#czesław miłosz reference

[dieletztepanzerhexe]

the darkness is coming

[kaypichaypiwakpi]

QCQ #5

Corners

"Motionless, mute things never forget: melancholy and despised as they are, we confide in them that which is humblest and least suspected in the depths of ourselves (p. 244)." What a call to humility this dreamer heard in his corner! For the corner denies the palace, dust denies marble, and worn objects deny splendor and luxury. The dreamer in his corner wrote off the world in a detailed daydream that destroyed, one by one, all the objects in the world. Having crossed the countless little thresholds of the disorder of things that are reduced to dust, these souvenir-objects set the past in order, associating condensed motionlessness with far distant voyages into a world that is no more. With Milosz, the dream penetrates so deeply into the past that it seems to attain to a region beyond memory: "All these things are far, far away, they no longer exist, they never did exist, the Past has lost all recollection of them... Look, seek and wonder, tremble... Already you yourself no longer have a past" (p. 245)."

This part of the reading quotes Czesław Miłosz in reference to his writings on memories and corners. I feel as though the writing really embodies this idea of the corner as somewhat of an imagined space-one of nostalgia and looking to the distant past. This particular section of the reading made me recall several different instances where objects and memories were sort of "pushed into a corner". Not literal corners, but places that stored objects that were no longer of apparent use or value. Or objects that were displaced over time due to the passing on of their owners, who cared for these objects in life. This quote also brings forth thoughts of the corner as it can exist in our minds and even our emotions.

What are the differences between interior and exterior corners? The reading touches briefly on the interior and the exterior, but what about the more literal and physical differences between an outer and an inner corner or an emotional/intimate (interior corner) vs a public (exterior corner)?

[reading-writing-revolution]

Both men could see the gap between propaganda and reality. Yet one remained an enthusiastic collaborator while the other could not bear the betrayal of his ideals. Why?

Why Do Republican Leaders Continue to Enable Trump? - The Atlantic

To understand, just ask yourself “What’s in it for him/her?” and your answer will materialize. When we look at Republicans, why are they collaborating? They know what they’re doing is wrong. But they are willfully opting for money and power over humanity, over honor and dignity, over respect for other human beings. They are trade their souls for riches and power. Just don’t forget what they chose. “In English, the word collaborator has a double meaning. A colleague can be described as a collaborator in a neutral or positive sense. But the other definition of collaborator, relevant here, is different: someone who works with the enemy, with the occupying power, with the dictatorial regime. In this negative sense, collaborator is closely related to another set of words: collusion, complicity, connivance. This negative meaning gained currency during the Second World War, when it was widely used to describe Europeans who cooperated with Nazi occupiers. At base, the ugly meaning of collaborator carries an implication of treason: betrayal of one’s nation, of one’s ideology, of one’s morality, of one’s values.

To the American reader, references to Vichy France, East Germany, fascists, and Communists may seem over-the-top, even ludicrous. But dig a little deeper, and the analogy makes sense. The point is not to compare Trump to Hitler or Stalin; the point is to compare the experiences of high-ranking members of the American Republican Party, especially those who work most closely with the White House, to the experiences of Frenchmen in 1940, or of East Germans in 1945, or of Czesław Miłosz in 1947. These are experiences of people who are forced to accept an alien ideology or a set of values that are in sharp conflict with their own.

It takes time to persuade people to abandon their existing value systems. The process usually begins slowly, with small changes.

Social scientists who have studied the erosion of values and the growth of corruption inside companies have found, for example, that “people are more likely to accept the unethical behavior of others if the behavior develops gradually (along a slippery slope) rather than occurring abruptly,” according to a 2009 article in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. This happens, in part, because most people have a built-in vision of themselves as moral and honest, and that self-image is resistant to change. Once certain behaviors become “normal,” then people stop seeing them as wrong.

But just as the truth about Hugo Chávez’s Bolivarian Revolution slowly dawned on people, it also became clear, eventually, that Trump did not have the interests of the American public at heart. And as they came to realize that the president was not a patriot, Republican politicians and senior civil servants began to equivocate, just like people living under an alien regime.

e·quiv·o·cate/əˈkwivəˌkāt/

verb

use ambiguous language so as to conceal the truth or avoid committing oneself."“Not that we are aware of,” she equivocated"

Nevertheless, 20 months into the Trump administration, senators and other serious-minded Republicans in public life who should have known better began to tell themselves stories that sound very much like those in Miłosz’s The Captive Mind. Some of these stories overlap with one another; some of them are just thin cloaks to cover self-interest. But all of them are familiar justifications of collaboration, recognizable from the past.

