#blacklamb24
#tokarczuk24
“My Year in Books” from Goodreads. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon was not only the longest but maybe my favorite of the year. Reading it was an incredible journey. And Tokarczuk is one of my favorite authors. Lost Soul was quiet and thoughtful and beautifully illustrated.
#Tokarczuk24 If we cast out all those men identified in the Epilogue who supplied misogynistic dialogue for this excellent novel, the so-called "Western Canon" would still remain largely intact.
#Tokarczuk24 The Empusiam ends with descent into supernatural. I'm not a fan of fantasy myself, but Tokarczul had to find a way to wrap up this superb novel light on plot. I can't begin to identify any allegory.
Thank you, Reem! I enjoyed reading #TheEmpusium with you. I’m still thinking about the book and digging into its layers. #Tokarczuk24
Many thanks to the readers who took part in #Tokarczuk24 #OlgaTokarczuk does it again!!! #TheEmpusium 👍👍 #readinganactofsharedsolitude #paperpills💊 #beedoubleokayess📚🐦 #ReemReel #athingofbeauty
www.instagram.com/reel/DDqAtrC...
„And what about us? We are always here.“
#TheEmpusium
EPILOGUE
#Tokarczuk24
Yes, it's possible, their faces seemed to be saying. Yes, this is really happening. The thing we feared most and tried to push away, to cheat, to ridicule and fool. It really has returned in the same dreadful form, and here it is, taking its prey.
#Tokarczuk24 #TheEmpusium
There was nothing violent about it just a fast, almost imperceptible motion, which left poor Opitz hanging above the ground. The expression painted on his face was one that we had never seen before: sorrow. He must have known what was going to happen.
#Tokarczuk24 #TheEmpusium
The boom of the gunshot rolled right across Görbersdorf, echoing several times off the surrounding mountains, off Hohe Heide, Floste, Trattlau & Gross Storch Berg, like the beating of a gigantic heart, but this made no impression at all on the men
#Tokarczuk24 #TheEmpusium
#TheEmpusium
#OlgaTokarczuk
#Tokarczuk24
“I urge you to create your own fiction, one that says it's you that's perfect….”
#Tokarczuk24 Semperweiss saves Wojnizc, his heroic lecture: "Because we lack confidence, we think up a very stable, rigid system to keep us upright. To simplify what seems to us to be unnecessary complication. And the greatest simplification is black-and-white thinking, based on simple antitheses."
#Tokarczuk24 Spengler; a central tenet of fascism: "In response, from the end of the table Frommer would repeat that every culture was a process that had its beginning, matured, reached its zenith, then withered and never returned again."
#Tokarczuk24 "This sense of another person’s presence through just a few layers of clothing, the fragility of the bones and the delicate softness of the body, flooded him with a nice warmth, as if he were back in Gliceria’s kitchen, eating kogel mogel."
#Tokarczuk24 "How is it that from tiny strokes of a brush dipped in paint an entire world with many depths comes into being?"
#Tokarczuk24 "The beautiful, proud geese were soon to be transformed into jars of schmaltz, confit, stews and pâtés. Coming straight toward the dressed-up patients in their stately fashion, they had no idea how defenseless they were, or how firmly their fate was sealed."
#Tokarczuk24 Well stated. "'...race.' Lukas liked this word; it explained a great deal, could be used to sum up cultural, political and economic issues simply and neatly, it suited every purpose and was also becoming increasingly fashionable."
#theempusium
#tokarczuk24
“This sense of another person’s presence through just a few layers of clothing…flooded him with a nice warmth, as if he were back in Gliceria’s kitchen, eating kogel mogel.” p.261 Chapter XII
„People have their fictions and believe what they have mutually agreed upon. But you know, it's not necessarily true that things are only like this or that.“
#Tokarczuk24
#TheEmpusium (15)
We live in a time that has forgotten, that there is much more that binds us together than divides us.
"Every society has two pillars of activity: hypocrisy and conformism," said Dr. Semperweiss
#Tokarczuk24 #TheEmpusium
"When a person recognizes that he has become perfect and fulfilled, he should kill himself."
#Tokarczuk24 #TheEmpusium
The worst thing possible is to feel fully valued by others, and particularly-as I would put it- to be considered of standard value. It means we become literalized, and we come to a halt in the development that a lack of full appreciation prompts us to strive toward.
#Tokarczuk24
If anyone thinks the world is a set of stark opposites, he is sick. I know what I'm saying. It's a powerful dysfunction."
"But what is the world like?"
"Blurred, out of focus, flickering, now like this, now like that, depending on one's point of view."
#Tokarczuk24 #TheEmpusium
The edges of medical equipment were pressing into his harmonious, beautiful body, all those scales, syringes and sterilizers turned against him, even Dr. Semperweiss's pen, which was about to write down the diagnosis and reduce Wojnicz to an anomaly.
#Tokarczuk24 #TheEmpusium
Wojnicz stripped and lowered his gaze. Once again he had encountered what he hated most-looking, judging, comparing with what ought to be, what must be, what there is elsewhere, not here, but there, among "everyone."
#Tokarczuk24 #TheEmpusium
“I urge you to create your own fiction, one that says it’s you that’s perfect” (270).
“You should treat it in the same way as the minor ailment you have in your lungs, as something we learn to live with, without letting it destroy us” (271).
#Tokarczuk24 #TheEmpusium
#TheEmpusium
#OlgaTokarczuk
#Tokarczuk24
Everything was decided…he went downstairs and caught sight of himself in the only large mirror in the house. Essentially, he remained the same person, but differently prepared…Now he resembled the woman in the hat who had stirred such emotion in him….
Strangely enough, at that time in Poland, the pop charts were dominated by female vocalists. (I’m commenting in reference to the book I’m reading #TheEmpusium by Polish writer Olga #Tokarczuk24).
Polish feminism is different than Western feminism.
„Ich möchte Ihnen zuraten, sich Ihre eigene Fiktion zu schaffen, zum Beispiel die, dass Sie vollkommen sind, so wie Sie sind.“
[Doktor Semperweiss]
#Tokarczuk24
Empusion
#Sunday
I was reminded in this chapter of William Blake's ideas of seeing and vision and how Olga Tokarczuk uses him to great effect in Drive Your Plow ... #TheEmpusium #Tokarczuk24
