A good introduction to an author that I must admit I had not heard of. Ok, I will try and borrow one of his books or books by other authors which you have covered.
Thanks for this talk. I'm so intrigued by how so many Eastern Europeans who came up under communism end up these politically vacant libertarian-types. I see this with many of my friends who are artists and should, according to my understanding of the categories that people fall into, be fairly liberal, but are decidedly not...
30:06 The document shown is NOT a "certificate of completion", and it does not say that Tyrmand "has written" a thriller novel, but that he "is writing" it (in Polish "pisze", not "napisal"). Dated 10 May 1954, the certificate also says it is to be produced at the People's Police HQ ("K...G... MO"), a sinister place that Tyrmand had been summoned to in February (as he writes in the Diary on 16 Feb and on 17 Feb). That scrap of paper must have been meant to protect him from more attention from the PP. 31:57 What? This is back to front. Tyrmand did NOT mean that "materially he was doing quite well, relatively". As he describes repeatedly, he barely manages to survive. When he says (Diary, 11 Jan) that his "is a life without comfort" but not "without luxury", he explains what this means: "My luxury is (...) that I am unemployed". He goes on to spell out in some detail what employment means under communism in those days. (Later the system softened, although its foundations remained unchanged until its fall.) Good programme, though. I am, btw, one of the Diary's translators.
A good introduction to an author that I must admit I had not heard of. Ok, I will try and borrow one of his books or books by other authors which you have covered.
Thanks for this talk. I'm so intrigued by how so many Eastern Europeans who came up under communism end up these politically vacant libertarian-types. I see this with many of my friends who are artists and should, according to my understanding of the categories that people fall into, be fairly liberal, but are decidedly not...
30:06 The document shown is NOT a "certificate of completion", and it does not say that Tyrmand "has written" a thriller novel, but that he "is writing" it (in Polish "pisze", not "napisal"). Dated 10 May 1954, the certificate also says it is to be produced at the People's Police HQ ("K...G... MO"), a sinister place that Tyrmand had been summoned to in February (as he writes in the Diary on 16 Feb and on 17 Feb). That scrap of paper must have been meant to protect him from more attention from the PP.
31:57 What? This is back to front. Tyrmand did NOT mean that "materially he was doing quite well, relatively". As he describes repeatedly, he barely manages to survive. When he says (Diary, 11 Jan) that his "is a life without comfort" but not "without luxury", he explains what this means: "My luxury is (...) that I am unemployed". He goes on to spell out in some detail what employment means under communism in those days. (Later the system softened, although its foundations remained unchanged until its fall.)
Good programme, though. I am, btw, one of the Diary's translators.