Many people in and around the Trump administration are seeking personal benefits. Many of them are doing so with a degree of openness that is startling and unusual in contemporary American politics, at least at this level. As an ideology, “Trump First” suits these people, because it gives them license to put themselves first.

Another sort of benefit, harder to measure, has kept many people who object to Trump’s policies or behavior from speaking out: the intoxicating experience of power, and the belief that proximity to a powerful person bestows higher status.

Cynicism, nihilism, relativism, amorality, irony, sarcasm, boredom, amusement—these are all reasons to collaborate, and always have been. If there is no such thing as moral and immoral, then everyone is implicitly released from the need to obey any rules. If the president doesn’t respect the Constitution, then why should I? If the president can cheat in elections, then why can’t I? If the president can sleep with porn stars, then why shouldn’t I?

“In some parts of the country it does seem like the America that we know and love doesn’t exist anymore.” This is the Vichy logic: The nation is dead or dying—so anything you can do to restore it is justified. Whatever criticisms might be made of Trump, whatever harm he has done to democracy and the rule of law, whatever corrupt deals he might make while in the White House—all of these shrink in comparison to the horrific alternative: the liberalism, socialism, moral decadence, demographic change, and cultural degradation that would have been the inevitable result of Hillary Clinton’s presidency.

Fear, of course, is the most important reason any inhabitant of an authoritarian or totalitarian society does not protest or resign, even when the leader commits crimes, violates his official ideology, or forces people to do things that they know to be wrong. In extreme dictatorships like Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Russia, people fear for their lives. In softer dictatorships, like East Germany after 1950 and Putin’s Russia today, people fear losing their jobs or their apartments. Fear works as a motivation even when violence is a memory rather than a reality. When I was a student in Leningrad in the 1980s, some people still stepped back in horror when I asked for directions on the street, in my accented Russian: No one was going to be arrested for speaking to a foreigner in 1984, but 30 years earlier they might have been, and the cultural memory remained.

Republican leaders don’t seem to know that similar waves of fear have helped transform other democracies into dictatorships. They are scared, and yet they don’t seem to know that this fear has precedents, or that it could have consequences. They don’t know that similar waves of fear have helped transform other democracies into dictatorships. They don’t seem to realize that the American Senate really could become the Russian Duma, or the Hungarian Parliament, a group of exalted men and women who sit in an elegant building, with no influence and no power. Indeed, we are already much closer to that reality than many could ever have imagined.

The price of collaboration in America has already turned out to be extraordinarily high. And yet, the movement down the slippery slope continues, just as it did in so many occupied countries in the past. First Trump’s enablers accepted lies about the inauguration; now they accept terrible tragedy and the loss of American leadership in the world. Worse could follow. Come November, will they tolerate—even abet—an assault on the electoral system: open efforts to prevent postal voting, to shut polling stations, to scare people away from voting? Will they countenance violence, as the president’s social-media fans incite demonstrators to launch physical attacks on state and city officials?

Each violation of our Constitution and our civic peace gets absorbed, rationalized, and accepted by people who once upon a time knew better. If, following what is almost certain to be one of the ugliest elections in American history, Trump wins a second term, these people may well accept even worse. Unless, of course, they decide not to.

In the meantime, I leave anyone who has the bad luck to be in public life at this moment with a final thought from Władysław Bartoszewski, who was a member of the wartime Polish underground, a prisoner of both the Nazis and the Stalinists, and then, finally, the foreign minister in two Polish democratic governments. Late in his life—he lived to be 93—he summed up the philosophy that had guided him through all of these tumultuous political changes. It was not idealism that drove him, or big ideas, he said. It was this: Warto być przyzwoitym—“Just try to be decent.” Whether you were decent—that’s what will be remembered.

[elizabethsharmon]

Disclaimer: there are a lot of references that only Polish people will understand so basically you have to just trust us that this is really hilarious and we have a great sense of humour and if you’re Polish then you’d better read this version because (a) it’s much funnier and (b) why would you want to read it in English (unless you want to Polish your English).

@vildeliens and @yossiacar are honoured to present the Polish version of SKAM – SKAZA (pol. scar, imperfection). SKAZA – produced by the same studio as the hit remake shows such as Szczepan, Niemożebne and Ksiądz Kto – is a one-of-a-kind show made with extraordinary precision, telling the story of five friends from one of high schools in Warsaw.

