Let me give some advice: If you, your spouse, and your teenage farmhand ever find yourself tending a tract of land in the country, beware of old dudes from the city. A brief stay at your farmhouse may be OK, but if those fellows start to linger, expect mischief. Expect creepy machinations. If you find that someone's been leaving strange letters under rocks, suspect the old men! If you see the old timers tiptoeing about the garden with wide eyes, lock them up! At the very least, don't let them near your farmhand or daughter. Old people are wacky and diabolical!That's what I learned from PORNOGRAFIA, a stylistically unique novel--it jumps and repeats and skitters and pauses and races and questions, all as if we were really hearing the narrator's thoughts--about obsession, about idolizing and scandalizing youth, and about reimagining the role of matchmaker. The main characters of the novel, two older fellows from Warsaw, are entranced by the prospect of secretly setting their host's teenage daughter up with their host's teenage farmhand. The two youngsters show no obvious desire for one another, and the the girl is already engaged, yet the men are persistent. It almost seems like the plot of a Shakespearean play, except these dudes are truly messed up. They aren't acting out of familial angst or greed or even beneficence--they're simply fascinated by the thought of young bodies and minds writhing together, becoming adult. And that's where we get our title--PORNOGRAFIA in some way refers to the merriment and anxiety these two gentlemen get by watching the not-yet-couple and scheming. Now, I appreciated the explicit psychological and thematic underpinnings to these interactions, and I found the narrator's style awkward yet interesting, but as a plot, it's not much, and it sometimes felt a bit dull. In fact, what kept me intrigued about the book, at least at first, was more a lack than anything specifically alluded to in its pages. I'm currently reading THE ARTFUL EDIT by Susan Bell, in which she walks her readers through the relationship between F. Scott Fitzgerald and his editor Maxwell Perkins. To anyone with a hankering for learning about author-editor relationships, the Fitzgerald-Perkins connection is one of the more well-known collaborations of all time, partially because we're lucky to have inherited their letters and partially because they happen to be two greats in their fields. In any case, in the chapter I'm currently reading, Bell shows several examples of Fitzgerald omitting character details as a way of making Jay Gatsby shine more mysteriously. Bell argues (in concurrence with Fitzgerald and Perkins, I suppose) that by not sharing with us particularities about Gatsby's past and present, the novel--and Gatsby's character--becomes much more riveting. It's possible that PORNOGRAFHIA uses a similar tactic. The novel takes place in Poland in 1943. For those of you who know your history, you know that Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and that the Final Solution was already in full swing there by 1943. And yet, with the exception of a few references to the German army or to some characters' participation in the Polish Underground or a lone mention of a town that seems to be missing Jews, there are few textual signs that these characters are up to their devious designs at ground zero of the worst genocide in modern history, that they even know what's befalling the world beyond their silly (though significant) antics. It's as if Gombrowicz wrote a novel about a known historical figure and then left that historical figure out. WOLF HALL without King Henry VIII. LAMB, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BIFF, CHRIST'S CHILDHOOD PAL without Christ. ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER without the Civil War.And this is what kept my interest perked: looking for clues concerning the characters' insight into the Holocaust or into how their own actions might serve as symbols to the vast morality questions circling around them. Somehow I think there's something brilliant about writing a book like this, a book that picks a setting and then steadfastly undermines or ignores everything we might think about that setting, a book that puts what we know in the shadows.
Ґомбрович ошелешуючий. Його “Порнографія” - це дуже динамічний і ритмічний текст, який не розбивається, не прагне виокремлювати свої словесні принади чи якісь особливо ефектні фіксації дійсності. Стає млосно від того, як він впускає всередину і дає дивитись на події крізь марево свідомості, що видозмінюється під градусом почуттів, самонавіювання, інтуїції. Це завжди поле його свідомості, під ритм якої швидко підлаштовуєшся, і тому здається, пригода вже не належить автору - її перекинуто на тебе; це тебе ошпарює безперервне невтомне думання.А думання про те, як продовжити життя, коли воно вже переступило через тебе. “Дія роману відбувається у Польщі за часів Другої світової війни, проте історичні реалії - лише тло для захопливого сюжету… В центрі подій - двоє варшавських інтелектуалів, що помандрували до сільської місцевості, ховаючись од війни, і зустріли там двох молодих закоханих, які, на їхню думку, ідеально пасують один одному, проте ще не осягнули цього вповні”. Старіші п’ють із вінця молодості, яка пломеніє й іскриться від злиття двох, молодші у свою чергу черпають із чаші статечності і досвіду, поспішаючи видзьобати стомлену нажитість. Поки десь поруч широко ступає жахіття війни, що ковтає без розбору життя молодих і старих, поки десь світ зовні абсолютно зіпсутий і скорчений, тут гримлять битви за живильні соки: секс, як і вбивства пробуджують ті самі енергетичні струмені, заради яких ти будеш готовий підштовхнути інших до негідного вчинку, у якому б ти сам залюбки взяв участь, але тобі вже не личить і ти вже не спроможний. Зостається лише переносити бажання, шукати способів, як ліквідувати імпотенцію.“Я - Христос, розіп’ятий на шістнадцятирічному хресті!”Він ексцентричний, звісно, і важко сказати, де водить за носа, чи просто плескається, як дитина, у людських паталогіях, а де оголює нерв граничної чуттєвості.
What do You think about Pornografia (1994)?
Gombrowicz is a unique writer, very difficult to translate into English. This book was translated by a winner of the Polish government's "Found in Translation" award, which she won partly on the basis of this translation. What I find interesting about Gombrowicz is that his two biggest insights into human nature--that even as adults we all feel immature and that people's personalities change depending on whom they interact with--are turned by him into very interesting and provocative novels and plays. "Pornografia" engages both these themes as it minutely dissects the consciousness of its narrator, who is named, not coincidentally, "Witold Gombrowicz." It's a brilliant book, but it's sort of hard to describe what its appeal is--it's definitely NOT pornography (although that is indeed the meaning of the Polish word "pornografia"). Just really good, provocative writing, about stuff that most American books are not about, I guess.
—Kathleen
This is one of those books about the duplicity of this lifeless journey, where a man is riding to church as if he were actually riding to church when of course he is not even he and he is definitely not riding to church. Fryderyk is probably France and people watch simple pastoral settings but it's all about Poland before and during the Second World War. So it's fun for awhile trying to figure out what the names mean and who's Chamberlain, who's Hitler. Then it's not so much fun anymore.This could be a masterpiece and I'm not saying it's not. It's probably my fault or just the wrong time for me. I remember when computers were new and it was compulsory to try clever games. I got that game Myst. Cool music; fun finding the clues. But then one child drifted away, then another. I realized the game was all about finding the clues. Find one, you had to find another. I eventually set it aside, but never got back to it. How ephemeral the excitement can be. This was like that.
—Tony
Gombrowicz's 'Pornography' is a deeply transgressive work, but not in the way that its title suggests - Gombrowicz's biggest joke. It plays its hand with understated subtlety and sly absurdism, which could well be taken for dullness. 'Death in Venice', played for laughs? The title has been criticised as inappropriate or misleading. I think it is perfect. Without it, the book would hardly make sense. The title undercuts the languidly unfolding portrayal of a couple of old Polish duffers, reminding us of the horrors that lie beneath without ever having to name them...
—Neale
