwytu jedynie się zmaksymalizował. Tym razem moją uwagę przykuło przede wszystkim odpowiadanie „Zdarzenia na brygu Banbury”, które odebrałem jako groteskę dotycząca nudy i seksualności. Zresztą sam Gombrowicz ma niesamowity talent do ukrywania pod pozornie absurdalnymi zdarzeniami pewnych „uniwersalnych” treści na temat ludzi ich zachowania oraz ciężkich filozoficznych pytań. Opowiadanie „Dziewictwo” jako wyśmianie czystości i naiwności, groteskowość „Zbrodni z premedytacją” i samo ukazanie absurdalności śledztwa, rozumowania dedukcyjnego zawartego w tym opowiadaniu, „Pamiętnik Stefana Czarneckiego” jako krytyka rasowości. Cały zbiór zasługuje na bardziej szczegółowy opis, jednakże to wymagałoby już o wiele głębszej pracy niż moje notatki na ten temat. Jedno wiem na pewno chyba najwyższy czas na nowo przeczytać wszystkie dzieła Gombrowicza.Tak zupełnie na marginesie "Bakakaj i inne opowiadania" jest bardzo dobrze wydany z dość ciekawym posłowiem oraz bibliografią prac naukowych na temat tej pozycji.
—Marek
(Read it in Bosnian translation.) The question is how much of this craziness can one take? Every character has a mania, some of them more unbearable than others. I could have done without the extensive descriptions of marine and submarine tortures, but I suppose the violence is a part of the point. Two stories struck me as especially funny, the one about virginity where the idealized maiden wants to gnaw on bones from the garbage and the one about a respectable upper-class guy who fetishizes really old, really ugly cleaning ladies.
—Baklavahalva