From the first day of school Ewa Gotuje, Róża Brzęczyszczykiewicz, Zosia Mostowiak, Emilka Nowak and Michalina “Misiek” Krawczyk can see that they have something in common – they are all despised by their classmates Andżelika Kowalewska, Dżesika Kossakowska and Agnieszka Zduńska. They hate Ewa because she stole Andżelika’s boyfriend, Jurek Lubicz, and because she comes from Kraków. Róża for that every boy and girl in the school checks her out and for that she didn’t want to join their squad but instead chose to stick to Ewa. They dislike Zosia for her godliness, Emilka for her childlishness, ignorance and poor financial situation, and Misiek – just because she is too kind.

The other characters are girls’ classmates Jurek, Igor Bielik, Mariusz Lewandowski, Czesław “Miłosz” Miłoszewski and famous two years older chavs, regulars at Żyleta – Penetrator Misiek Wiśniewski and Julian “Julek” Dahl. In the second year of high school we meet another classmate, Erwin Tomaszewski, and Zosia’s brother Emil and his friends from the electronic technical high school – Józef Cieplak, Adam Turek, Maciej Kowalewski and Marcel Latawiec, who was the founder of their pilgrimage group “Kites Squad”. And keeping an eye on everything is Mr Jacek Kisiel – history teacher and class tutor (guest starring Krzysztof Ibisz and his new white teeth).

Season 1 tells the story of Ewa. Born in Kraków, she moved a year ago to Warsaw to live with her father and his new family, while her mother went away to London in search of work and better life. At the end of middle school she fell in love with her best friend’s boyfriend and after the disastrous repercussions, Ewa finally hopes her life will get easier and she and Jurek will live happily ever after. However, soon she finds out that Andżelika and her besties, Dżesika and Agnieszka, also signed up to the same high school as Ewa and what’s even worse – they’re all in the same class. From the very first day of school they talk about Ewa behind her back and try set all the girls from their class against her – fortunately they do not succeed as Róża stands up for her. Soon Zosia, Emilka and Misiek, also dislaked by others because of their unique nature, join the two girls. Together they try to implement Emilka’s plan to climb up the school’s social ladder and they often crash parties organized by third-graders – prticularly those hosted by chavs Julek, Penetrator Misiek and Karol, who repeats a year at school second time in a row. Season 1 is a universal story about friendship, trust and honesty, which precisely describes the situations which teenagers have to face these days.

The main protagonist of season 2 is Róża – abandoned by her biological parents at the age of 5, she was adopted by Mr and Mrs Szczebrzeszyńscy when she was 10 years old. When her foster parents died in a car accident, Róża was taken into custody of her older adoptive siblings – twins Janusz and Grażyna. Besides finding out dark secrets about Róża’s past, season 2 also focuses on her love life. Blackmailed by the chav Julian (whom Róża always calls Juliusz), eventually she agrees to be his prom date, under the condition that his friends will invite her friends as their dates – this way Emilka’s biggest dream is fulfilled as the girls from 1B become the most popular girls in their high school. In the second part of the season, Róża makes an online acquaintance and feels that she’s falling in love with that person – but will they meet in real life? While all of her friends try to persuade her to give it a go and meet with that person face to face, Emilka reminds her: “And what if it’s another case of ‘Hey Ania, I’m Wojtek and I’m also 12 years old?”*. Season 2 deals with topics of first love, difficult childhood in orphanage and the dangers of the online friendships.

In season 3, SKAZA makes a U-turn when Igor becomes the main protagonist. Convinced by Zosia to join the coffee shop organized by Emilka for school’s festival, he gets to know new student from his class – Erwin. Although Igor is initially suspicious about his new colleague who seems to be a little bit too straightforward, he is asked by class’ tutor, Mr Kisiel, to show him around the school and take him under his wing. Soon Emilka makes the boys take the shift at the coffee shop together and then, surrounded by apple pies and cookies, they find common ground. When Igor realizes that he is in love with Erwin and finds out that the feeling is mutual, he is seen with his new boyfriend by his conservative parents, who in a fit of rage kick him out of the house. Will they accept Igor as who he is? Will his relationship with Erwin survive? You will find answers to these questions in season 3.

