Civilization, culture and fears - Literatura i Kultura Popularna

Civilization, culture and fears - Literatura i Kultura Popularna

148
Polemiki i recenzje
Ksenia Olkusz
Civilization, culture and fears
Review: Piotr Jezierski, Siła strachu. Wpływ Apokalipsy i lęków zimnowojennych
na wybrane nurty kultury popularnej, Katedra Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Gdańsk
2012, 228 pp.
Piotr Jezierski’s work entitled Siła strachu. Wpływ Apokalipsy i lęków zimnowojennych na wybrane nurty kultury popularnej (The power of fear. The influence of the Apocalypse and cold war fears on selected pop culture currents) is a study concentrating on the
materialized feeling of fear, connected with the surrounded reality, in the form of cultural
texts. The reviewed author is a culture expert, a journalist and a TV producer. Jezierski’s
scholarly achievements are not considerable as he has just published only essays, features
and prose texts.
The reviewed book is a compendium consisting of six chapters, written in an essayistic style, in an interesting way, concentrating around the apocalyptic and catastrophic issues
using the examples of literary and film texts. The subject matter of the first chapter entitled:
Wojownicy i prorocy (The warriors and prophets) describes the way the war is perceived,
relating first to the historical context, than to a theological aspect, combining the whole
structure with reference to various film and literary texts. The next chapter is devoted to the
post-nuclear vision of the world, also discussed in the historical context. In the third chapter
entitled: Postapokaliptyczny bohater, gatunek i estetyka (Post-apocalyptic character, a genre and aesthetics) the author presents and analyses the post-catastrophic texts and games.
Writing about these issues, Jezierski emphasizes the authors’ tendency to show the world
in the “waste” aesthetics, presenting the reality where the objects, used by the characters,
serve as the remains of the old technology. By pointing at this regularity, the researcher
mentions that the “death aesthetics” is mainly used in American film production, although
it sometimes becomes an inspiration for the European authors. One of the subsections is
entirely devoted to the phenomenon of the film Stalker and the game inspired by the film as
well as the novels written by the Strugacki brothers. The fourth chapter entitled: Apokalipsy
techniczne: człowiek, postęp. ewolucja? (The technical apocalypses — a Man, progress,
evolution?) is the summary of the civilization and technological fears. The rich historical
background (e.g. the process of creating the first computers or the beginnings of the IBM
corporation) constitutes the context for the subsequent texts whose subject matter concentrates around the popular motif: the rise of the machines. In the fifth chapter, Koniec naturalny — gniew Ziemi (The natural end — the Earth’s anger), the author concentrates on the
subject related to natural apocalypse. The final part of Jezierski’s work which is entitled:
Cywilizacja — finisz czy przemiana? (Civilization — the final stage or the transformation?)
is a reference to the current cultural fears and a summary of the author’s former analysis.
The individual parts of the discussed work create unusually lucid and cohesive picture, showing various catastrophic visions together with the historical, theological and
scientific background. The shift of the civilization fears into the cultural texts becomes
an interesting, but at the same time, a widely discussed issue. In this context, it would be
vital to present a new point of view, or at least to present this issue from a different perspective. Jezierski, however, uses the most commonly known exemplifications, referring
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to the most evident sources, therefore, it is impossible to find a “novum” element in his
analysis. The problems discussed by the author repeat the already analyzed thoughts of
other researchers, and Jezierski avoids to present his own point of view and conclusions.
The issue discussed by the author of Siła strachu is always set in a specific context which creates favorable conditions for the presentation of the following arguments in
a logical way. Nevertheless, there is a lack of uniform and justified choice of the quoted
and analyzed texts. A typical criticism is not to be found here, or it functions without the
favorable way to decode it for the reader. The research problem, although indicated in
the introduction,1 has not been clarified in the following parts of his work. It is not even
the essayistic way of expression (also stressed in the introduction) which explains the
randomness in quoting the cultural texts. This stochastic model can be interpreted as a peculiar lack of the method which enables to organize the analyzed cultural texts. The chosen exemplifications are to illustrate the author’s arguments, however, there are no clear
instructions showing Jezierski’s particular research interest in this field. The method of
quoting the literary and film texts, instead of sorting the information out and interpreting
them, causes difficulties which unable to grasp the general perception.
The essayistic model should not, however, introduce the cognitive chaos; it should
rather create the defined and easy to identify order, which is intellectually fully understood
by the reader. Meanwhile, the chaotic shifts from one association to the other lead to destabilization of the perception, making it impossible to draw fully the author’s interesting
conclusions and information.
Moreover, the author, when writing about the literary and film texts, concentrates
more on reporting them than on drawing the conclusions which are usually reduced to
just a few comments. Such disproportion discredits the author’s ability to notice the most
significant issues versus the side issues which can be explained in a few sentences.
Jezierski, being a film expert, concentrates more on the film productions rather than
on literary texts. This inclination to present films in a more detailed and clear-sighted way
is joined with the author’s tendency to quote only these literary texts which are related to
film. The author should have concentrated simply on the film production, as there are so
many literary exemplifications certifying the title fears, that the choice of the most wellknown authors seems surprising. It means that Jezierski, when answering the questions
posed in the introduction, uses the examples not fully justifying the rightness of his choice
of arguments. The reproach concerning the lack of originality, as for the argumentation,
proves as well the modest choice of literary texts.
Jezierski’s book is a compendium about anxiety and civilization fears. The author tries
to present their diversified origins and presence in the pop culture.2 However, the analysis
he makes, is incomplete: although the author precisely points out the “origin” of the single
fears, in his choice of literary and film examples, he restricts himself to the most obvious
exemplifications, omitting at the same time, a broader spectrum of these phenomena.
1
See P. Jezierski, Siła strachu. Wpływ Apokalipsy i lęków zimnowojennych na wybrane nurty
kultury popularnej, Gdańsk 2012, p. 6.
2 Cf. works by Stanisław Lem, Krzysztof Boruń and others. For further discussion in Polish
literature see (i.e.) A. Smuszkiewicz, Stereotyp fabularny fantastyki naukowej, Wrocław et al. 1980;
A. Niewiadowski, Literatura fantastycznonaukowa, Warszawa 1992; A. Niewiadowski, A. Smuszkiewicz, Leksykon polskiej literatury fantastycznonaukowej, Poznań 1990.
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