Season 4 tells the story of Zosia. Born and raised in a pious family, she struggles everyday with being harassed by her peers who do not understand her relationship to her faith. The only person with whom she can really talk is the best friend of her brother, fourth-grader of electronic technical high school and altar boy, Józef. However, one Sunday, Józef doesn’t participate in the mass. When Zosia asks him about it, he tells her his doubts about his faith and to her surprise, he says that he wonders whether he should submit an act of apostasy and depart from the Christian faith. Only then Zosia realizes how much she loves Józef, but she knows he should do what he believes is best for him. Meanwhile she throws herself into work and studies 24/7. Avoiding him for a few weeks, she undergoes a complete makeover and changes her too large glasses for contact lenses and cuts her hair and she bumps into him on orlik field where they used to play football when they were kids. She finally finds strength to talk with him heart-to-heart and they confess their love to each other. However, they will not spend this summer together because Józef goes on a Caritas’ mission to Sudan to help those in need.

Season 5 focuses on Emilka and the preparations for the upcoming biggest social event of their lives – the prom. Viewers also find out about Emilka’s tough family situation and that she practically raises her younger brother on her own, while their mother spends all money earned by Emilka on buying tiny liquor bottles in the local store. Since the beginning of the show, Emilka came a long way to find out in season 5 that the most important thing in the world that no one will take away from her and which will give her strength to never give up is friendship. Eventually, she goes to prom alone and even though her artistic performance doesn’t win the main prize and she doesn’t dance polonaise, she has a time of her life dancing to hit songs by ABBA.

The protagonist of the 6th and final season is Misiek. Although she seems to be just a nice, modest, organized girl next door, she hides her insecurities and problems from everyone. After all those years of studying and being a top student, Misiek starts to feel burned out and tired of the constant rat race, she gets depressed. To meet the expectations of her parents and forget about everything that makes her unhappy even just for a minute, she begins to buy performance-enhancing drugs from Karol (who is still in high school). When the time of matura comes, Misiek disappears and doesn’t show up on the exams. Will her friends find her and help her before it’s too late? What will happen to the heroes of the series? You will find out everything in season 6 of SKAZA.

LIST OF CHARACTERS: Ewa Gotuje = Eva Róża Brzęczyszczykiewicz = Noora Zosia Mostowiak = Sana Emilka Nowak = Vilde Michalina “Misiek” Krawczyk = Chris Andżelika Kowalewska = Ingrid Dżesika Kossakowska = Sara Agnieszka Zduńska = Emma Jurek Lubicz = Jonas Igor Bielik = Isak Mariusz Lewandowski = Magnus Czesław “Miłosz” Miłoszewski = Mahdi Erwin Tomaszewski = Even Penetrator Misiek Wiśniewski = P-Chris Julian “Julek” Dahl = Willhell Karol = K*rl Emil Mostowiak = Elias Józef Cieplak = Yousef Adam Turek = Adam Maciej Kowalewski = Mutta Marcel Latawiec = Mikael Grażyna Szczebrzeszyńska = Linn Janusz Szczebrzeszyński = Eskild Mr Jacek Kisiel = Dr Skrulle

*terrifying Polish campaign that tried to scare the shit out of warn kids that 99,9% of people chatting with them online are actually grown ass pedophiles and they shouldn’t talk with strangers on the internet. As you can see, we are the perfect example that this campaign did not work.

[finishinglinepress]

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Loretta Oleck, 2016 Pushcart Poetry Prize nominee, is the author of two poetry collections, Songs from the Black Hole (FinishingLine Press), and Persephone Dreaming of Cherries (Hurricane Press). Her poetry and photography have been published in The Stockholm Review of Literature, The Westchester Review, The Adirondack Review, The Missing Slate, Obsidian Literature, Black Lawrence Press, Cultural Weekly, So to Speak: Feminist Journal of Language and Art, Feminist Studies, Picayune Magazine, Poetica Literary Magazine, WordRiot, among numerous others. She received an MA in Creative Writing from New York University.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR Paper Chains by Loretta Oleck

While volunteering at the Ritsona Refugee Camp in Greece, Oleck witnessed not only the obvious and immediate result of Syrian citizens fleeing for their lives, but the hidden cost: psychological damage to both sexes, and across all ages. Her resulting poems span modern Western references, timeless hardship, and universal human empathy in the face of hopelessness. At their best, they remind us—despite how hard we hope against it—we are all subject to unwanted change, natural and manmade disaster, and diaspora.

The Czesław Miłosz poem “Dedication” asks us “What is poetry which does not save / Nations or people?” At this time, Oleck’s poems in this new collection have not saved nations or people, but she has documented the recent Syrian plight movingly, and that is the foothold art creates on the journey of understanding we are all human; bound only by our minds and the borders we have created there. Read this book and step across the line with her.

–Ron Egatz, award-winning poet, author of Beneath Stars Long Extinct

In Paper Chains, Loretta Oleck’s becomes an astute eye-witness to the tragic plight of the refugee crisis, where children are caught between worlds. Hands-on, the poet reveals the discordant lining of their lives, “school desks were chipped/into kindling” and where “A full moon is shaped like a barrel bomb.” Oleck engages us with an intimate look into the tents, hearts and minds of a transient culture where, “mothers fold sorrows into laundry.” In these nuanced and lyrical portraits, the poet reveals the resilient nature of children to find beauty in chaos. There is pain and bewilderment, “some make chains /just so they can break them.” But the poet renders and shines a talisman of light and dignity to these individuals found in distress, illuminating the tender mercies of human life in this most impactful and stunning collection.

–Cynthia Atkins, author of In The Event of Full Disclosure

Across a tent-scarred landscape, the dispossessed mark time. Children play in the dust. Men and boys disguise their defeat, swallow their rage, while women struggle against the almost certain knowledge that no matter what they do, one day “everything will come crashing down.” By volunteering her help and writing about the experience, Loretta Oleck has accomplished far more than she knows. Her poems illuminate the Syrian diaspora, make it personal, and humanize its victims. These remarkable poems will change you, and haunt you.

–Alexis Rhone Fancher, author of The Dead Kid Poems, poetry editor, Cultural Weekly.

In Paper Chains, Loretta Oleck becomes a sensitive firsthand witness to the harrowing realities of Syrian war refugees, for whom hope is “barely audible”—like “a lone moth’s wings / tapping and scratching on tent walls.” There are few subjects today that are more troubling, or more urgent. Together, these passionate poems form a composite sketch of a place where “Mothers fold sorrows like laundry” and “children create beauty / out of nothing.” –

–Jonathan Blunk author of James Wright: A Life in Poetry (FSG 2017), praised by The New York Times as “fine-grained literary biography at its finest.”

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[elhiamartell]

hey, thanks for the follow! your blog is wonderful. if i can ask, what does your 'after me the flood' tag mean? is it in reference to 'apres-moi, le déluge'??

aw, thank you! 💗 that’s correct, it is a reference to louis xv & my umbrella tag for everything lush & grand - ballrooms, chandeliers, enormous gowns, venetian masks, palaces, carriages, furs, handkerchiefs, fans, operas, etc. frankly, it’s a bit of a mess when it comes to time periods, cultures & genres, though it consists mostly of pre-1914 europe. i chose this quote for two reasons:

 a) it is narcissistic, indifferent & prophetic at the same time - via wikipedia: 

The expression has two possible meanings: ‘After me, the deluge will come,’ asserting that if the revolution ended his reign, the nation would be plunged into chaos; or ‘After me, let the deluge come,’ implying “I don’t care what happens after I’m gone.”

(and for this reason the runner-up was ‘chandeliers and caviar, the war can’t touch us here!’, because it would, it always does, and they know it (since for every anatole there is a pierre), so they just keep dancing and drinking. i’m generally fascinated by this kind of imagery - there is this one poem called ‘waltz’, written by czesław miłosz, polish nobel laureate, in 1942. it describes the new year eve ball of 1910, with all its splendor and “feathers & pearls & whispers & cries & giddiness”, when suddenly one of the guests has a vision while looking out of the window. she can see blood on the snow, smoke, red sun, her injured son, people screaming in agony, some of them are in chains and led, the others are being lashed– and then it is over, and she is told to forget about it, to focus on flowers, lights, mirrors, candlesticks, and laughter, and celebrations. i read it a long time ago and i haven’t been able to get it out of my head since then.

b) this song by regina spektor. it’s haunting and powerful, a bit of a cautionary tale, and the ending (with the ominous church bells) always gives me the chills.

so, long story short: hedonistic & self-absorbed people, jewels, pretty dresses, waltzes, and a sense of impending doom!

[dieletztepanzerhexe]

kto ty jesteś, człowieku

zbrodniarz czy bohater

ty którego do czynu wychowała noc

oto starca i dziecka w ręku dzierżysz los

i twarz twoja zakryta jak golem nad światem

kto ty jesteś człowieku

czy obrócisz w popioły miasto czy ojczyznę

stój, zadrżyj w sercu swoim, nie umywaj rąk

nie oddawaj wyroku niespełnionym dziejom

twoja jest waga i twój jest miecz